Sunday 30 August 2015

San Salvador - Murder Capital and holiday heaven

An amazing level of violence continues there. Surely it's got to peak soon. Such a waste:

Midway through a year scarred by gang violence – and the brutal police response to it – El Salvador suffered its bloodiest day of the century on Sunday, when 40 murders were committed. But that record was then overtaken on Monday, and again on Tuesday, when 42 and 43 people were killed. Most of the murders were committed by two gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, which each have about 50,000 members. The gangs were formed in Los Angeles, but took root in El Salvador when the country’s civil war ended in 1992, and the US sent thousands of Salvadoran migrants home. The murder rate nearly halved in 2012/13, when the gangs agreed a truce, but it has since skyrocketed; it is likely soon to exceed 90 per 100,000 people, giving El Salvador the highest rate in the world (a record currently held by Honduras).

Source: The Week

 

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