SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has asked his country's congress to approve a state of emergency, to combat a wave of gang-related killings over the weekend.
Local media reported that about 50 people had been killed, a scale of violence that has not been seen for years. Bukele announced the request Saturday in his social media accounts, and taunted those who opposed the measure, saying “Is the opposition coming out to defend the gang members?”
The decree would suspend constitutional guarentees of freedom of assembly and loosen arrest rules for as much as thirty days.
