SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador: After some 6,000 people were arrested in an unprecedented security crackdown over the past week, distraught families across El Salvador are searching for information on their relatives.
Since the government declared a state of emergency on 27th March after suspending constitutional rights, including the presumption of innocence, men, women and children have been rounded up across the country.
Authoritarian populist President Nayib Bukele, who uses Twitter to announce policies and denounce enemies, said the detainees are all gang members and will not soon be released.
The state of emergency was declared after three days of violence left 87 dead, which Bukele blamed on the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS-13.
While the police claim to have captured the MS-13 leaders who ordered the killings, evidence suggests ordinary people living or working in gang-dominated neighborhoods have been arrested arbitrarily.
In the capital, San Salvador, hundreds of wives and mothers gathered outside a navy base housing one the largest police holding cells.
The husband, brother and nephew of Carmen Rodrguez, 33, were arrested a week ago while unloading a truck of second-hand clothes for their business at the city’s main market in the historic quarter.
“When we asked the police why they were taking them, they just insulted us,” Rodrguez told The Guardian. She said she is struggling to find the money to pay for their meals in jail.
The 30-day state of emergency, which could be extended, allows detainees to be held for 15 days, instead of the usual three days without access to a defence attorney and without prosecutors having to present their case. It also allows police to search cellphones and messages.
The national assembly, which is controlled by Bukele’s allies, also passed legislation increasing jail terms for juveniles and indefinite pre-trial detention for suspected gang members.
Zaira Navas, a lawyer at the Salvadoran human rights group Cristosal, said, “The detainees have lost their right to defense and do not have the right to know the reasons for their arrest.”
Despite the wide scope of the new emergency powers, reports suggest that other constitutional rights have also been violated.
Rosa Lpez, 26, said police forcibly entered her home in Santa Tecla and arrested her 20-year-old cousin who suffers from a heart condition.
“The police did not ask, they just entered the house and took him away. They were crazy that day, capturing everyone,” said Lpez, as reported by The Guardian.
While popular with many voters who are fed up with the gangs, the crackdown has locked down entire neighborhoods.
Even before the mass arrests, El Salvador had one of the world’s most overcrowded prison system, with about a quarter of detainees being held in pre-trial detention.
