Bouquetle's State of Exception Is a Legal State That Suspends Protections in the Constitution

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State of emergency suspends protections in the Constitution, including right to free assembly. Bouquetle boasted about arrests in a speech to new soldiers at the military academy. Some estimate that he had 19,000 people arrested in one month. The government now says it's detained 71,000 people since March 2022.

A country that was not long ago gripped by gang violence and crime is slowly emerging from fear, thanks to a brutal roundup of young men by a wildly popular, social-media-savvy president. The streets may be safer, but now it is El Salvador’s democracy that is in danger—and neighbouring countries’ leaders may take lessons from its budding autocrat.

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