Coronavirus against gangs: in the prisons of El Salvador, they tightened the regime, spitting on quarantine

In the prisons of El Salvador, the regime has been sharply tightened by presidential decree. Jailers drive prisoners into cramped rooms, forgetting about social distancing. The tightening occurred after the number of murders in the country sharply increased. According to the authorities, the leaders of criminal gangs who are in prisons are to blame for this — but this does not prevent them from giving orders for murders to be released.

According to the Daily Mail news agency, last Friday there was a surge in murders in El Salvador — 22 people were killed there in one day. After that, the President of the country, Nayib Bukele, ordered the prisons where members of the groups are held to be closed for 24 hours, and their leaders to be placed in solitary cells.

The footage taken in Izalko prison shows that the leadership does not think about the spread of the coronavirus and social distance at all. It looks quite strange — someone has masks on, someone doesn't. In addition, all the prisoners, of which there are hundreds, sit close to each other.

The President of El Salvador, 38-year-old Nayib Bukele, signed a decree on the introduction of a state of emergency in the country's prisons, where members of criminal groups and their leaders are held.

Also, the President of El Salvador said that the emergency regime in the state will continue until the police investigate all 22 murders. According to the country's law enforcement agencies, this is the highest murder rate since Bukele became the head of state.

Now in the prisons of El Salvador, social distance is not observed, the need for which the authorities of the country announced when they introduced quarantine in March. Prisoners are kept in cramped rooms, pressed against each other. These are the consequences of the tightening of the regime in prisons announced by the President of the country for penitentiary institutions where gang members are held.

These pictures were taken in Izalko prison, where both ordinary members of criminal groups and their leaders are serving sentences. According to President Bukele, the latter will be sent to solitary confinement, having lost contact with the outside world.

Emergency measures were taken after the number of murders in the country sharply increased. So, on Friday, April 24, 22 murders were recorded in El Salvador, although the usual figure is 1-2 murders per day.

A few years ago, El Salvador was dominated by criminal gangs and was considered a country with one of the highest crime rates in Latin America. However, President Bukele managed to reverse the situation and bring the criminals under control.

Since then, the number of murders across the country has dropped to 1-2 per day. Until recently, there were days in El Salvador when there was not a single murder in the country. A new surge of violence in El Salvador forced President Bukele to immediately take the toughest measures to prevent crime from getting out of control again.

El Salvador has taken tougher measures against the coronavirus epidemic than any other country in the Americas. On March 22, a general quarantine was declared in the country. According to the decree of President Bukele, the police could send quarantine violators to prison.

Human rights organizations in El Salvador criticized the president's actions and strict quarantine, and challenged the right of the police to send people to prison without a court verdict. They managed to prove in the Constitutional Court the illegality of several cases of detention. But the President of the country still considers it lawful to be imprisoned as a punishment for violating quarantine.

To date, 298 cases of coronavirus have been registered in El Salvador, where 6.4 million people live.