El Salvador imposes state of emergency over gang murders

Congress approves the suspension of constitutional guarantees and arrest rules after more than 60 people were killed by gangs in one day.

Security forces tackle gang members at an El Salvador jail. Picture: AFP

El Salvador’s congress has ­approved emergency powers that suspend constitutional guarantees and loosen arrest rules for 30 days to combat a record wave of gang-related killings that has forced the closing of businesses and the suspension of public events.

The measures, requested by President Nayib Bukele on Saturday evening and passed at 3am local time on Sunday, impose ­restrictions on free assembly, loosen arrest rules to extend ­detentions and allow the interception of communications.

The measures aim to combat a wave of murders that the government attributed to criminal gangs. More than 62 people were killed on Saturday, a record for a single day, authorities said.

El Salvador is home to violent gangs such as the MS-13 and 18th Street Gang, which have long terrorised cities and extorted business owners in the small Central American nation. The criminal organisations also have an extensive presence in US communities, as rampant violence and endemic poverty have led to mass migration to the US.

Although Mr Bukele has been credited with a reduction in violent crime and homicides, El Salvador remains one of the world’s most violent countries, ranking seventh in the global Homicide Monitor of the Igarape Institute, a Brazil-based public security think tank. Fast-food franchises such as Pizza Hut and KFC ordered the closure of their restaurants on Saturday, citing security concerns for staff and customers.

Residents in the country’s capital of San Salvador said that the wave of violence was ordered by imprisoned gang leaders against small-business owners and working-class people who are often the targets of extortion.

One of the victims was 35-year-old Mario Zepeda, who sold bread on the streets of the Santa Tecla district in the San Salvador metropolitan area. He was shot dead when he began work on Saturday, and his body was left lying on the street.

“Hopefully one day those who did this to him will repent,” his mother said as she wept next to his body.

The US government recently accused senior Bukele administration officials of secretly negotiating a truce with the imprisoned leaders of El Salvador’s top criminal gangs to secure political support and curb murders in exchange for financial and prison benefits, including sex workers and mobile phones.

Mr Bukele denied the allegations amid rising tensions with the Biden administration, which has accused the San Salvodorean leader of weakening institutions and the rule of law to cement his hold on power.

The latest spike in violence shows widening cracks in the ­government’s rapprochement with the gangs, said Carlos Carcach, a criminologist and security consultant.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Bukele ordered the country’s prison ­director to impose strict security measures in the country’s jails. “All the cells locked 24/7, nobody goes out, even to the yard,” Mr Bukele wrote on Twitter.

“Message to the gangs: ­Because of your actions, now your ‘homeboys’ won’t be able to see a ray of sunshine.”

On Monday Mr Bukele escalated his action against the gang inmates, threatening to increase punishments on their more than 16,000 imprisoned members.

Stop killing now or they (the incarcerated) are going to pay for it too,” he tweeted, alongside video footage of a prison raid in which officers drag half-naked ­inmates out of their cells, force them to run and search them in the courtyard.

The images also show officers rush the inmates, who are handcuffed and wear only white boxer shorts. Some of them fall as they are forced along.

The Wall Street Journal