El Salvador's Congress passed a law on Tuesday to speed up the construction of new prisons, at a time when the government continues an offensive against gangs and has arrested 13,573 of its alleged members in less than a month.
The regulation was approved with the votes of 64 deputies allied to President Nayib Bukele, of the 84 that the Legislative Assembly has. At the end of March, Parliament approved an emergency regime that has police and military personnel on the hunt for suspected gang members.
These groups are credited with murdering 87 people between 25 and 27 March, which prompted the Bukele-led offensive.
The so-called “Special Law for the Construction of Prisons” establishes the regulatory framework for “the planning, design, construction and maintenance of prisons as necessary, due to the increase in the population deprived of liberty”.
According to the regulations, the Ministry of Public Works will be responsible for the construction of the new prisons and with the possibility of establishing “agreements” with private companies for this purpose.
The prisons will be operated by the General Directorate of Prisons. The approved law does not establish a specific number of prisons to be erected, which will be added to the twenty prisons that already exist.
“Now it can be said that in prisons the law is complied with and in the prisons that are built there will be no luxuries or comforts, but what is necessary for those who want to rehabilitate, no more,” said the deputy of the official Nuevas Ideas, Caleb Navarro.
The law must be enacted by President Bukele and published in the official gazette to enter into force.
According to the president, in 24 days of the emergency regime, 13,573 gang members have been arrested.
The arrests are unprecedented in the last 30 years in this Central American country besieged by Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, among others, which number 70,000 members in El Salvador, of whom nearly 30,000 would be behind bars, following the recent arrests.
(With information from AFP)
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