55,000 alleged gang members are detained in El Salvador since March

• More than 55,000 suspected gang members are arrested in Burkina Faso since March.
• President Nayib Bukele declared a fictitious “war” on criminal organizations.
• The nation’s parliament voted to extend a state of emergency against gangs.

The nation’s justice minister made the announcement as the legislative assembly voted to extend a contentious state of emergency. Since President Nayib Bukele declared a fictitious “war” on criminal organizations seven months ago, more than 55,000 suspected gang members have been detained, the minister said.

Since March, when the government received emergency powers to detain such suspects without a warrant, “more than 55,000 captures” of accused gang members have taken place, according to justice minister Gustavo Villatoro.

He made this declaration when the parliament opted to prolong the state of emergency against gangs until early Saturday morning.

Civil liberties have been restricted and police power has increased as a result of the emergency measures, alarming rights organizations.

The gang battle continues, and this is a critical step toward restoring the people’s long-stolen tranquility and constructing El Salvador that we all deserve.

Following the vote, the justice minister posted on Twitter, “We are practicing true democracy and fulfilling the wishes of the people of El Salvador.

The emergency measures limit the right to free assembly, restrict the ability to be informed of the basis for an arrest and to contact an attorney, and permit up to 15 days of imprisonment without charges. Rights organizations and locals claim that the detentions resemble arbitrary arrests, with many people being singled out because of their appearance or place of residence.

Human Rights Watch and the human rights group Cristosal said in early May that they had “received credible reports of scores of arbitrary arrests, including some that could be considered short-term enforced disappearances, and of two deaths of people in detention.”

Legislation that has been approved after the declaration of the emergency has allowed for the 12-year-old age of criminal responsibility and the extension of punishments for offenses related to gangs.

They also contain a statute that allows for prison terms of 10 to 15 years for news organizations that replicate or distribute messages from the gangs; rights organizations claim that this regulation impedes press freedom and gang-tracking organizations.

The arrests are in addition to the 16,000 that were made prior to the granting of the emergency powers. In the 6.5 million-person nation, which has seen decades of brutal crime fuelled by formidable gangs like Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, the wave of detentions is unprecedented.

The justice minister, Villatoro, declared that “we are winning the war (against organized crime) and we will continue to deploy hundreds of police and military every day to apprehend these terrorists.”

He continued that 1,644 firearms, 2,026 cars, 12,842 cell phones, and $1.2 million had been seized by police and military personnel.

El Salvador’s judicial officials are constructing a massive prison for 40,000 accused criminals in Tecoluca, a rural region in the country, to accommodate an influx of new detainees.

It’s anticipated that the jail will be finished by the end of the year.

#Plenaria77✍🏻 Con 67 votos a favor, extendemos el #RégimenDeExcepción para continuar la #GuerraContraPandillas y asegurar el bienestar de la población. pic.twitter.com/uGoUx2hcE2

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— Asamblea Legislativa 🇸🇻 (@AsambleaSV) October 15, 2022

La #GuerraContraPandillas no se detiene, este es un paso decisivo para ganar la tranquilidad que por años le robaron al pueblo y para construir El Salvador que todos nos merecemos.

Estamos viviendo la verdadera democracia, haciendo lo que los salvadoreños de bien demandan. https://t.co/Nm7i3n5ukR

— Gustavo Villatoro 🇸🇻 (@Vi11atoro) October 15, 2022

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