The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, shared images on his social network accounts of gang members from groups such as the MS-13 and Barrio 18 that would have burned the tattoos on their body to avoid being identified by the authorities in the midst of the increase in arrests of those suspected of being part of these entities.
“Until recently, gang members proudly displayed their tattoos, it gave them status , identity, rank and served to frighten their victims. Now they burn their bodies to try to hide them… In the same way, they will go to jail to age. His crimes do not prescribe”, reads one of the official’s posts on Facebook.
The post includes three photos of alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio gangs 18.
The material shared by the top leader of the Central American country has been added to a chain of content on social networks for weeks to highlight what the Bukele Administration calls the “war against gangs” or against “terrorists”.
The war against the Mara Salvatrucha attracted particular attention in September 2020 when the opposition newspaper El Faro published an alleged agreement that the Bukele government had with that group to reduce homicides in exchange for alleged prison benefits. At that time, the president authorized the repression against gang members in prisons. Images of overcrowded inmates in maximum security prisons traveled the world.
At the end of March of this year, the same policy of strong hand was resumed as a result of the state of emergency approved by the Congress of El Salvador at the request of Bukele.
Bukele’s behavior continues to be questioned by foreign governments and human rights organizations on the grounds that the authorities could be detaining innocents.
Furthermore, critics of Bukele’s measures argue that under the exception regime there would be violating the fundamental rights of citizens.
The irony is that the majority of Salvadorans do not question or see badly the actions of the Bukele Administration in its attempt to maintain security in the country. The results of a CID-Gallup survey published last week showed that 91 % of those interviewed approved of the measures imposed by the Government .
A report by The New York Times this week confirms that in the poorest towns of El Salvador, gang members are in charge, which in turn generates a feeling of impotence that would explain the support of citizens to the president’s strategy.
“In these communities, people have already been under an exceptional regime,” said Edwin Segura, head of an investigative unit of La Prensa Gráfica, one of the most popular Salvadoran newspapers.
“People say: ‘well, if I’m going to change, I’m going to pass from the authoritarian and homicidal hands of the gang into the authoritarian hands of the State, well, I’ll take it’”.
This Wednesday, the president of El Salvador attributed to the National Civil Police and the Armed Forces Armada capturing more than 20,000 alleged gang members.
“Our Police National Civil and Armed Forces have passed the 20,000 captures since the beginning of the #GuerraContraGangs. Until 7 p.m. of this day, the total number of captured terrorists is 20,290, in just 33 days. The balance of imprisoned gang members, after 30 years of suffering the scourge of these terrorist structures, was 16,. In just 33 days, we have brought that number to more than 36,000.
We continue …”, read another publication on their social networks.
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