A report produced by the El Salvador police revealed that a year and a half after implementing tougher actions against crime, there are still approximately 43,000 criminals involved with gangs at large in the country.
The document, dated September 1, was first released by Insight Crime, an NGO dedicated to investigating organized crime in Latin America.
With the police survey, the government believes that 36% of members of criminal organizations operating in the country remain free. Of this number, more than 20 thousand are considered active members of organized crime.
The document was divided into active members, aspiring members and collaborators, who are people who help the factions, but are not members of them.
According to Reuters agencywho had access to the report independently, 1,230 already detained are considered gang leaders, while the category of “collaborators” was recorded at 41,673, or 54% of those detained.
Nayib Bukele’s government initiated a state of exception in the small country in September 2022, after the state recorded a wave of violence with 87 deaths in two days. Since then, almost 70,000 people have been arrested.
On January 31, the Salvadoran government also built the Confinement Center against Terrorism (Cecot), a mega-prison to only receive members of gangs such as Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).
Bukele’s administration has already released 7,000 detainees who were considered innocent. For the thousands who remain in prisons, the government has said it will hold mass trials of up to 900 people at a time in the coming months.
The government’s actions to combat crime have broad popular support, reaching 91%, according to the latest opinion polls carried out within the small country.
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