Anywhere else this triple murder would be leading news bulletins for days
Here is one of the stories behind my post on Where to be young is a crime. It's from Nina Lakhani writing for The Mirror - Life in the world’s murder capital - families living in fear of the street gangs and the army.
It's also not entirely clear how connected the strategic manipulation of violence at the national level and the letter that reached authorities seeking some sort of truce are to last week's transportation fiasco. That threat was attributed to the revolutionary faction of the 18th Street gang. But what that means is debatable, of course, since members of the MS-13 were involved as well.
It's almost as difficult to understand the government's strategy as it is those of El Salvador's gangs.
The boys’ brutal deaths were blamed on gangs, but their relatives remain unconvinced.
The alternative explanation is, however, even more terrifying.
Five days before they were shot dead, around 50 soldiers and police officers came to the house at 2am and caused chaos.
They dragged the boys from their beds, kicked them to the ground while accusing them of being gang leaders and hiding weapons.
For almost three hours the boys were beaten while the house was searched.
The family say they were made to lift logs above their heads and Brandon was water boarded.
“They pushed his head into a plastic bag full of water, demanding he give up the weapons but he didn’t have any,” said Mayra.
The officers had no ID and did not have a court order. They found nothing, and made no arrests. Five days later, the boys were dead.Homicides decreased by 33 percent in July (compared to June), but it is difficult to attribute the decrease to better policing. The decrease comes after gangs reached out once again to the State, this time through the Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Ciudadana y Convivencia. The escalation in violence in May and June, followed by a significant reduction in July, appears to have been part of a strategy by the MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs to force the government into some sort of change in policy. Whether that is a similar formal pact such as occurred in 2012 or simply the transfer of inmates, I don't know.
It's also not entirely clear how connected the strategic manipulation of violence at the national level and the letter that reached authorities seeking some sort of truce are to last week's transportation fiasco. That threat was attributed to the revolutionary faction of the 18th Street gang. But what that means is debatable, of course, since members of the MS-13 were involved as well.
It's almost as difficult to understand the government's strategy as it is those of El Salvador's gangs.
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