El Salvador Perspectives

Looking for any glimmer of improvement in the wave of murders which has hit El Salvador this year, Salvadorans heard from the PNC yesterday that "only" 139 people were murdered in the first ten days of November, for an average of 13.9 per day.   This compared to an average of 22.7 per day during October. While acknowledging this was a reduction, Howard Cotto of the PNC cautioned that it was too early to be labelled a trend.   While refusing to disclose particular police strategies, Cotto believes that actions by security forces are having a positive effect. At the same time, Cotto dismissed the idea that the reduction in homicides represented a response by the gangs to the call of the IPAZ churches for the gangs to cease their violent actions.  The churches, for their part, see the reduction in homicides as a response to their call for peacemaking. Cotto repeated the claim of the government that most of the victims and most of the killers were gang members.  ...

I have written several times on this blog about IPAZ, the pastoral initiative for life and peace, a group of protestant churches in El Salvador which advocates for dialogue in Salvadoran society, including dialogue with the gangs, as a path towards reducing violence in the society. On October 27, the churches organized a march in San Salvador which included family members of gang members.   The marches ended at Plaza Salvador del Mundo where the church leaders called out for a cessation of violence in the country.   In particular, the IPAZ churches called for the gangs to: a)  cease all violent actions against the lives of Salvadorans b)  cease recruiting members, especially boys and girls c)  cease all types of threats which force families to leave their homes or neighborhoods d)  permit the free transit of people throughout all El Salvador In an interview given to the online periodical RevistaFactum after the march, Lutheran Bishop Medardo Go...

Voices were heard in El Salvador this week looking for alternative ways to end the cycle of gang violence in the country. On Monday, the government released its draft proposal of a law for rehabilitation and "re-insertion" of gang members into society.  In announcing the proposal , the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Benito Lara, stated that the law was aimed at youth who had come under the influence of the gangs, to give them a reason to make the decision to exit.  The law would seek to slow the growth of gangs through programs of formal and informal education, job creation, and productive projects leading to a culture of peace.   Lara emphasized that this law did not provide for amnesty for gang members, nor was it directed at those who had committed serious crimes.   The law now goes to the National Assembly for debate, where a central question will be how to finance the programs. On Tuesday, marchers converged on Plaza Salvador del Mundo clamoring ...

This week, the number of homicides for August  surpassed 700 , making this easily the bloodiest month in the bloodiest year since the end of the civil war.  It was a week which saw El Salvador's Attorney General Luis Martinez and the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court making news related to the struggle to control gang-related violence. It's terrifying, but are gangs terrorists?   The Constitutional Chamber released a ruling which addressed issues surrounding a El Salvador's anti-terrorism law and anti-gang legislation.   According to the court's ruling, the warring street gangs can properly be called terrorists under the law, and  membership in the gangs alone is sufficient to be considered a crime.   The law should not, however, be extended to those who commit acts of protest, so long as the purpose was not the use of terror and violent acts.   The ruling said the government can properly prosecute those who was are financiers or apologist...

A group of churches in El Salvador yesterday made public their proposals to the government for working on the problem of gang-fueled violence in El Salvador.   Calling itself "IPAZ," the Pastoral Initiative for Life and Peace, the group of Protestant and Catholic churches propose a "tridimensional dialogue" between the churches, the gangs and civil society to seek an understanding for a reduction in the levels of violence and homicides.  IPAZ proposes to be the facilitator of this process. The church leaders do not describe this process as a continuation of the so-called truce process, but instead an attempt to rescue those pieces of that process which had produced positive results.   They expressed a certainty that there were various gang members who truly did want to give up lives of crime.   IPAZ stands opposed to those who would say there can be no dialogue with the gangs. IPAZ specifically does not call for the government to negotiate with the gangs or...