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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Anti-gang Offensive in El Salvador Cuts Murder Rate |
| 2016-06-12 |
| [An Nahar] El Salvador, ranked one of the most dangerous countries in the world, has nearly halved its staggeringly bloody monthly murder rate amid a fierce crackdown on fearsome gangs. But analysts pointed out that the number of homicides this year is still above where it was the same time last year, and warned that the government offensive against the gangs needs to continue to break them apart. Justice and Security Minister Mauricio Ramirez said Thursday that the "extraordinary measures" El Salvador has employed "have managed to reduce the crime rate by more than 50 percent." Isolating gang bosses in prison, sending in elite troops and police to arrest gang members, and erasing gang graffiti from the streets of at least one town all appear to be bearing fruit. Some 353 murders were recorded in each of the months of May and April, according to the Institute for Forensic Medicine. While that is still high, it is significantly less than the 611 homicides in March, 644 in February and 740 in January. However the total number of murders so far this year, 2,721, is still higher than the 2,188 registered for the same period in 2015. That underlines El Salvador's notoriety as the country with the most murders per capita in the world outside of a war zone. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Wow. How come Rahm Emanuel never thought of that? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2016-06-12 14:43 |