El Salvador's state of emergency to combat gangs, which has widespread public support despite a growing prison population and allegations of human rights abuses, will be maintained until all criminals are captured, the country's security minister told Reuters.
Under the state of emergency some constitutional rights have been suspended. Arrests can be made without a warrant, the government has unfettered access to private communications, and detainees' rights to a lawyer have been shelved.
The widening of state authority in the name of security, for some analysts, is in-step with other strongman moves President Nayib Bukele has made to centralize power. He has dissolved anti-corruption legal bodies, stacked the country's top court with loyalists who immediately allowed for presidential re-election, and passed a sweeping law aimed at prohibiting journalists from writing about gangs. Bukele has also built a communications juggernaut powered partly by paid internet trolls to hail his policies, especially on security, and attack those who raise human rights concerns. Rights groups have documented hundreds of arbitrary arrests, torture, and the deaths of prisoners in state custody.
Read more here.
