SAN SALVADOR, Oct 20 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — El Salvador reported 11 days in October without homicides due to gang-related actions which, according to authorities, speaks in favor of the Government’s policies.
The figure is shown in the official statistics published by the National Civil Police (PNC) in the early hours of Wednesday morning, no deaths have been reported since Tuesday due to the actions of groups or gangs whose members in a number higher than 55,000 are behind bars after the enforcement of the state of emergency.
El Salvador maintains a positive trend in public security within the framework of the application of the Territorial Control Plan and the validity of the exception regime in the country, despite the fact that a survey by Iudop-Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Cañas (UCA), for example, assured that support for this policy is decreasing.
The exception regime, according to the survey, has a majority of social support but decreased from 84.8 to 75.9 since its last evaluation.
The population gave a score of 7.24 out of 10 to the measure, slightly lower than the 7.29 given according to the survey conducted in April and May of the same year.
Some of the actions supported by the measure are not well received, because 66.4 percent reject arrests without a warrant and 80.2 percent disagree with detentions for more than 72 hours without informing the reason for them.
Meanwhile, the Government will present draft reforms to prosecute gangs and their members as terrorist organizations, local media reported on Monday.
According to a meeting on Saturday night among President Nayib Bukele, his Security Cabinet, and the new Human Rights Ombudsman, Raquel Caballero, the Government will present these reforms in the next few days.
The idea is not new, as since 2015 these criminal groups have been declared terrorists by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, and the planned modifications seek to prosecute them in court as such.
During the working session, Bukele noted that it is important to reaffirm and step up the security strategies being implemented.
Two or three reform packages have already been made, but this new one is to prosecute them as an organization and not individually, although they also have their individual crimes,” he said.
The president proposed prosecution as an organization so that this does not happen again and so that we do not sow the seeds of future crime.
The set of measures will be proposed to the National Assembly (Parliament) in the next few days to support the General Security Plan, which is backed by the state of exception extended for another month starting last weekend. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
