El Salvador prisoner ‘rearrests’ fuel new concerns

Growing number of people detained in gang crackdown being ‘rearrested’, experts say, raising fears policy will not end. Usulutan, El Salvador – For the past five months, Marcela Alvarado has made an almost daily pilgrimage to different Salvadoran government offices demanding her son Jose Duval Mata Alvarado’s release. But now, the police workers union and human rights groups have said a rising number of Salvadorans detained under the state of exception – including Mata Alvarado – have been “re-arrested” upon release after either being granted bail or having their cases dropped. Weeks later, she said she received information that her son had been arrested again for “illicit association” – a common charge levied against people accused of being involved with gangs during the state of exception. But Reyes said that whatever is behind it, the policy’s intention is clear: “To maintain the number of people in prison.” New mega-prison Keeping people behind bars has only further strained the Salvadoran prison system, which was already at a breaking point before the influx of prisoners during the state of exception.