More than 55,000 alleged “mareros”, members of the feared street gangs, have been arrested in the Central American country since President Naguib Bukele declared “war” on them in late March.
El Salvador’s government destroys the gravestones of gang members, such as MS-13, to prevent them from becoming places of worship, and requires citizens to tell authorities where they are.
“In this country, there is no longer a place for gangs,” Deputy Justice Minister Osiris Luna summed up via Twitter on Thursday, explaining that the destruction of the tombstones is intended to prevent gang members (or “maras”) from “honoring” their dead accomplices.
Tombstones were vandalized on Tuesday and Wednesday, amid the All Saints’ Day holiday, at a municipal cemetery in the town of Santa Tecla, ten kilometers west of the capital San Salvador.
The remains of the dead were left where they lay. The government has not yet specified exactly how many gang members’ headstones were destroyed.
The deputy justice minister uploaded footage showing several tombstones that read MS-13, the acronym for the “Mara Salvatrucha” gang, among the most violent and merciless in El Salvador.
Mr. Luna asked citizens to point out the location of gang members’ tombstones on social networking sites so that authorities could proceed to destroy them.
More than 55,000 alleged “mareros”, members of the feared street gangs, have been arrested in the Central American country since President Naguib Bukele declared “war” on them in late March.
After a spate of 87 killings attributed to the Maras, the 40-year-old head of state asked Congress, which is controlled by his faction, the New Ideas party, to approve the imposition of a state of emergency, suspending constitutional rights, as part of the attack he ordered to be unleashed. The large-scale operation has given the president record popularity in the state of 6.5 million people, despite criticism from human rights groups, which have highlighted the suspension of virtually all legal guarantees and the imprisonment of many innocents.
Since Mr. Bukele took office in June 2019, El Salvador’s homicide rate has more than halved. Last year, domestic and international media published reports that the reduction was partly due to secret government negotiations with jailed Mara leaders, which San Salvador denies.
Gangs, especially MS-13, were established in the US after the wave of immigration to North America due to the civil war in El Salvador (1979-1992). Then, mass deportations of criminals by the American authorities in this country and in other states of Central America caused the metastasis of their action.
Authorities in San Salvador estimate that MS-13, the rival gang Barrio 18 and other smaller criminal organizations have a total of about 70,000 members.
The government of El Salvador is currently building a giant prison with a nominal capacity of 40,000.
RES-EMP
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