El Salvador’s police have arrested 50,000 people in their war against gangs, promoted by President Nayib Bukele five months ago, announced the director of the National Civil Police (PNC), Mauricio Arriaza.
On Tuesday night (16), the unicameral Congress approved, for the fifth time, the extension of the state of exception, which allowed most of these arrests and has been in effect since the end of March. Of the 84 members of the Congress, 66 voted in favor, following the request of Arriaza and the ministers of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro, and Defense, René Merino.
This system, which allows arrests without a court order, was put in place in response to the increase in homicides, which claimed the lives of 87 people from March 25 to 27.
To house some of the detainees, Bukele ordered the construction of a prison for 40,000 gang members in the rural town of Tecoluca, in the center of the country, which should be ready by the end of the year.
In the 142 days that the exception regime has been in force, “77 days have been recorded without any homicides”, declared Minister René Merino.
As of August 12, 85% of those arrested were men and 15% were women. A total of 68.9% are accused of belonging to Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). Then comes the Sureños faction, from the Barrio 18 gang (17.7%) and the Revolucionarios faction, from the same group (12.7%). The remaining 0.7% is concentrated in the Mao Mao, MS503, Maquina and Mirada Locos Sureños gangs.
Before the exception regime, there were 16,000 gang members in prison. In different operations, the police and the army seized more than US$ 1 million, in addition to 1,283 weapons, 1,543 vehicles, drugs and cell phones.
