El Salvador lives the most violent day of the Bukele government

Bukele says his security plan against violence is working 0:47

(CNN Spanish) -

The National Civil Police confirmed that 62 murders were recorded this Saturday, the most violent day since Nayib Bukele assumed the presidency of El Salvador in June 2019.

The figure only compares, according to police records, to those reported on August 15, 2015, when 57 murders occurred in 24 hours.

The unusual spike began Friday when authorities reported 14 homicides.

The average in March was three deaths a day.

The rise even led the security cabinet and the Attorney General to meet with President Nayib Bukele early Saturday morning and hours later to deploy police and soldiers to different communities in an attempt to curb the crimes.

"While we fight criminals in the streets, we try to figure out what is happening and who is behind it, financing this," Bukele wrote on Facebook.

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The government has not said what it attributes the increase to.

CNN requested more details from the Ministry of Communications, but has not yet responded.

Meanwhile, the police captured

to several gang members to whom he attributes responsibility for ordering the increase in violent acts.

“Now that they are capturing known gang members, many say that in a couple of days they will be released.

They will be surprised again," the president warned in a message on Twitter.

Exception regime

At the request of the president of El Salvador, the Legislative Assembly approved the state of emergency for 30 days throughout the country, with 67 of 84 possible votes.

"Suspending certain rights becomes necessary to restore order," reads the decree read, early this Sunday, during an extraordinary plenary session.

The decree approved by the deputies, with a pro-government majority, empowers the authorities to suspend rights such as freedom of assembly, right to defense, the period of administrative detention may be up to 15 days and the intervention of communications will be allowed without be authorized by a judge, as explained by the deputies.

• The US sanctions officials from El Salvador, whom it points to negotiating a political agreement with gangs: Bukele's response

In accordance with article 29 of the Constitution, these provisions apply in cases of war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic or other general calamity, or serious disturbances of public order.

“This new Assembly will take drastic measures and we will work together with President Nayib Bukele to give the people the security they need.

It is time to hit the table”, assured Caleb Navarro, deputy of the ruling New Ideas party.

"Freedom of expression or freedom of movement will not be affected," explained Deputy Walter Coto.

gang pressure

The increase in murders is one of the pressure measures that the gangs have used in the past and continue to use, Tiziano Breda, an analyst for Central America for the International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent organization that works to prevent wars and design policies, explained to CNN. that will build a more peaceful world.

“They have always been messages from the gangs to the governments.

But this is worrying due to the number of homicides, the most violent day of the Bukele administration,” Breda maintains.

According to this analyst, these sudden spikes cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Territorial Control plan, to which the government attributes the decrease in murders since Bukele governed El Salvador.

“The gangs, especially the MS13, still have the ability to alter homicide rates if they decide to do so,” says Breda.

• Bukele orders to reinforce the presence of police and soldiers and after 24 hours says that he has managed to reduce the rise in violence

Last November 2021, El Salvador registered another spike in murders for three consecutive days.

Authorities brought the spike under control by capturing several gang leaders.

In 2020, the attorney general's office opened an investigation to determine if the current administration had a pact with the gangs to reduce murders in exchange for prison benefits, as happened during the presidency of Mauricio Funes in 2012.

However, Bukele has rejected that his government has a pact with the gangs and attributes the reduction to his security policy.

According to government figures, since June 2019, there has been a reduction in violence.

In May of that year, the month before Bukele took office, the average number of murders was 9.2.

Central American gangsViolence