The vice president of El Salvador, Félix Ulloa, stated on Tuesday that a ruling by the country's Supreme Court enables the application of centennial sentences to gang members, despite the constitution prohibiting life imprisonment. 'Many of those who are in prison (there) will not get out, and they will not get out because the Government does not want to, but because there has been a resolution from the Supreme Court of Justice, that in the case of those convicted of terrorism linked to criminal structures there is some accumulation of the sentence,' Ulloa said during a public event in the Salvadoran capital. According to the official, 'here in El Salvador life imprisonment is prohibited by the Constitution' and 'no one can spend more than 30 years in prison for the crimes they have committed,' but 'in the case of criminal structures there is an accumulation of the sentence,' so sentences of hundreds of years are applied. 'It is the only case where this constitutional exception is made, and that is why you see in the newspapers that a person was sentenced to 300 years, to 400 years,' he added. This measure was approved by the Legislative Assembly at the request of President Nayib Bukele after recording the bloodiest days in recent Salvadoran history with the murder of more than 80 people in three days. In this context, the Legislative Body has approved reforms to increase sentences and modify the criminal process against the supposed leaders of gangs and their collaborators, in addition, sentences of up to more than 1,000 years and several hundred more have been imposed in the courts. Journalistic investigations have pointed out that this escalation of violence occurred due to the breaking of a pact between the Bukele government and criminal gangs. This measure, which adds up to more than 91,300 detentions, became the government's only bet against gangs and earned Bukele, who maintains high approval among Salvadorans, his immediate re-election for a second term, despite the constitutional prohibition. The controversial measure—accepted by a large part of the population—has been pointed out for violating human rights and has left more than 6,400 complaints, mainly for arbitrary detentions and torture. In addition, the death of 480 people detained under state custody has been reported, most with signs of violence, according to humanitarian organizations.
