Pictured: The new prison for alleged gang members in El Salvador.
The president of El Salvador asked lawmakers to extend a year-old emergency decree used to crack down on gangs.
The legislation, which has allowed law enforcement to arrest and
imprison more than 67,000 purported gang members, has already been
extended more than a dozen times.
- The
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization
for American States, called on El Salvador to restore the rights of
those arrested under the anti-gang decree.
- The decree, which
was first approved for one month in March 2022, allows law enforcement
to arrest people without giving them a reason and without judicial
oversight for up to 15 days.
- The government built a huge new prison to house purported gang members.
- In a stark video released last month, the government said that 2,000 new suspects would be sent to the new prison.
- Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said that those suspects would "never return" to their communities.
- Critics say the decree has enabled mass human rights violations.
- However, polls show that 8 out of 10 people in the country support the decree.
