At least 18 have died in Salvadoran police custody amid crackdown – Amnesty
SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) - At least 18 people have died in Salvadoran police custody since the Central American country introduced a controversial state of emergency to combat gangs two months ago, according to an investigation presented Thursday by Amnesty International.
President Nayib Bukele's government declared an emergency regime at the end of March after a historic rise in homicides, limiting constitutional rights and provoking criticism from human rights organizations.
During a speech marking his third year on Wednesday, Bukele assured that his government was on the verge of "winning the war against the gangs" and questioned the countries and international organizations that have accused the government of abuses of authority and human rights violations.
"Whatever they say, whatever they do, whatever they write, they attack again and again, I tell you: They are not going to stop us. We have God and the Salvadoran people on our side," Bukele said.
But London-based Amnesty accused the Salvadoran authorities of committing "massive human rights violations" in the gang crackdown, including arbitrary arrests, violations of due process, torture and mistreatment.
"As of May 28, at least 18 people died under police custody during the state of emergency. Given the precarious prison conditions, there is a wellfounded fear that the number of fatalities could increase in the following days," Amnesty said in a statement.
The figures come from the Central American nonprofit organization Cristosal, which said all those who had died had been males. Some had died due to lack of timely medical attention and others had shown signs of suffering aggression, such as bruises, it said.
In its report, Amnesty also pointed to mass hearings of up to 500 detainees.