{"id":173482,"date":"2022-04-25T14:41:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T06:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=173482"},"modified":"2022-04-25T14:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T06:41:32","slug":"el-salvador-extends-emergency-powers-to-fight-gangs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=173482","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador extends emergency powers to fight gangs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SAN SALVADOR, April 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — El Salvador’s Congress approved a month-long extension of emergency measures that rights groups say infringe civil liberties but which President Nayib Bukele has said are necessary after a surge of gang killings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measures, which enact emergency powers to limit some constitutional rights, went into effect late last month after the Central American country registered 62 homicides in one day – the highest toll in two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, authorities said they have arrested more than 16,000 suspected gang members. Human rights organisations have said the detentions include arbitrary arrests of non-gang members and abuses of authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The number of abuses committed during these 30 days are countless, mainly due to fear from victims and relatives to denounce them,” human rights advocate Celia Medrano told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bukele said last month the emergency powers would be used only as necessary and life would go on as normal for the “vast majority” of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measures allow for restrictions on free assembly and the inviolability of correspondence and communications, as well as an extension of administrative detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the measures were enforced, lawmakers also voted to approve substantial increases in prison sentences for gang leaders and members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are going to be chasing them until they are brought to justice. We want a country free of gangs,” Defence Minister Rene Merino told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, El Salvador recorded 103 homicides for every 100,000 people, one of the highest rates in the world for the country of some 6.5 million people.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

That rate has fallen steadily since Bukele took office in 2019. Police data shows that 1,140 homicides were committed last year, 15 per cent down from the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But critics say Bukele’s administration has been marked by backsliding on democracy as he has sought to consolidate his control over the legislative and judicial branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His government has also been accused of brokering a pact with the two main gangs, offering members better prison conditions, money and other benefits in exchange for them reducing homicide rates and supporting Bukele’s party in legislative elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has repeatedly denied those accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States said this month it was concerned about the spike of killings, and called on El Salvador to tackle the problem while protecting civil liberties. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN SALVADOR, April 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — El Salvador’s Congress approved a month-long extension of emergency measures that rights groups say infringe civil liberties but which President Nayib Bukele has said are necessary after a surge of gang killings. The measures, which enact emergency powers to limit some constitutional rights, went into effect late last month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173482"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173484,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173482\/revisions\/173484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}