El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has authorized “lethal force” against gang members after dozens of murders during the coronavirus pandemic.
The country, which has tens of thousands of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, members, saw two dozen homicides on Friday, prompting it to lock down its gang-filled prisons, from where authorities said most of the murders are ordered.
After the lockdown, there were another 29 homicides on Sunday, leading to the authorization by Bukele, who said that the gangs are using the coronavirus pandemic to their advantage. Bukele added that because the country’s security forces are tied up battling COVID-19, the gangs have found a window to kill.
“The police and armed forces must prioritize safeguarding their lives, those of their companions and of honest citizens,” he said. “The use of lethal force is authorized in self-defense or in defense of the lives of Salvadorans.”
As searches of prisons are being carried out, the Salvadoran government also pushed rival gangs into shared cells in an attempt to disrupt communication between members of the same gang. It is estimated that there are more than 12,000 gang members behind bars in the Central American country.
There are estimated to be more than 65,000 people in the nation tied to the gangs, according to Fox News. El Salvador’s deputy security minister, Osiris Luna, claimed that inmates in the country’s seven maximum-security lockups “will not receive sunlight” while in 24-hour confinement.
“We have taken the decision to mix and imprison in each of the cells the different groups of the criminal gangs that are causing so much damage to the country,” Luna said. “The government will not bow down to any terrorist structure. This state is going to enforce the law and make it respected.”
