HomeNewsBriefEl Salvador Police Chief Targets Rising Gang Violence
BRIEF

El Salvador Police Chief Targets Rising Gang Violence

BARRIO 18 / 21 JAN 2015 BY DAVID GAGNE EN

In a stark statement illustrating the gravity of the current situation in El Salvador, the director of the country's civilian police force (PNC) said law enforcement had permission to shoot criminals whenever necessary.

“All members of the PNC that have to use weapons against criminals due to their work as officers, should do so with complete confidence," Police Director Mauricio Ramirez Landaverde said in a press conference on January 20 (see video below). "There is an institution that backs us. There is a government that supports us."

The comments came on the same day of a reported massacre of five gang members in the state of Sonsonate. The killings -- along with similar attacks against gangs in recent days -- has fueled suspicion of the existence of death squads that target gang members in the country. Many of the suspected gang victims have died of single shots to the head, a mark of professional assassins.

One anonymous police source told La Pagina that death squads have been operating in El Salvador for the past two years, but have recently stepped up their attacks against gangs due to increased violence against police. Seven members of the PNC have been killed so far in 2015; over 30 were killed in 2014.  

InSight Crime Analysis

The Salvadoran police are in the midst of a crisis due to the wave of violence that has left many dead. Low-ranking members of the PNC have recently taken to social media to demand better protection against attacks from criminal groups, and have called for heavier weaponry to combat gangs armed with high-powered assault rifles such as AK-47s.

The police leadership is trying to take its cues from a government that has yet to settle on a clear strategy with regards to the gangs following the unraveling of a truce between the country's biggest gangs, the MS13 and the Barrio 18. That limbo -- where there is no hard or soft strategy -- has made a lot police feel vulnerable, without direction. Ramirez Landaverde's declaration appears to be aimed directly at those rank and file members, providing the type of clear cut backing they felt they were missing. 

SEE ALSO: El Salvador News and Profiles

The comments come, however, at an inopportune moment. Death squads, either within the PNC or working separately, appear to be on the rise. While not a new phenomenon in El Salvador, reports of the existence of these armed groups increased in 2014 as gang violence fueled the country's spike in homicides last year. El Salvador posted Latin America's highest homicide rate in 2014, and is now considered the world's most deadly country not engaged in war.  

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BARRIO 18 / 15 JUN 2022

El Salvador has arrested over 40,000 alleged gang members. This seems shocking but it is not without precedent in the…

BARRIO 18 / 26 JUL 2022

Almost four months into a nationwide crackdown, El Salvador's government has failed to disarm its notorious street gangs.

EL SALVADOR / 25 JAN 2022

When strolling through Las Margaritas, a neighborhood of over 15,000 people in the city of Soyapango, El Salvador, crossing paths…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…