El Salvador leader requests state of emergency amid killings

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele asked his country’s congress Saturday to approve a state of emergency to combat a wave of gang-related killings over the weekend.

Local media reported that about 50 people had been killed, a scale of violence that has not been seen for years.

Bukele announced the request in his social media accounts, and taunted those who opposed the measure, saying: “Is the opposition coming out to defend the gang members?”

The decree, if approved by the legislature, would suspend constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly and loosen arrest rules for as much as 30 days.

While Bukele has tried to project a tough attitude on crime, the country’s enormously powerful street gangs have proved a double-edged sword for him.

In December, the U.S. Treasury said Bukele’s government secretly negotiated a truce with leaders of the gangs. That contradicted Bukele’s denials and raised tensions between the two nations.

The U.S government alleges Bukele’s government bought the gangs’ support with financial benefits and privileges for their imprisoned leaders including prostitutes and cellphones.

The explosive accusations cuts to the heart of one of Bukele’s most highly touted successes in office: a plunge in the country’s homicide rate.

The president responded sarcastically via Twitter to the accusations. “Cell phones and prostitutes in the prisons? Money to the gangs? When did that happen? Didn’t they even check the date? How can they put out a such an obvious lie without anyone questioning them?”

Bukele vehemently denied the accusation when it was reported in August 2020 by the local news site El Faro.

In 2020, Bukele’s administration ‘’provided financial incentives to Salvadoran gangs MS-13 and 18th Street Gang (Barrio 18) to ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low,” the Treasury statement said. “Over the course of these negotiations with Luna and Marroquin, gang leadership also agreed to provide political support to the Nuevas Ideas political party in upcoming elections.”

Bukele’s New Ideas party has a majority in El Salvador’s congress.

The revelations raised tensions between Bukele and the Biden administration. After the new congress removed the attorney general and the justices of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court in May, the U.S. government expressed concern over the direction of the country.

The U.S. Agency for International Development announced it would shift aid from government agencies in El Salvador to non-governmental organizations.

El Salvador’s new attorney general in June announced the government was cancelling the Organization of American States anti-corruption mission in the Central American country.

Bukele enjoys extremely high popularity. He stepped into a political vacuum left by discredited traditional parties from the left and right.

The Associated Press