In a new show of force, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, mobilized more than 3,000 soldiers and police to capture gang members in Apopa, in the north of the country.
Armed with rifles, the military and security agents arrived in the city on Saturday (25) and spread across five neighborhoods, where they set up barriers to control the passage of cars and people.
“After receiving several complaints from civilians, we have just installed security fences in the communities of Tika 1, 2 and 3, Valle del Sol and La Chintuc,” Bukele said on his X account.
According to the president, more than 2 thousand soldiers and a thousand police officers were sent to the region. With around 130,000 inhabitants, Apopa is one of the main strongholds of the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs, considered the most active in El Salvador.
The country’s Defense Minister, René Merino, explained to the press that the objective of the action is to remove the remnants of these factions, practically dismantled over the last two years, from the streets. “Some criminals are trying to reorganize in these areas,” he said.
“We will not allow these small groups to regroup and take away the peace that cost us so much,” said Bukele, who had already ordered, at the end of March, a military operation with 5,000 men in the region.
The president’s war on El Salvador’s gangs intensified in March 2022 in response to an escalation in violence that left 87 people dead in just one weekend.
Supported by a decree that allows arrests without a court order, his government began a campaign of mass arrests – and sent more than 73,000 criminals to jail in just 18 months.
The measure, which he calls “extraction”, radically reduced violence rates in the country. When Nayib Bukele came to power in 2019, the homicide rate was 38 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Four years later, it dropped to 1.7 per 100,000.
For human rights groups, many of these detentions are arbitrary and violate international treaties.
But Bukele remains highly popular among Salvadorans, who value restoring tranquility to the streets. In February of this year, he was re-elected with more than 80% of the vote for another five-year term.
The offensive that began on Saturday takes place exactly at the time when the Salvadoran Congress is discussing an extension of the measures adopted in 2022. The vote should take place this Wednesday (29) and, according to the local press, the decree will be renewed.
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