El Salvador passes 5,000-murder mark for second straight year.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
Although down from the record tally of 2015, El Salvador's horrific homicide numbers continue to tell the sad story of a country caught in the crossfire between rival street gangs, state security forces, and shadowy vigilante groups.
The Poliria Nacional Civil (PNC), the national police force, puts the 2016 murder total at 5,278, a 20% decrease from the previous year, when more than 6,660 people were killed (NotiCen, Jan. 21, 2016). The 2015 figure was the highest since the end of El Salvador's civil war (1980-1992), which claimed an estimated 75,000 lives and left another 8,000 missing. Overall, more than 14,000 people have been murdered since President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a guerrilla commander during the war, took office in June 2014.
The Sanchez Ceren administration sees the homicide drop as evidence that the "extraordinary measures" it is taking to combat gangs, known locally as maras or pandillas, are paying dividends. "In the year 2016, the principal success of this government has been the fight against crime," Sanchez Ceren's planning and technical secretary, Roberto Lorenzana, told reporters Dec. 7. "We have no doubt that [2017] will be the year we consolidate our victory."
The measures include the deployment of special anti-gang commando units composed of both police and military personnel. The government also introduced temporary rules changes for prison facilities housing convicted gang members (NotiCen, May 26, 2016). The changes, in effect since late March, restrict visiting rights, prohibit inmates from leaving prisons even for court dates, and allow certain gang leaders to be held in isolation.
Authorities are also making an effort to target the financial assets of the gangs. In late July, a series of raids dubbed "Operation Check," as in the chess move, resulted in dozens of arrests and the seizure of buses, cars, and restaurants belonging to members of the infamous Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, El Salvador's largest gang. The other leading gang is Barrio 18, also known as Calle 18, which is split into two factions, the Surenos and the Revolucionarios.
Four months after Operation Check, the government announced yet another step in its crackdown on the gangs. Plan Nemesis, as the new offensive is called, is meant to "punish the gangs" and "prevent the threats and attacks" on security forces that MS-13 purportedly made in response to the Operation Check raids, Vice-President Oscar Ortiz said on Nov. 18. "It's about hitting...
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