San Salvador, (EFE).- Humanitarian organizations in El Salvador registered until mid-March at least 5,082 “direct victims” of human rights violations, mainly due to arbitrary detentions, in the context of an emergency regime that is implemented in the country to “fight” the gangs, according to a report presented Monday.
El Salvador celebrates this March 27 one year with the suspension of constitutional guarantees, such as the defense of detainees and the inviolability of telecommunications, with more than 66,417 arrests.
There are seven organizations that have received a total of 4,723 cases of complaints of human rights violations, which affect 5,082 people.
“The affected population is made up mostly of adults and young people, constituting 93% of the total victims,” while “2% of the total corresponds to the group in vulnerable conditions of childhood and adolescence,” he said in a press conference Gabriela Santos, director of the Human Rights Institute of the UCA (Idhuca).
He pointed out that 83.55% of the victims correspond to the male gender and 14.62% to the female gender and added that they have attended 44 cases of people from the LGBTI community.
Alejandra Burgos, from the Red de Defensoras, stressed that “the violative act that has characterized the state of emergency has been arbitrary detention.”
He indicated that it is about 95% of “the complaints documented by the organizations”, for 4,723 victims of arbitrary detentions, according to the complaints.
“This infringing act cannot be seen in isolation, since to a large extent, the complaints reflect that it has been accompanied by other human rights violations,” including raids without a warrant, threats, police harassment, and torture, the rights defender said.
The report points to the National Civil Police (PNC) as the main “responsible” for the abuses, with 74% of the cases, in 16% of the complaints appear jointly with the PNC and the Armed Forces, while the complaints that only include to the military are 6%.
Increase the number of prisoners
With the total number of arrests registered in the regime, there were 101,558 detainees in the Salvadoran prison system, which has a capacity for 69,363 inmates, according to non-governmental entities.
The organizations’ calculations indicate that the rate of detainees per 100,000 adults reached 2,303, which represents “2% of the country’s total population and making El Salvador the country with the highest rate in the world.”
The other organizations that presented the report are Amate, Azul Originario, Servicio Social Pasionista (SSPAS), Foundation for the Application of Law (Fespad) and Cristosal.