Dear Attorney General:
We are deeply concerned about the arbitrary detentions of innocent people during the emergency regime, representing serious violations of due process. We have read reports of people captured without any proof of their ties to criminal gangs and who in some cases have been recaptured.
According to the Penitentiary Information Center (CIPE), 500 people of those captured during the first 15 months of the exception regime, imposed in March 2022, have been released without pending judicial proceedings. They were released for any of several reasons, including lack of evidence or accusations that do not constitute a crime. But despite the release orders and the lack of evidence incriminating these people, some have been recaptured and prosecuted again for the same crime. La Prensa Gráfica has documented the cases of some people who were released under these circumstances.
Manuel: He has been captured three times under the same accusation. The second time, the Prosecutor’s Office requested his release for lack of evidence. As of December 2023, he remained detained for the third time, awaiting a new hearing.
Cristian: He was captured twice for the same crime. Although he is currently free and does not have any pending judicial proceedings, the Prosecutor's Office told him that he should register himself with the Specialized Investigative Court of San Miguel and not leave the country.
Karla: She was released because the Prosecutor's Office determined that there was no indication that a crime had occurred. She was detained for six days, she did not have any hearing and, according to the official government record, she does not have any ties to gangs. She lives in fear of being recaptured.
Criminal law specialists have criticized these irregularities. They affirm that if a person has been released because it is determined that he or she does not incur criminal responsibility, and is captured on a second occasion for the same crime, that is an illegal detention. The government is facilitating arbitrary criminal proceedings, and victims' access to justice is undermined. Without guarantees of due process, all Salvadorans lose.
We strongly urge that you work to end the arbitrariness of the system, exhibited by the recapture of Salvadorans who were already released due to lack of evidence connecting them to criminal activity. To effectively address the problem of insecurity, there must be criminal processes and sanctions that guarantee due process under the law.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
copies:
Sr. Presidente Nayib Bukele, Presidente de la República ~ via email and US mail
Licda. Raquel Cabellero de Guevara,, Procuradora para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos/ Human Rights Ombudsman of El Salvador ~ via email
Carmen Milena Mayorga de Monterrosa, Ambassador of El Salvador in Washington, DC ~ via email & US mail
Carlos Bernal Pulido, Rapporteur for El Salvador, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ~ via email & US mail
William H Duncan, Ambassador of the US in San Salvador ~ via email & US mail
US State Department: El Salvador Desk ~ via email
US Senators Brown & Vance ~ via email
US Representatives Beatty, Brown, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Sykes ~ via email
