El Salvador mulls crackdown on jailed gang leaders
Lawmakers in El Salvador on Thursday began examining a government bill to impose heavy restrictions on imprisoned leaders of violent gangs that have made the country one of the most dangerous in the world.
The proposed measures include boosting security and monitoring in at least seven penitentiaries, limiting family visits and forcing telephone companies to block cellphone signals from the facilities.
The aim of the bill, which would put in place a state of emergency for the prisons lasting one year, is to prevent locked-up gang leaders from continuing to give orders to their followers outside.
"This is an issue of national security, and we are all obliged to work towards better security, and this includes the telephone companies," Vice President Oscar Ortiz said.
The bill was presented to the Salvadoran Congress by Justice and Security Minister Mauricio Ramirez. Lawmakers are to debate the measures in a plenary session on Friday.
- Gangs unnerved -
The proposals have unnerved the main gangs active in El Salvador. Nearly 20 percent of the country's estimated 70,000 gang members are behind bars.
Last weekend, three of the gangs called a temporary halt to murders by their members while urging the government to drop the proposed "unconstitutional" crackdown.
But the head of the police force, Howard Cotto, has rejected any negotiations with the gangs, saying: "We have nothing to talk about with members of criminal organizations."
More than 6,600 people were murdered in El Salvador last year, with the government saying most were victims of gang violence. Police say the killings have ticked up even further this year, with an average of 22 people slain each day.
The nation's per-capita homicide rate of 104 per 100,000 inhabitants is the highest in the world for a country not at war.
El Salvador along with neighboring Honduras and Guatemala make up what is known as Central America's "Northern Triangle" -- a trio of countries scarred by civil wars that once raged in the region and prey to ultra-violent gangs imported from Los Angeles' mean streets and US prisons.
The Salvadoran government under President Salvador Sanchez Ceren has already been waging an offensive against the gangs since 2014, boosting police and soldiers on patrol.
In anticipation of possible gang action against the proposed measures in the new bill, 1,000 army reservists are to be sent to prisons to back up police, Defense Minister David Munguia said.
They add to 6,000 soldiers already deployed to reinforce public security in the streets and to boost border checks.
- Doubts about crackdown -
But analysts say the crackdown has been ineffective so far.
"You have to look at it with caution, because these aren't measures that will resolve the issue of insecurity. These are measures that address the need to impose greater control, but they don't go beyond that," said Jeaneth Aguilar, a gang expert.
Dagoberto Gutierrez, a deputy chancellor at the country's Luterana University, said he believed fighting gang violence with state violence will only "aggravate the insecurity."
"These are acts in crisis, but they are not planned out, there is no substantive work to get at the causes of the problem which comes from poverty and marginalization. And violence can follow from this and maybe it will get worse," he said.