The director for the Americas of the prestigious human rights NGO affirmed that Bukele’s speech shows total intolerance, already registered in other countries of the continent with authoritarian leaders who impose absolute control over power
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El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele gestures as he delivers a speech to the country on the occasion of his third year in office, in San Salvador, El Salvador, June 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Amnesty International (AI) is concerned that the exceptional regime in El Salvador will become the “norm” and that “they will end up dismantling State institutions and the rule of law” in the Central American country , according to what its director for the Americas, Erika Guevara Rosas, said in an interview with Efe.
The country has been under this regime for more than two months, approved by the Legislative Assembly for 30 days (extended twice), after an escalation of murders at the end of March attributed to gangs, mainly the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13).< /p>
For President Nayib Bukele, with these special powers he is close to winning the “war” against the gangs, with more than 37,000 arrests, of which, according to the president, 1% could be “error”.
The balance of humanitarian organizations is 1,123 complaints of violations of human rights, mainly due to arbitrary arrests of people who claim they have no links with the so-called maras, and at least 24 deaths in state custody.
< p class=”paragraph”>These complaints exceed 1,800 with the more than 700 collected by the Office for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH).
The director for the Americas of Amnesty International, Erika Guevara Rosas. EFE/Elvis González/Archivo
Erika Guevara Rosas recently presented in El Salvador the preliminary conclusions of an investigation that concluded that en the Central American country, “serious violations” of human rights are being committed.
“The preliminary conclusion of the highest concern is that these exception regimes, these extensions are not the exception but that they become the norm and that this ends up dismantling the institutions of the State and the rule of law,” Guevara told Efe when asked about the main concerns of the entity.
For the approval of the special powers to the Bukele Executive and its two extensions, the government request was sufficient, since the legislators did not submit the measure to study or parliamentary debate.
The Congress of El Salvador is dominated by the New Ideas (NI) party, which has the absolute majority and is led by a cousin of the president. In addition, the presidency of this body is in the hands of a former secretary of Bukele.
THE FIN AND THE SIMILARITY WITH NICARAGUA
AI’s director for the Americas said that before the approval of the emergency regime, “we had already been raising the global alert on significant and emblematic signs of a decomposition of State institutions , of a dismantling of the Rule of Law, of an impossibility to exercise the defense of human rights and independent journalism.”
He indicated that the aforementioned regime and the penal reforms approved within its framework “generate the perfect storm for a context of human rights violations.”
Guevara Rosas pointed out that in Bukele’s official speech is seen as “a total intolerance towards constructive criticism and international scrutiny, which have been very serious signs in other countries of the continent” with “authoritarian leaders who impose absolute control of power.”
“Without a doubt, we see very similar signals to those we have seen in countries like Nicaragua,” he said.
AI’S CONCLUSIONS AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
Guevara Rosas explained to Efe that AI’s investigation documented “multiple human rights violations” and pointed out that these include “arbitrary detentions, violations of due process or to the presumption of innocence.”
Furthermore, he pointed out, there are “reports of torture” and “deaths that have occurred in the custody (of the State)”, which also “represents enormous concern for what it means in the exercise of rights.”
Presenting the conclusions of the investigation, Guevara Rosas maintained that they carry out this type of study when they consider that systematic rights violations are taking place in a country and that “the policy implemented by the Government could rise to international criminal responsibility.”
When asked if this responsibility would fall directly on President Bukele, he said that “that would have to be determined through investigations.”
“It is important to mention that El Salvador, through the signing and ratification of the Rome Statute, is one of the member states that submits to the coverage of the International Criminal Court”, said the human rights defender.
With information from EFE
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