The Salvadoran government will have the legal tools to restore order across the country for 30 days, renewable.
With the validity of the emergency regime approved by the Salvadoran Congress at the request of the President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, the public security institutions have the legal tools and mechanisms to re-establish order and territorial control, reported the Secretariat Press Office of the Presidency through a statement.
According to the report, given the rise in homicides in the country, the government of President Nayib Bukele has established an emergency regime to counteract the actions of the gangs and safeguard the lives of the population.
The decree approved in the fourth extraordinary plenary session of the Legislative Assembly will be valid for 30 days and suspends the constitutional guarantees established in articles 7, 12 paragraph 2, 13 paragraph 2, and 24, in relation to article 131, ordinal 27, and article 29.
“In that order, the guarantees suspended by this decree are freedom of association, the right to defense, the term of administrative detention, the inviolability of correspondence, and the intervention of telecommunications.”
Regarding freedom of expression and free movement, the government says that it continues to be in force as indicated in the Constitution of the Republic. President Bukele has said, “Unless you are a gang member or the authorities consider you suspicious,”
The official report says, “the government will coordinate the actions to comply with the provisions established by the decree, according to the needs of human and material resources essential for the effective fulfillment of the security measures and protection of the population, as well as the coordination of pertinent measures to recover the security of the territory.”
The government’s actions come after the rise in homicides that began to be registered in the country since last Saturday. On Friday, 14 cases were reported, and last Saturday there were 62.
According to the report, the 62 homicides that the National Civil Police (PNC) registered, is an unprecedented figure in a government that has fought crime head-on, achieving a historic reduction in violent deaths, reducing to an average of up to 1.7 homicides per day and adding more than 65 days of zero homicides.
The emergency regime was approved by the Legislative Assembly with 67 votes.The ARENA parliamentary groups did not support it and the FMLN abstained.