The Cristosal humanitarian organization reported This Monday that it has received almost 700 complaints of human rights violations in El Salvador, within the framework of an exception regime in force since the end of March.
The Legislative Assembly, upon request of the Government of President Nayib Bukele, decreed the suspension of constitutional guarantees for 30 days after an escalation of murders and subsequently expanded the term until the end of May.
“So far, the system for registering cases of human rights violations in Cristosal has received almost 700 complaints, the majority of which are arbitrary detentions,” affirmed Dr. Cristosal, who has also accompanied the victims of gang violence, posted on his social networks.
The organization did not give more details of the complaints, which until Friday there were 555, with 556 victims.
Of this last data, 87.7% of the complaints were for arbitrary arrests attributed to agents of the security forces, while 4.7% are for injuries and 0.4% for the death of a detainee.
According to Cristosal, as of Friday there were 16 people who had died and had been detained under the exceptional regime.
The testimony of a relative of a detained person, who pointed out that “the Police took him away. on April 5″ a son and “we don’t know anything about him”.
“A policeman threw it away. to the floor, he put the handcuffs on him and took him away. He didn’t ask her. nothing, they didn’t explain anything to him” and “we were all scared,” he said. a woman in a video in which her identity is covered.
This Monday, according to local media recordings, hundreds of people gathered outside the La Esperanza prison, near San Salvador, to ask for detainee information.
As found Efe, mainly women come to places of detention to ask for information.
David Morales, former human rights attorney and legal head of Transitional Justice of Cristosal, warned that under the massive arrests of alleged gang members, the authorities have also arrested people “who are not gang members and are subjected to serious suffering and State violence.”
“I think we are in a situation where a possible scenario of crimes against humanity is already taking place and that is a moment of early warning that we are already trying to launch to the international community”, he pointed out. Morales.
He warned that in El Salvador the figure of the “disappeared detainee” would be reappearing. in cases in which the authorities do not provide information to the families of the detainees.
In the framework of this “war against the gangs”, so called by President Bukele, the authorities have detained 33,812 people.