Human Rights in jeopardy in El Salvador amid pandemic

On April 6th, president Nayib Bukele gave instructions to the armed forces to be tougher on people violating the lockdown declared amid the COVID19 pandemic.

“I have instructed them to be tougher on people on the street. I don’t want to see people complaining when their car is taken away and they taken to the detention center”

 

“I don’t care if people say on social media ‘Hey, they took my car, hey, they twisted my wrist,’ this is nothing compared to your family dying or somebody else’s family dying,” he said.

 

Former president Funes (accused of corruption and living in Nicaragua) has expressed that the president’s wife is currently in Miami and that Bukele travels constantly to visit her.

 

El Salvador’s Supreme Court has stated that the police does not have the right to seize vehicles or other property.

 

During this week, several Human Rights violations have been reported. The International Bar Association has expressed its concern. The executive director of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco, criticized this situation as well. President Bukele’s response was blocking him on Twitter. The Community Radios Association, ARPAS, reported this as they also reported abuses such as one in Usulutan, where a bus driver and his helper were hit. ARPAS also reported that the journalists’ association from Ecuador are demanding an apology from president Bukele after he shared fake news on how Ecuador was handling the pandemic. Since Bukele already has shown animosity to other independent media, now it was his secretary’s turn. Ernesto Sanabria went after ARPAS and stated that they were the government’s opposition and worked for the FMLN. The government has not explained why the President’s press secretary shares the same Twitter ID with “Brozo”, an anonymous account that attacks and doxes those who criticize Bukele’s government.

Since ARPAS is a member of the National Roundtable for Risk Management, the organization published today a letter demanding respect from the government:

 

In the meantime, Diario El Mundo published another report: On April 7th, Rolando Castillo, a 62 years old man left his house in San Miguel looking for food when he saw that his neighbor and others were being mistreated by police officers. His neighbor Yovani had his own bike tied to his neck. He recorded it with his phone but then they captured him as well.

 

“When they saw me, they threw me on the floor, hitting me. They asked me, ‘What are you, a fucking journalist?’ “, he shares in a call with Diario El Mundo.

According to Rolando, the police tied up both bicycles, making the passage almost impossible and tortuous. The first time Rolando fell, his prescription glasses also slipped. He suffers from presbyopia, a disease popularly known as “tired eyesight,” more common in older people.

“Pass me the glasses, please, I don’t see anything,” he said to an agent when he managed to get up, still with his hands tied. “I’m not your cholero (maid), do what you can” replied the officer. The handlebars of the youngest’s bicycle were stuck in the rim of the other, and the weight of the young man fell on his neck. Another agent picked up his glasses and put them back on, although the sweat and mask he was wearing blurred his vision.

It was not the first time that Rolando had been detained by security authorities. The first time, on May 1, 1980, he was 22 years old when he was arrested and tortured by the defunct Treasury Police, abolished by the 1992 Peace Accords. “This is not easy at my age, I did not think to see things like that again, I thought it belonged to the past”, he shares on his call.

This week at the police station, it was the agents of the Operational Tactical Section (STO) who removed the mask he used to protect himself and began to take pictures of him with their phones “from different angles”. “I was trying to see the ONI (Institutional Numerary Order) and I could only see one, 05269, who was the one who insulted me the most,” he said.

 

…he got into a police minibus that took him to the Ciudad Mujer shelter, in San Francisco Gotera, Morazán. The trip took 45 minutes. Searching and registrations took another half an hour.

“When I got there the doctor asked me what had happened to me. I had been kicked at my right thigh, there was a hit on my left knee, a kick on my lower back and blows on my neck and clavicle because of the bicycle”, he assures. The professional, who coordinated the shelter, let him go under one condition: do not leave your home.

He returned at 5:00 in the afternoon “humiliated and without food”. “Now I can no longer go out, they are stalking me. Several patrols have passed and over the speaker they say ‘hello’. On Wednesday, at least four times he saw a blue sedan vehicle pass by, with plates P916-422, windows completely tinted.

Rolando says that he did not go to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH) for fear of leaving his home. “If I go out today, possibly they will kill me. There is hardly anyone on the streets and it is the perfect scenario for anything illegal. I feel emotionally affected and I feel there is danger for myself and my family,” he denounced.

 

 

The State of Exception approved first was supposed to finish today (April 12th) but the Legislative Assembly agreed to extend it for 4 days. The ARENA party is presenting a proposal different than Nayib’s. They say it takes into consideration the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding Human Rights but they also include a proposal to resume working in small and medium enterprises. This and other proposals are going to be discussed on Thursday. GANA, the party that took Bukele to the presidency, is ready to vote in favor of the president’s proposal, even though the party’s manager violated the quarantine and crashed his car while drunk.

 

This is the situation we are living in, but it is the president’s “wonderful” speech that is being praised around the world.