Ordering the government to protect victims

On October 6, the Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Court announced that it had ordered the government to provide measures of protection for a family subject to threats and attacks from one of El Salvador's criminal gangs.

An article on the website of the family's lawyers at Cristosal explains the ruling:

An extended family with about 30 members began to receive attacks from the Barrio 18 gang in April 2017. Various family members endured injuries, rape, murder, and displacement from their homes. They knocked on the doors of several state institutions, but didn’t receive help from any of them until last Friday. That’s when the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ordered that measures be taken to protect the family. The attorney representing the family explains that, rather than just procuring temporary protection measures, they seek to make this case a reference for the creation of long-term assistance programs for victims of displacement in El Salvador 

"The State’s response is very limited, almost insignificant with respect to the scale of the problem... More than temporary measures of protection, we are looking for a precedent that establishes the obligation to create a broader program,” says Abraham Ábrego, coordinator of Cristosal’s Strategic Litigation Unit, which has accompanied the family in the amparo suit. 

The defendants in the case, accused of failing to provide protection to the family, are the Minister of Justice and Public Security, the Coordinating Commission of the Justice Sector, and the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Technical Unit of the Justice Sector, among others. 

"In some cases, the most that has come from activating the National Civil Police or the Attorney General’s Office is an alias for a victim. These institutions don’t even provide shelters," says Ábrego.

The case is an important one in a country where the government continues to deny the existence of internal forced displacement caused by gang violence.    The court's decision requires the government not only to recognize it, but to do something about it, if only for one extended family.