Waging a campaign against gangs responsible for El Salvador having one of the world’s highest murder rates, the Salvadoran Congress on Tuesday passed a bill criminalizing the publication of gang messages, including by news outlets.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele last month invoked emergency powers to suspend some constitutional rights to crackdown on gangs engaged in drug trafficking and extortion, and increased prison sentences for members of criminal organizations.
“When the Germans wanted to eradicate Nazism, they outlawed Nazi symbols. No one said anything,” Bukele wrote on Twitter after the bill was passed. “That’s what we’ll do with the gangs.”
The bill, which becomes
USAID steers El Salvador funding away from state
‘DEEP CONCERNS’: Funding would be diverted from the Attorney General’s Office and the police to civil society groups and human rights organizations, USAID said
AP, SAN SALVADOR
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) would redirect its funding from El Salvador’s state institutions to its civil society groups as tensions rise between the two governments over the Central American country’s removal of Salvadoran Supreme Court justices and the attorney general.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power said in a statement on Friday that the agency has “deep concerns” about the shakeup in the justice system earlier this month and more generally about transparency and accountability.