In El Salvador’s gang crackdown, quotas spur ‘arbitrary’ arrests of innocents According to Reuters
© Reuters. Juan Carlos Galeas walks at the funeral of his brother William, who was detained in mid-April and taken to La Esperanza prison until authorities handed over the dead William’s body to his family in mid-May, in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 13, 2022.
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By Nelson Renteria
Five officials told Reuters.
In March, El Salvador recorded 62 murders in a single day, the deadliest since the end of the civil war in 1992. In response, the Legislative Assembly led by the far-right populist party Bukele The government declared a state of emergency, suspending citizens’ constitutional activities. the rights. Over the past month and a half, more than 25,000 people have been arrested.
“We have received about 40-45 complaints from [officers in] Marvin Reyes, Secretary General of the Coalition of the Police Workers Movement. “In some places they impose six (catch) a day, in other places five, in other places three. . “
In response to a request for comment, a police spokesman denied the use of quotas and said such an order is considered a serious offense and requires staff to report it.
Security forces have been deployed in areas deemed high-risk, rounding up suspected gang members, sometimes just because of their tattoos, three police and military sources said. anonymously share information.
Since taking office as president in June 2019, Bukele has made the fight against crime and violence a prominent issue.
His administration marked an initial sharp drop in homicides, while Salvadoran media and Reuters reported on prosecutor investigations showing government officials allegedly organized the killings. meeting with jailed gang leaders, supposedly offering money and benefits in exchange for lower murders and giving Bukele’s party votes in legislative elections.
This led to Washington sanctioning two Salvadoran officials accused of negotiating with criminals.
Then in March, violence suddenly increased and a state of emergency was declared.
Even as his law and orderly tactics became widespread, the arrests of innocents and reports of assaults underscored the flaws in Bukele’s latest approach.
Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) along with Central American organization Cristosal, have received more than 200 complaints during the state of emergency, including 160 arrests they describe as being “arbitrary.”
Bukele defended the operations but added that “1%” of those arrested could be innocent and if found to be true “must be corrected.”
“In such a large operation, there will always be mistakes that need fixing,” he wrote on Twitter (NYSE:) April 9. The president declined to comment for this story.
‘PRICE NON-REMOVED’
By chance, on the morning of April 18, two Salvadoran policemen and four soldiers came to the home of Cristian Machado, an 18-year-old man with an intellectual disability, and took him away, handcuffed behind a pickup truck, for allegedly. he is a gang member. Machado’s brother and a neighbor were also arrested.
Lizzette Maradiaga, Cristian’s mother, said: “My children are not gang members.
Machado was released after four days. His brother, Manuel, 27, a father of two, and his neighbor were released on May 5 after 18 days behind bars, during which time their whereabouts were unknown. their.
“The guards beat you, with the sheer force of a blow they wanted you to admit that you belonged to a criminal organization,” Manuel said, adding that he had to share a cell with about 150 people. Among them, 20 confessed to being gang members.
Reuters is aware of three other cases similar to Machado, where uniformed officers detained people with no gang ties and no criminal record and then released them after being arrested. Police declined to comment on four specific cases reported by Reuters.
Based on what officers said was an old tally of 46,000 gang members active in the country, the leaders apparently divided that number among El Salvador’s 14 departments and began demanding arrest quotas. , a Salvadoran police commissioner, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, explained. Reuters.
“Many of them [gang members] He continued.
A colonel from the armed forces, who also requested anonymity, told Reuters that military commanders had requested 30 arrests daily for each brigade, deployment or task force. shared.
The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
