The security authorities of The Savior They reported on Monday night the capture of more than 1,400 alleged gang members in the last hours and at a time when the country is under an emergency regime due to an increase in homicides.

The Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro, reported that “more than 1,400 arrests have been made in around 50 operations that have been carried out throughout the country.”

The official’s statement was given to journalists after the arrest of 24 gang members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) in a populous neighborhood in the north of the department of San Salvador.

Villatoro pointed out that “different operations are being carried out simultaneously at the national level.”

The arrests of alleged leaders, mainly from the MS13, began on Saturday, but the operations intensified on Sunday and continued on Monday.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, demanded this Monday through a message on Twitter that gang members “stop killing now” and warned that if the escalation of murders in the country does not stop, his fellow prisoners “are going to pay for it too.” ”.

The gangs have some 70,000 members in El Salvador, of which 16,000 are in prison.

El Salvador is under an exceptional regime, decreed early Sunday morning by Congress at the request of Bukele and which suspends some constitutional guarantees.

The suspended rights are freedom of association and assembly, the right to defense, the prohibition of the intervention of telecommunications and also the term of administrative detention was extended to 15 days, when it is normally 3 days.

Despite this extraordinary measure and the massive arrests, the gangs maintained their challenge to the Bukele government on Sunday.

The country registered 14 homicides on Friday, 62 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday. March 26 became the deadliest day in El Salvador’s recent history.

Authorities blame gangs for the wave of violence, mainly the MS13, but have yet to explain the reason for the spike.

This is not the first time that a Salvadoran government has sought to combat gangs with mass arrests. In the past, former presidents Francisco Flores (1999-2004) and Elías Antonio Saca (2004-2009) did so with their Mano Dura and Super Mano plans. Hard.

However, homicide rates remained on the rise until 2015, when El Salvador became the most violent country in the world with 103 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

After that year, the figures began to gradually decrease and the fall has been accentuated since 2019, when Bukele became President.

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