(Bloomberg) -- El Salvadorian lawmakers granted President Nayib Bukele another 30 days of emergency powers Sunday, after a crackdown that he says has enabled the arrest of 16,000 alleged gang members. 

Bukele was first handed the powers in late March after dozens of people were killed in gang violence during one weekend. He asked the Legislative Assembly to extend the state of emergency early Sunday and 67 of the 84 deputies voted in favor of the extension, with five against.

In a tweet following the result, Bukele hailed the result as “the definition of democracy.” 

The decree has loosened arrest rules and suspended the rights to free assembly and communication. Congress has since made spreading gang messages in the media punishable by up to 15 years in jail, which journalists have said could criminalize some news reporting. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleges that many of the thousands of arrests have been illegal, arbitrary and violent.

El Salvador has long been one of the world’s most violent countries, but had been relatively calm since Bukele took office nearly three years ago, which is one of the reasons for his high approval ratings. The U.S. Treasury said in December that Salvadoran officials reached a secret deal with the gangs to cut violence, though Bukele has denied this. 

Bukele has reveled in the new powers, flooding his Twitter account with pictures of tattoo-covered prisoners.

(Updates with parliamentary vote from first paragraph)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.