El Salvador declares state of emergency amid wave of gang-related killings
- Fourteen people were killed on Friday and 62 people died on Saturday, a scale of violence that has not been seen for years
- President Nayib Bukele announced the request on Saturday in his social media accounts, and Congress approved it early on Sunday
El Salvador’s Congress granted President Nayib Bukele request to declare a state of emergency early on Sunday amid a wave of gang-related killings over the weekend.
Fourteen people were killed on Friday and 62 people died on Saturday, a scale of violence that has not been seen for years. By comparison, there were 79 murders in the entire month of February.
Bukele announced the request on Saturday in his social media accounts, and Congress approved it early on Sunday. The decree would suspend constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly and loosen arrest rules for as much as thirty days, but could be extended.
The killings appeared linked to the country’s notorious street gangs, who effectively control many neighbourhoods in the capital. The National Police reported they had captured five leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, who they claimed ordered the weekend killings.
Bukele announced the request in his social media accounts, and taunted those who opposed the measure, saying: “Is the opposition coming out to defend the gang members?”
While Bukele has tried to project a tough attitude on crime, the country’s enormously powerful street gangs have proved a double-edged sword for him.
“We must remind the people of El Salvador that what is happening now is due to the negligence of those who protected criminals,” the conservative Arena party said in a statement.
That was an apparent reference to a December report by the US Treasury Department that Bukele’s government secretly negotiated a truce with leaders of the gangs. That contradicted Bukele’s denials and raised tensions between the two nations.
