The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced on Sunday that he deployed 6,000 military and police officers to apprehend gang members in the north of the country after two people were killed.
"At this moment, 5,000 soldiers and 1,000 police officers have surrounded the districts of San José Cancasque, San Antonio Los Ranchos, Potonico, and San Isidro Labrador to completely dismantle that clique."
Hace unos días, hubo dos homicidios en la zona norte de nuestro país. Ya capturamos a los dos culpables, miembros de la pandilla 18 Sureños.
En este momento, 5 mil soldados y mil policías han cercado los distritos de San José Cancasque, San Antonio Los Ranchos, Potonico y San… pic.twitter.com/Nhx2bL6k6R
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 25, 2024
He announced a few days ago that "there were two homicides" in that area, about 55 miles north of San Salvador, where "two culprits" were captured. Both were members of the Barrio 18 Sureños gang.
"We are not going to stop until we eradicate what little remains of the gangs," he warned on social media. He posted a video of the uniformed officers organized into squads and two detainees kneeling with their hands cuffed.
The Minister of Defense, René Francis Merino Monroy, also posted on X, "We will completely clean the area, we will extract every last remnant of gangs." describing the deployment to the south of the department of Chalatenango.
5 mil elementos de la @FUERZARMADASV, junto a mil miembros de la @PNCSV, han instalado por orden del Sr. Presidente @nayibbukele cerco militar al sur del departamento de Chalatenango:
- Potonico
- San Isidro Labrador
- San José Cancasque
- San Antonio Los RanchosLimpiaremos… pic.twitter.com/AIDTLo2LYw
— René Francis Merino Monroy🇸🇻 (@merino_monroy) March 25, 2024
El Salvador has been under a state of emergency, which was declared by Bukele, for two years. Almost 76,000 people have been arrested during this time.
The Salvadoran government attributes approximately 120,000 homicides over three decades to gang-related violence. The majority of the gangs originated from the streets of Los Angeles. This number exceeds the 75,000 deaths recorded during the 12-year civil war (1980-1992).
After the war ended, Salvadorans founded themselves in a new era of terror courtesy of two notorious gangs: the MS-13 gangs and their rivals Barrio 18. The latter split off into two factions: Sureños and Revolucionarios. Together they have around 100,000 members.
For years, human rights organizations remained silent regarding the crimes perpetrated by these gangs. Now, they are criticizing Bukele's regime and denouncing allegations of "arbitrary detentions," "torture" and "deaths" within the prison system.
