May was one of the most violent months in El Salvador since the end of the nation’s civil war in 1992, The Associated Press reports. In a country of just over six million people, 635 homicides were reported last month; June is already set to break that mark.
The increasing instability could be related to the breakdown of a truce between gangs and the government. Last January, President Salvador Sanchez Ceren launched a crackdown on gangs by moving leaders into maximum-security cells, where they were no longer able to run criminal operations remotely. As a result, the streets were turned over to younger, more reckless gang members.
"You take away the mature leadership, and you get a structure that is made up of younger, fanatical people who want to make a name for themselves," Raul Mijango, a former guerrilla and a facilitator of the truce, told AP. "They want war."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From 1979 to 1992, more than 75,000 civilians died in the Salvadoran Civil War with additional untold numbers “disappearing” across the country at the hands of government forces.
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
