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El Salvador's President Takes On The Country's Gangs Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
[NPR.ORG] El Salvador's president authorized the country's police and military to use lethal force against gang members, who over the weekend were allegedly responsible for the murders of dozens of people. Along with the emergency orders, President Nayib Bukele put all incarcerated gang members on a 24-hour shutdown.Bukele says the gangs are taking advantage of the police focus on enforcing the coronavirus lockdown instead of battling criminal elements. Lethal force can be used in self-defense or to protect the lives of Salvadorans, he says. Fifty-three people were killed over the weekend, with 29 murdered on Sunday alone, a new one-day record for homicides since Bukele swept into office last June pledging to reduce the killings. Murders had dropped dramatically in March, as El Salvador enacted some of the most restrictive lockdown measures in the region to combat COVID-19. Bukele says gang leaders ordered the murders from inside prisons. He spent much of Monday, tweeting pictures of workers boarding up prison cells and says the gang members will no longer see sunlight and will be housed with rivals. He warned the gangsters will regret for the rest of their lives having made the decision to order the murders. Related: El Salvador: 2020-04-20 Illegal Alien MS-13 Gang Member Accused of Murdering Girl Previously Freed into U.S. El Salvador: 2020-03-27 US Department of Justice has issued bounties against Nicolas Maduro and his top officials El Salvador: 2020-03-22 Border agents save Honduran migrant family-of-five from drowning as they try and swim from Mexico to Texas Related: Nayib Bukele: 2019-11-04 El Salvador orders Venezuelan diplomats to leave the country Nayib Bukele: 2019-07-04 Behind Ocasio-Cortez’s border-camp theater Nayib Bukele: 2019-02-05 Gang-weary Salvadorans elect Nayib Bukele as new president Related: COVID-19: 2020-04-27 28 Million Mail-In Ballots Went Missing in Last Four Elections COVID-19: 2020-04-27 New York State Division of the Budget Announces Release of the FY 2021 Enacted State Budget Financial Plan COVID-19: 2020-04-27 What the US must do now to capitalize on Beijing's mistakes Posted by: Fred 2020-04-29 |
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