El Salvador lives its own ‘movie’ in the midst of the war against gangs

In an almost cinematic display, more than 10,000 uniformed troops belonging to the Army and the Police of El Salvador surrounded the vicinity of Soyapango, the most populous municipality in the country, with the promise of «extracting» the gang members who live in that area. .

Since the weekend, the news has not stopped. The Government assures that it has managed to detain 140 gang members, while President Nayib Bukele boasts of the unprecedented military operation: “Never in the history of our country has such a number of troops been concentrated. The mobilization of a complete division of the Army was only in manuals, but it had never been done in El Salvador. This is also an unprecedented logistical achievement», he wrote in his social networks on Monday.

The operation and the arrests take place under an emergency regime, which was established at the end of March of this year and which has been severely criticized by civil organizations. According to the NGOs, this State policy – which has the endorsement of Congress – grants broad powers to the Armed Forces, to the detriment of the fundamental rights of citizens, reports RT.

In the face of questions, the Salvadoran Vice President, Féliz Ulloa, declared today that the military operation has been applied with full respect for the rule of law. «There is not, to date, a single complaint of a violation of human rights, there is not a single complaint of an affectation of daily activity», he said.The fifth phase

Over the weekend, the government spokesperson explained that this is the fifth phase of a national operation that seeks to combat gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha, Barrio 18 and other minority criminal groups.

The authorities refer to the deployment as ‘Cerco Soyapango’ (the Siege of Soyapango), due to the intervention of different State corporations to locate and capture «even the last hidden terrorists» in that municipality, neighboring the capital San Salvador and considered one of the most violent.

The information has been accompanied by videos in which the action of the uniformed officers, who enter to requisition the homes of the municipality without judicial authorization, since they are protected by the State of emergency is observed.

«Approximately 10,000 members of our security forces continue to be deployed in the #CercoSoyapango with the aim of extracting from the communities the gang members who are still fugitives», said the government in a tweet.

According to official information, the war against the gangs has consisted of five stages: the first, which consisted of preparing the security forces; the second, in social investment in children and youth; the third, focused on the modernization of Police and Army equipment; the fourth, in the increase of personnel in the corporations of public order; and the fifth, called the “extraction phase”.

Bukele’s objective is for the State to retake territorial control of areas historically under gang law. Before this siege of Soyapango –where some 300,000 people live–, the authorities made a similar deployment in the town of Camasagua, inhabited by some 12,000 citizens. On that occasion, some 2,000 soldiers and tactical teams of the National Civil Police (PNC) participated.

«The Comasagua Siege showed us that fencing off criminals allows us to carry out extraction procedures without them being able to flee to other places», said the president last month. Now, his government is redoubling its commitment to Soyapango, a municipality that, together with Ilopango and San Martín, formed the so-called «triangle of death» in El Salvador.Zero homicides in El Salvador

Bukele’s politics not only stays in action but also in speech. The incursion of the Armed Forces and the Police into the streets has been accompanied by an active information campaign on social networks, where his Government publishes testimonies from the inhabitants of Soyapango, who are satisfied with the intervention.

«I feel calm now. I live alone and I close my door and nothing happens to me. I’m not afraid. Before, yes, I had to hide everything (…) What the president is doing is magnificent», says Santa Ana de Jesús Díaz, one of the inhabitants of Soyapango, in a video widely disseminated by pro-government deputies on social networks.

«It is convenient for us that this is the case [besieged by the authorities] because we want to work in peace and now we are very calm here on the street», declares another of the women merchants in the area.

Bukele’s action has also been supported by some ecclesiastical authorities, such as the Archbishop of San Salvador, Monsignor José Luis Escobar Alas, who considered that it is «the obligation of the Government to prosecute crime».

«It is his duty for national security. The siege is a novelty because it has not been done before (in El Salvador), but in any civilized society it is what is done. The problem of violence was great, we hope that all these efforts will lead us to social peace», he asserted, quoted by the local press.

In parallel, the Salvadoran president insists on showing the results of his security policy. «December closes its fourth day. All without homicides. Thank God», he wrote this Monday to reaffirm his confidence in the direction taken by the authorities, while the country’s prisons are filled with more than 50,000 detainees accused of being gang members during the State of emergency.