After more than 81,000 arrests, Bukele considers abolishing the “short-term” exception system for the first time

President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukelefor the first time opening up the possibility of cancellation “in the short term” Exception system, After being almost arrested 81,500 people Since the Legislative Assembly approved this measure on March 27, 2022, it has been extended monthly within the framework of the “war against gangs” and suspends constitutional rights such as access to a lawyer in case of arrest or extension to 15 days if the arrest is not brought to justice.

Bukele assured in an interview with Time magazine “Always, at some point in the near future, we hope to return to normalcy within the constitutional period. and be able to maintain the peace that we achieve through the simple normal exercise of justice”, although he did not specify a specific date for the abolition of the system of exceptions, since he estimated that “there are still 8,000 to 9,000 gang members on the streets”, compared to 70,000 people in these criminal organizations, and “half a million collaborators”.

“Reaching a hundred percent may be impossible because we don’t have a census, they can run away, they can be in other countries, we think they are here but there are still too many gang members free, not carrying out operations, they are definitely not operating, but reorganizing. “In case we take the pressure off,” he warned.

Bukele admits he doesn’t expect to arrest 500,000 gang collaboratorsBecause the “vast majority” of them “live in that world,” even though some of the collaborators “have indeed committed serious crimes that are inexcusable and must go to jail for.”

In this sense, he stressed that in the last two and a half years they have managed to “clear 85% of gang members from the streets”, thus causing their entire structure to “fall apart”, considering that “a large number of gang members” are in prison, some have fled the country and are awaiting their return in other countries, and another group is in hiding.

“We’re arresting some gang members every day,” Bukele boasted, predicting that “if we get more gang members off the streets, they won’t have enough to band together again, because if there are 3,000 or 4,000 gang members, they can’t band together again. There’s not enough money to build four gangs.”

‘No evidence of torture’

on the other hand, Rejecting “false narratives about prison deaths or torture”as he points out, “there is no evidence of torture and the death rate in prisons is quite low.” However, the human rights organization Humanitarian Legal Aid estimates that 307 people have died in detention in El Salvador, including four infants.

“There are illnesses, some die of old age, some die of certain diseases. What’s more, the mortality rate in El Salvador’s prisons is lower than in other Latin American countries, even lower than in the United States.” “I think this shows that we don’t kill anyone in our prisons,” he argued.

On the other hand, he stressed that the CECOT is “the most open prison in the world, not for escapees, but for the press. The BBC and the youtuber have already left, that is, whoever asked us for permission can go, and we let him in.”

Bukele said in an interview that he does not consider himself “neither left nor right” and rejected the possibility of a third term after his resounding victory on February 4: “Under the constitution, I cannot run for president again. Article 152 prohibits. Moreover, we have an agreement with my wife that this is the last time.

It is worth remembering that Bukele ran for re-election despite seven articles of the Salvadoran Constitution preventing him from doing so and despite a special interpretation of the Magna Carta by judges of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. After his resignation six months before the elections, the Ministry of Justice allowed him to seek a second term starting on June 1.