El Salvador president requests state of emergency extension

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele requested lawmakers to extend the united states’ state of emergency for a month on Sunday, as police said that extra than 16,000 gang contributors had been arrested because it changed into imposed.

“I am calling the Council of Ministers to invite the Legislative Assembly to increase the (nation of emergency) for every other 30 days,” Bukele said on Twitter.

Ernesto Castro, president of the Legislative Assembly — controlled by way of Bukele’s ruling celebration — summoned contributors to a plenary session on Sunday at 2.00 pm (2000 GMT).

On March 27, El Salvadoran lawmakers declared a state of emergency at Bukele’s request, expanding police powers and curtailing civil liberties.

The move followed a weekend in which 87 people were killed in gang-related violence.

The measure restricted free assembly, allowed for arrests without a warrant, and increased sentences for gang membership to up to 45 years.

Police said they captured 590 gang members Saturday and had made 16,053 arrests since the start of the crackdown.

“More than 16,000 terrorists taken off the streets, in only 29 days. We continue… #WarAgainstGangs,” Bukele tweeted on Sunday.

The wave of detentions is unprecedented in a country that has suffered decades of violent crime driven by powerful gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18.

The country’s gangs have about 70,000 members in El Salvador, of which 32,000 are now incarcerated as a result of the crackdown, according to authorities.

As part of the crackdown, lawmakers approved a reform that allows jail terms of up to 15 years for disseminating gang-related messages in the media, which journalists warned could criminalize certain forms of reporting.

This week, El Salvadoran NGOs asked the judiciary to declare the reform unconstitutional.

The equal day, El Salvador’s Congress approved a law to hurry the development of new prisons, as incarcerated populations swell with gang-related arrests.

Bukele stated Thursday that “91 percent of Salvadorans assist our movements in opposition to gang members, in line with the today’s ballot, published nowadays via Gallup..”