[Politics] El Salvador celebrates its first year under the controversial regime of exception of Bukele

[@CharliAviless]

El Salvador celebrates one year this Monday since the emergency regime was implemented, a policy launched by the government of President Nayib Bukele with the approval of the Legislative Assembly, after an outbreak of violence left 62 homicides during a weekend in March of 2022. All in the midst of supposed negotiations, never made official or admitted by the parties, of a truce between the government and the gangs.

 

The severe policy, which suspends rights and guarantees contemplated in the Constitution, has received applause among some sectors of the po[CENSORED]tion. It has also left, this year, more than 65,000 people detained, amid criticism from human rights organizations inside and outside the country, as well as from relatives of those detained, for unfair arrests and alleged human rights violations.

 

"This has helped one to be able to go out freely with their children, without any worries," Alicia Monroy, a resident of the La Campanera neighborhood, a neighborhood in the populous municipality of Soyapango, about 12 kilometers from San Salvador, told CNN.

 

La Campanera was the place where photojournalist Christian Poveda recorded the documentary "La vida loca", which portrays what life was like inside a gang. Poveda was murdered in 2009 in that same sector, after his production was made public. At least 11 people were convicted in 2011 for their involvement in the murder with sentences ranging from 4 to 30 years in prison. Three other people were sentenced to 10 years in 2013 for this case, according to journalistic reports.

This neighborhood was one of those that authorities identified as having a high concentration of gang members. Now it is under the control of the military who maintain a fence that allows them to identify who enters and who leaves the area.

 

The exception regime remains in place
The Legislative Assembly, with an official majority, has approved 12 extensions and its president, Ernesto Castro, has advanced that, considering that it has had good results, he will continue with the extensions as many times as the Executive requests.