Just finished reading a piece in the online Salvadoran newspaper El Faro. I'll write more of the details of this later (in the evening, perhaps, once I've finished what I need to get done for the day), but I wanted to lay out the basics here for anyone who is interested. A week an a half ago, El Faro reported on an agreement between the government and street gangs intended to reduce homicides rates. According to the report, the treaty included transferring gang leaders from maximum to minimum security prisons and other benefits for these prisoners in exchange for less gang violence in the streets. That same week, the article confirms, homicide rates fell to nearly half of what they had been the week before. This, in one of the most violent countries in the when judging according to homicide rates. The government, of course, denies these claims.
Following the publication of this investigation and another that uncovered an organized crime network that involved street gang leaders, prominent businessmen, and local politicians, El Faro journalists began to received threats. In one instance, a government official told the newspaper that gang leaders were upset with these reports and warned El Faro to remember the fate of documentary film maker Cristian Poveda (who was killed by gang members after making a documentary about the Mara 18 gang).
Most recently, a bishop in the Catholic Church has taken credit for the fall in homicide rates (averaging 5 per day, rather than the 14 per day in January and February), claiming that the Church had brokered a truce between Mara 18 and MS 13. Many doubt this story, however, as an insightcrime.org article explains, because of the lack of details in the bishop's story.
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