El Salvador Extends the 'State of Exception' for the Ninth Time

On Wednesday, El Salvador's Congress approved another 30-day "state of exception", which involves the suspension of various constitutional rights.

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In March, President Nayib Bukele requested for the first time the establishment of a state of emergency to deal with a wave of homicides attributed to gangs, which murdered 80 people.

"Criminal organizations and their members maintain their threat, which has been evidenced by attacks and aggressions carried out during the emergency regime," says the decree approved by 67 pro-government lawmakers.

"The circumstances that motivated the suspension of rights and guarantees still persist," they added, despite the fact that the gang-related homicides were controlled a few days after the exception regime was first installed.

The tweet reads, "Nayib Bukele's state of exception suffocates gangs in El Salvador: Police and soldiers have absolute power."

On Tuesday, the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights, Raquel Caballero, stated that she had met with Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro, who acknowledged that 59,600 people have been detained since the state of exception began.

Some 2,100 people have been released so far, which barely represents 3.5 percent of those detained. Their release, however, occurred irregularly because the authorities have not reported whether they were released at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, if the Courts granted them probation, or if they were exonerated of charges.

On September 27, three humanitarian organizations denounced the State of El Salvador before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the arbitrary detention of at least 152 people during the emergency regime.