El Salvador police pressured to meet arrest quotas, says union official

Relations of people that have been arrested by El Salvador’s police wait outdoors the Penalito non permanent jail in Ciudad Delgado for details about their family members on April 6, 2022.

(Salvador Melendez / Related Press)

Some nationwide police commanders in El Salvador have been pressuring their officers to satisfy each day arrest quotas as a part of the federal government’s crackdown on road gangs which have yielded greater than 10,000 arrests, a police union stated Tuesday.

Marvin Reyes, consultant of the Salvadoran Police Staff Union, stated the actions of some police officers would end in arbitrary arrests. He stated commanders are telling officers to provide “false statements” towards some who've been arrested, however who don't have anything to do with gangs. Some officers have been threatened with transfers in the event that they didn’t comply with orders, he stated.

On March 26, authorities reported 62 killings throughout El Salvador that they attributed to the nation’s highly effective road gangs. President Nayib Bukele requested and obtained congressional authorization for a state of emergency that enables police to make arrests with out having to both clarify the explanation or present entry to a lawyer, and to carry suspects for 15 days with out cost. The congress has since handed extra measures, together with rising jail sentences.

In Cinquera, a distant city in central El Salvador of about 1,000 residents with out a identified gang presence, police have been informed to make 30 arrests, Reyes stated.

“They’re doing it, figuring out completely effectively that there are not any gangs in Cinquera,” he stated.

The union has made formal complaints hoping to cease the “irregularities,” he stated.

Rank-and-file cops agree with Bukele’s determination to pursue the gangs, which have terrorized communities for years, however “this case with the state of emergency shouldn’t lend itself to abuses like those we’re exposing,” Reyes stated.

Elsewhere, police are getting into communities and arresting gang members, he stated, however “the strain from some bosses has generated fickleness in taking individuals who don't have anything to do with gangs.”

Bukele stated just lately that only one% of these arrested weren't tied to gangs and can be launched.