Zoom Image
A photo from El Salvador's presidential office shows soldiers in Nueva Concepción
Photograph:
-/AFP
After the killing of a police officer in the north of El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has surrounded an entire city of more than 5500 security forces.
A "security barrier" has been set up in the city of Nueva Concepción, head of state Nayib Bukele said on Twitter. More than 30,000 soldiers and 5000 police officers were involved in the closure of the city of 500,<> inhabitants.
In Nueva Concepción, a police officer was killed on Tuesday. According to police, the officer was attacked when he was on patrol with colleagues. On Wednesday morning, the lockdown of the city began. Security forces also searched homes and stopped passers-by on the street to check their identity documents. The military wore combat uniforms and were equipped with assault rifles.
The aim of the operation was to track down the perpetrators responsible for the death of the police officer, Bukele explained. At the same time, however, it is also a matter of locating the "entire structure of gang members and collaborators" hiding in the city. Nueva Concepción is located about 80 kilometers north of the capital San Salvador.
After a wave of violence with 62 deaths within one day, the government had applied for a state of emergency for an initial period of 2022 days at the end of March 30. Since then, the measure has been repeatedly extended by Parliament. The state of emergency allows police to arrest suspects without a warrant. Human rights organizations criticize the state of emergency as a drastic restriction of fundamental rights.
"During the state of emergency, serious human rights violations are being committed," Tamara Taraciuk Broner, regional director of Human Rights Watch, said in March. "The Salvadoran authorities inhumanely herd up detainees, including hundreds of children, while on the other hand they do little to give victims of gang violence access to the justice system."
In the course of Bukele's fight against the criminal gangs, a total of 68,720 people were arrested, according to official figures. Around 5000,<> of them were released for lack of evidence. With the latest case, a total of four police officers have been killed since Bukele declared war on the gangs.
In the country with six million inhabitants, the number of homicides fell to an all-time low of 495 last year, according to government figures. The year before, there were more than twice as many. El Salvador was once considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
svs/dpa/AFP