Luis Martinez said Monday that the slaughter of 14 gang members inside the Quezaltepeque prison in western El Salvador came from the San Francisco Gotera prison in the eastern part of the country.
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“[…during the search, security officers] found their bodies among some garbage bins”, said Eugenio Chicas, the presidential communications secretary.
On August 19, National Police chief, Mauricio Ramirez, released figures indicating that there were at least 125 murders across the Central American country in only three days. The authorities described the killings as a “purge action” by the gang, and said that its members were suspected of forcing bus drivers into a violence-plagued strike in late July.
El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world, largely as a result of bitter fighting between rival gangs. The El Salvadore Directorate General of Prisons (DGCP) tweeted that murders are “presumed to be an act of purification among gang members”. “Regardless of who is a gang member or not”. They were members of the 18th Street Revolutionaries gang. It took a foothold in Central America when Latino members were deported from the US.
Criminal gangs have been pressuring the government to include them in a commission examining ways to stem endemic urban violence for which these same groups are, to a large extent, responsible.
The gangs have intensified their attacks against authorities and public transportation in recent weeks in an attempt to pressure the government into negotiations.
Since taking office a year ago, President Salvador Sanchez Ceren has tried to crack down on crime and refused to negotiate with the gangs.
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A woman holds up the photos of inmates who were confirmed dead by…
