(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama)
AFP – Aug. 18 - The 'war against the gangs' of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, exceeds 50,000 detainees in less than six months, while his government prepares laws so that they do not leave prison.
Under an exceptional Regime that is about to complete half a year, the government reports daily on the drastic decrease in homicides and extortions in the country after the arrests.
“A great positive change has been seen in my area, great tranquility is felt, a great peace. Before, early at night, it was total silence” for fear of the gangs, says a 55-year-old woman who identifies herself as American, in the city of El Tránsito, 125 km east of San Salvador.
The Association of Distributors of El Salvador recently stated that extortions in retail stores have been reduced by 80%.
'The results of the emergency regime have been overwhelming, we have strongly impacted these terrorist structures,' said Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro.
The war against gangs 'has a dissuasive effect,' says Carlos Carcach, a researcher at the Higher School of Economics and Business.“It takes individuals who are presumably very criminally active out of circulation.”
All this under an exceptional regime that allows arrests without a court order, declared in response to an escalation of violence in which 87 people died from March 25 to 27.
The system has been extended month by month by Parliament, controlled by Bukele's allies, and will continue until at least the end of September.
89.3% approval
A survey by the José Simeón Cañas Central American University in June revealed that 89.3% of citizens consider that the exceptional regime promoted by Bukele helped“a lot or somewhat” to control crime in the country.
But organizations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch and even US diplomacy have called on the Salvadoran government to respect human rights, in the face of reports of detentions of innocents.
Of those detained, 85% are men and 15% are women, according to official figures. 68.9% are accused of belonging to the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the one with the largest presence in the country.
With the exception regime, prisoners accused of belonging to gangs have gone from 16,000 to 66,000.
According to the latest government estimate, these gangs have 76,000 members, including prisoners.
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