El Salvador declares state of emergency after 62 killings in one day  

AFP – The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, at the request of President Nayib Bukele, approved this Sunday the emergency regime for a month, in an attempt to stop the actions of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, to which is attributed 62 homicides on Saturday.

The regime throughout the national territory derived from serious disturbances to public order by criminal groups,” states the decree approved by 67 of 84 deputies

The decision of the Legislative, controlled by the ruling party, among other rights, restricts free assembly, the inviolability of correspondence and communications, and authorizes arrests without a court order.

The purpose of the provision “is to facilitate legal tools and mechanisms” for the Police and Armed Forces to “restore order and citizen security and territorial control.”

The opposition deputy of the former leftist guerrilla of the Farabundo Martí Front, Jaime Guevara, after stating that he regrets the “black Saturday” that the country suffered, considered that “the current crisis requires good sense, wisdom and not bullying

Bukele, who urgently asked Congress to make the decision, assured that “everything (was) within the constitutional framework” so “there is nothing to argue against.”

The young politician made security an axis of his campaign and highlighted the improvement in homicide indicators at the beginning of his term.

Bloody  Saturday
“Saturday March 26 has closed with 62 homicides in the country,” the National Civil Police (PNC) posted on Twitter. “We will not back down in this war against gangs, we will not rest until the criminals responsible for these acts are captured and brought to justice,” it added.

The Salvadoran Constitution establishes that the exception regime, by which some established guarantees are suspended, can be applied “in cases of war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic or another general calamity, or serious disturbances of order public”.