Thirty six inmates test positive for coronavirus in Salvadoran prisons

MAY 25, 2020 / 9:43 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

2 MIN READ

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Three dozen inmates in Salvadoran prisons have tested positive for coronavirus, health authorities said Monday, adding that strict health and isolation protocols would be implemented to halt the virus’s spread in the facilities.

Twenty-five inmate cases were diagnosed in a prison holding more than 1,200 inmates in the department of San Vicente, Osiris Luna, director of the country’s prison system, told a news conference Monday. The Quezaltepeque prison near the capital, which holds 1,980 prisoners, registered 11 cases, he added.

. . .

Conditions in Salvadoran prisons have come under greater scrutiny after the government in April released startling photos of hundreds of jailed gang members stripped to underwear and pressed together in formation, drawing strong criticism from human rights groups.

The photos were released after a spike of homicides in April prompted President Nayib Bukele to toughen security measures in prisons for gang members, including house members of rival groups Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Ward 18 in the same cells.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-elsalvador/thirty-six-inmates-test-positive-for-coronavirus-in-salvadoran-prisons-idUSKBN23208O?rpc=401&



President Nayib Bukele, a sadistic creep, very popular, however, with the White House.



April 29, 2020 4:04PM EDT

El Salvador: Inhumane Prison Lockdown Treatment
President’s Call for Lethal Force Ignores Basic International Standards

Inmates are lined up during a security operation under the watch of police at Izalco prison in San Salvador, El Salvador, on April 25, 2020. © 2020 El Salvador presidential press office via AP

(Washington, DC) – El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has ordered a mandatory lockdown in prisons holding gang members, imposing inhumane conditions on the inmates, Human Rights Watch said today. He also announced that he was authorizing “the use of lethal force” by security forces for “self-defense and to protect the lives of Salvadorans” even if it is not a measure of last resort, as required by Salvadoran and international law.

After weeks of very few reported killings in El Salvador, 77 people were murdered between April 24 and 27, 2020. The president claimed he had “intelligence information” that the homicides were orchestrated by gang members inside prisons. The lockdown he subsequently ordered involves holding them in inhumane conditions that may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. He also tweeted about using lethal force against gang leaders in the streets.

“Given the Covid-19 pandemic, prisons in El Salvador, as elsewhere, are a potential epicenter for an outbreak, and the Bukele administration’s lockdown has exacerbated an already heightened risk,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “President Bukele’s get-tough-on-crime discourse to address 77 killings in 4 days is, ironically, putting more lives at risk of a potential contagion – inside and outside detention centers.”

On April 25, Bukele, via Twitter, ordered the country’s prisons director to declare a “maximum emergency in every detention facility holding gang members” in the country. Authorities then carried out an “absolute lockdown” on gang members, locking them inside a cell for 24 hours, and “solitary confinement” for gang leaders for an undefined time.

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/29/el-salvador-inhumane-prison-lockdown-treatment