SAN SALVADOR, Nov 18 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Authorities in El Salvador arrested 843 leaders of the Salvatrucha (MS) gang and 199 of Gang 18, an official source said.
Minister of Justice and Security Gustavo Villatoro said that the arrests made it possible to dismantle their national leadership.
For example, he said, of 15 MS national leaders, nine have already been arrested in operations carried out by the National Civil Police (PNC) together with the Armed Forces.
Most of the arrests were made under the emergency regime in force in the country since March 2022, which this week was extended for the eighth time, although many consider this action to be unconstitutional.
Villatoro praised the results of the government’s policy and said that the benefits that the population is having are irrefutable.
We are having historic numbers, projections that I can tell you that we will have a reduction in the homicide rate in more than 50 percent compared to last year,’ he said.
Meanwhile, 43 women were victims of feminicides in El Salvador until October 2022, non-governmental organizations reported.
These numbers may be higher, according to the sources, because the National Civil Police (PNC) deny access to these statistics, despite a legal mandate to provide reports every six months.
According to a United Nations report, Latin America topped the list of countries with the highest incidence of femicides, and of 15 countries in the region among the top 25 nations, El Salvador is at the top.
In 2021, there were 4,225 feminicides. That is to say, the increase in penalties against this type of murder and the actions of prevention and attention to cases in danger has not yet generated a significant drop in the figures, feminist leader Lorena Peña told Prensa Latina.
The spokeswoman for Resistencia Femenina, Cecilia Hernández, criticized that the data on violence against women are invisible, since there are no reliable statistics on violence against women, and said that they cannot obtain official figures, because the information is vetoed. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
