The Government of El Salvador sent 10,000 soldiers and police to a city on the outskirts of the capital as part of the war against organized gangs launched in March by President Nayib Bukele.
“From now on, the municipality of Soyapango is completely under siege. 8,500 soldiers and 1,500 agents surrounded the city “of 242,000 inhabitants, located to the east of the capital, Bukele said on his Twitter account.
Defense Minister René Merino Monroy assured this Saturday at a press conference that the implementation of a “fence” in the municipality of Soyapango “will not affect the honorable population” and promised “respect for human rights.”
On November 23, the President announced that the cities would be surrounded to allow the search of houses by the military and members of the National Civil Police (PNC) with the aim of proceeding to arrest the gang members. Soyapango is the first city where this decision was applied.
Since dawn, the military and police have been stationed on all access roads to the city, prohibiting entry or exit from the town without prior control. The forces of order received orders to arrest “all the gang members that are still found” in the city, the President explained.
According to a survey by the Central American University (UCA), around 76% of Salvadorans support the state of emergency and nine out of ten believe that crime has been reduced.
Around 58,000 suspected members of criminal gangs, in particular the fearsome ‘mara salvatrucha’, have been detained in El Salvador since the declaration of ‘war’ against gangs issued by President Bukele at the end of March.
Due to the massive arrests, the penitentiary administration began the construction of a gigantic prison for 40,000 suspected criminals in Tecoluca, a rural region in the center of the country.
The state of emergency, decreed at the end of March after a wave of 87 murders attributed to “maras”, allows arrests without a warrant and has aroused criticism from human rights organizations.
The state of emergency was extended by Congress until mid-December.
Source: TSF
