Human rights body urges El Salvador to end state of emergency

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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged El Salvador Wednesday to end the more than two-year state of emergency, which has suspended fundamental civil rights while the government pursued the country’s powerful street gangs.

The regional human rights body noted that plunging rates of violence in El Salvador made clear that the state of emergency was no longer justifiable.

“They show the emergency situation has been overcome and thus a situation that justifies maintaining active the suspension of rights and protections in line with the American Convention no longer exists,” the commission said in a report.

El Salvador’s Congress granted President Nayib Bukele extraordinary powers to take on the gangs in March 2022 after a surge in gang violence. Since then, lawmakers have renewed the special powers every month, including this Tuesday.

Human and civil rights organizations have argued that the gangs could be pursued without the suspension of such rights as access to a lawyer or being told why police are arresting you. They argue that there has been little due process in the more than 80,000 arrests made.

Last week, Bukele said in a magazine interview that the security gains made in the past two years could be maintained without the state of emergency, but that more gang members needed to be arrested to ensure they did not re-establish themselves.

The human rights commission cited arbitrary arrests, the lack of evidence presented against those arrested, mass hearings, little access to defense lawyers among the troubling aspects of the crackdown. Other organizations have emphasized mounting deaths of suspects held in prison while awaiting trial.

Despite those measures, Bukele’s crackdown has been widely popular and he was elected to a second term by a huge margin earlier this year.

The gangs once dominated daily life for much of the Salvadoran population, preying on their children, extorting their businesses and filling the country’s streets with bodies. Less than a decade ago it was considered one of the world's deadliest countries.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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