El Salvador extends state of emergency to tackle gangs
2022.05.26 04:56
FILE PHOTO: El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele attends the first stone laying ceremony of the new National Library, financed by China, in San Salvador, El Salvador February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) -El Salvador extended a state of emergency pushed by President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday, with lawmakers overwhelmingly backing the measure which has given security forces extra powers to fight gangs.
Some 67 lawmakers in the 84-seat legislature voted for the 30-day extension of emergency powers, which critics say violate the due process rights of over 34,500 alleged gang members who have been arrested in recent months.
International human rights groups have condemned the measure for prompting arbitrary arrests of men on spurious grounds that they have gang affiliations, and for what they claim are violations of due process.
Reuters reported earlier this month that quotas for arrests were driving mass detentions resulting in the detention of some innocent people.
Lawmakers aligned with Bukele first passed the state of emergency in March after El Salvador registered its bloodiest day since the end of the country’s civil war three decades ago, with 62 murders in a single day.
