The Legislative Assembly approved the state of exception for the first time on March 27th, 2022, one day after 62 homicides were reported in a single day, a level of crime not seen in El Salvador for a long time.

According to media outlets such as the New York Times, it was the bloodiest day on record since the end of the civil war 30 years ago.

The gangs indiscriminately shot at street vendors, public transport passengers, and market patrons.

Decreasing the homicide rate to 0.6 per 100,000 people in a country that was one of the most violent in the world is something that cannot be denied, and the population, despite the restrictions on their rights, feels confident in the streets, while merchants do not feel the pressure of extortions.

International media and organizations defending human rights protest against the measure and state that the results are at the cost of rights and freedoms, although they do recognize the outcomes.

Many “do not want to remember” the barbaric actions of the gangs against the population and are now attacking the “disturbing” images of the prisons, where murderers are crowded alongside many innocent people.

An authorized voice in the country, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez, recently asserted that it is “an iniquitous law,” that is, cruel and unjust, and urged the authorities to “seek dialogue to reverse the negative effects generated by the regime of exception in a sector of the population.”

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