The government of El Salvador continues to crack down on gang crime with all its might. On Saturday (3rd), more than 10,000 members of the armed forces and police, along with elite security forces, surrounded the city of Soyapango.
It is the second most populous municipality in the Central American country – with more than one million inhabitants – and the first to be included in the fifth phase of the government-sponsored plan for territorial control – the so-called extraction.
The government is trying to find the whereabouts of the criminals who are still at large and to press ahead with their imprisonment.
“As of this moment, the community of Soyapango is completely surrounded,” President Nayib Bukele reported on his official Twitter account. “8,500 soldiers and 1,500 police officers have surrounded the city while the police and army take out the remaining gang members one by one,” he added.
Soyapango, located seven kilometers northeast of the capital, was one of the most important gang strongholds until a few months ago.
For this reason, both units of the police tactical task force and soldiers were mobilized. The operation is led by the Ministers of Security, Gustavo Villatoro, and Ministers of National Defense, Rear Admiral Francis Merino Monroy, and the Director of the National Civil Police, Commissioner Mauricio Arriaza Chicas.
With information from latinapress