San Salvador – In a new offensive of the war against violent gangs, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, imposed a military siege around a city where a policeman was assassinated on Tuesday.
“Since early morning, we have established a security fence around the municipality of Nueva Concepción, in the northern department of Chalatenango, with more than 5,000 elements” of the armed forces and 500 of the police to catch those responsible for the crime, the president said on Twitter. .
In this town of about 30,000 inhabitants, located a little more than 80 km north of San Salvador, suspected gang members killed the policeman the day before, prompting Bukele to promise that he will “wipe out” the gangs.
Fourteen months ago, the president launched a “war” against the gangs, with massive arrests of suspects and taking away the territorial control they had exercised for years, which has restored the sense of security to the population.
Yesterday’s military operation began in the rural hamlet of La Cruz and later spread to other areas of Nueva Concepción, where uniformed officers searched homes and reviewed the identification documents of passers-by and vehicle and motorcycle drivers, according to local media.
“Know that we are not going to stop until each one of those responsible for this vile murder is captured,” declared Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro, who is leading the operation together with Defense Minister René Francis Merino. Gang members “will pay dearly for the murder of our hero,” agent Maximino Antonio Vásquez, Bukele said.
The crusade against gangs has the support of nine out of ten Salvadorans, according to polls, but human rights organizations and the Catholic Church have criticized Bukele’s methods.
The police crime “is reprehensible,” but the military sieges “bring anxiety and fear” to the innocent population in that area of Chalatenango that suffered the harshness of the civil war (1980-1992), declared the coordinator of the Rights Commission Humans, Miguel Montenegro.
The National Civil Police (PNC) reported that agent Vásquez died after being “attacked” by gang members “while patrolling with other police officers” in Nueva Concepción.
He is the fourth Salvadoran police officer assassinated since Bukele launched his “war” in March 2022 and the first this year, while the country is governed by a state of emergency that allows arrests without a warrant. Since then, 68,720 suspected gang members have been detained, although some 5,000 have been released for not being linked to these gangs, according to the government.
Source: Ambito
