The Guatemalan security forces have captured and repatriated in recent weeks at least 25 gang members who allegedly fled from the neighbor The Savior, where President Nayib Bukele announced a “war” against these groups, an official source reported on Wednesday.
“We have reacted in time, we have captured more than 25 Salvadoran gang members duly identified as gang members and as Salvadorans,” Guatemalan Interior Minister Napoleón Barrientos told reporters.
The senior official indicated that the detainees have been “handed over to the Salvadoran immigration authorities at the border,” where a exceptional regime established on March 27which allows arrests of suspects without a warrant.
Read more: “My life collapsed”, stories broken by the crimes of the military in Colombia
“We are also going to extend our plan [para controlar el ingreso de pandillas]we are going to correct it and we are going to do it again for a month, because it is logical that the pressure that there is in El Salvador against these gangs could be that it moves to Guatemalan territory,” he considered.
The “war against the gangs,” as Bukele himself has called his plan against these criminal groups, has been in El Salvador for a month, with more than 19,000 detainees, according to official figures.
Guatemala’s plan also involves reinforcing its border with Honduras, another possible access point. “We have information that they are also using Honduran territory to move to Guatemala,” said Barrientos.
The minister also said that in May they will hold a meeting with authorities from the three countries to “coordinate the capture and delivery of gang members to the Salvadoran authorities.”
Bukele, a 40-year-old political novice with high popularity ratings, claimed that “91% of Salvadorans support the war against gangs,” based on a recent CID Gallup poll.
El Salvador suffers from the operations and violence of the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, among other criminal gangs, dedicated to extortion and drug trafficking. Between the two they add up to 70,000 members, of which almost half are behind bars from Bukele’s offensive.
#Guatemala #captures #repatriates #gang #members #Salvador