El Salvador: Bill passed allowing for seven years of pretrial detention
Bukele upped his so-called war on gangs
El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly has passed a law by 57 votes to 3, allowing individuals arrested under President Nayib Bukele’s war on gangs to be held in prison for up to seven years without a trial.
The reform to the Organized Crime Law was approved after Bukele stated that the more than 90,000 people detained under the country’s state of emergency would not be released. The absolute majority of Bukele’s New Ideas Party thus extended the pretrial detention, drawing further criticism from human rights groups.
The initiative further hampers what Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado called a hyper-guaranteeist judiciary, which he claimed allowed judges to hastily release detainees, resulting in a revolving door. He also dubbed the latest measure the biggest reform in procedural matters.
We are not going to release them now, or ever, said Bukele, who has been in power for seven years, during which he forced all judges over the age of 60 to retire, while appointing 168 judges of his choosing.
Since the state of emergency was declared in March 2022, it has been extended 41 times, leading to over 88,000 arrests based on what some describe as suspicious behavior or anonymous reports. There are reportedly over 6,000 arbitrary detentions.
“Keeping a person in pretrial detention for more than five years is an irrational and unjustifiable period,” the human rights organization Cristosal said in a statement.
On the other hand, Congressman Walter Coto defended the ruling party’s initiative with great pride because it brings peace and security to our homes and our children.
Bukele has also taken heavy flak for outsourcing the US prison system by accepting Washington inmates as a result of his close bond with President Donald Trump.
