What a rough year for El Salvador
Nina Lakhani takes a look at the rough year in El Salvador with Violent deaths in El Salvador spiked 70% in 2015, figures reveal for The Guardian.
Where can I find the annual death tolls for the 12-year war? This article provides estimates of civilian and military deaths and disappearances (Low-Intensity Warfare, High-Intensity Death: The Demographic Impact of the Wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua).
What have been the emblematic cases do you think apart from San Blas? I can't say that there is a single case. If it were me, I might focus on youth and schools. This really seemed to be the year that we learned how much gang violence affected schooling. Children are not safe on their way to school as they often have to cross gang lines to go from their homes to their schools. Dozens have been killed coming and going from school. (See El Faro's new report.) You can tie that in with forced internal relocation and flight to the US. See here. Then there's the recent murder of an UCA professor. He is the third professor killed in the last five years. These UES students plan to be robbed on their way home from school if they leave after evening classes.
On the other hand, violence committed against and by security forces seems to be a pretty important story. Insight Crime has plenty of English-language coverage, including the large number of complaints of police brutality. I was also told the other day that Fortin at IML is telling people that 6,000 out of 6,600 deaths have been alleged gang members killed by police. While early on this year many of the victims do appear to have been actual gang members, the numbers are becoming less and less and that "The Fiscalia has an order to retrieve bullets from all bodies at the morgue pre-autopsy" - I hope these are not true.
What's the US said about the worsening death toll this year? I can't remember them saying much other than we will continue to work with our partners on a comprehensive plan to tackle the causes of gang violence and general insecurity. There's the new spending bill passed by Congress as well as US support through FOMILENIO II. Members of Congress did send a letter to their counterparts pleading with them, okay maybe threatening, not to reelect the Fiscalia.
How significant is it that this has been the worst year since the war - what does that tell us? It's so disappointing. El Salvador went through a rough civil war and then there was finally light at the end of the tunnel with the Peace Accords in 1992. The postwar has not been without it challenges, but the peace has held and the country remains an example to the world as to how two warring parties can lay down their arms and instead compete against each other nonviolently through the democratic process. The present is rather bleak in El Salvador but neighboring Honduras and Guatemala have demonstrated that improving homicide statistics is possible even when one has a weak government, little revenue, excessive corruption, and a host of other challenges.
Celia Medrano, chief programme officer at the human rights group Foundation Cristosal, told the Guardian: “We’re living with the same levels of human drama that we did during the 80s, but the level of insecurity and fear is actually worse because violence is spread across the country.”Nina asked me a few questions about last year but none of my responses were really quotable. Anyway, here were my answers with only minor editing.
Where can I find the annual death tolls for the 12-year war? This article provides estimates of civilian and military deaths and disappearances (Low-Intensity Warfare, High-Intensity Death: The Demographic Impact of the Wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua).
What have been the emblematic cases do you think apart from San Blas? I can't say that there is a single case. If it were me, I might focus on youth and schools. This really seemed to be the year that we learned how much gang violence affected schooling. Children are not safe on their way to school as they often have to cross gang lines to go from their homes to their schools. Dozens have been killed coming and going from school. (See El Faro's new report.) You can tie that in with forced internal relocation and flight to the US. See here. Then there's the recent murder of an UCA professor. He is the third professor killed in the last five years. These UES students plan to be robbed on their way home from school if they leave after evening classes.
On the other hand, violence committed against and by security forces seems to be a pretty important story. Insight Crime has plenty of English-language coverage, including the large number of complaints of police brutality. I was also told the other day that Fortin at IML is telling people that 6,000 out of 6,600 deaths have been alleged gang members killed by police. While early on this year many of the victims do appear to have been actual gang members, the numbers are becoming less and less and that "The Fiscalia has an order to retrieve bullets from all bodies at the morgue pre-autopsy" - I hope these are not true.
What's the US said about the worsening death toll this year? I can't remember them saying much other than we will continue to work with our partners on a comprehensive plan to tackle the causes of gang violence and general insecurity. There's the new spending bill passed by Congress as well as US support through FOMILENIO II. Members of Congress did send a letter to their counterparts pleading with them, okay maybe threatening, not to reelect the Fiscalia.
How significant is it that this has been the worst year since the war - what does that tell us? It's so disappointing. El Salvador went through a rough civil war and then there was finally light at the end of the tunnel with the Peace Accords in 1992. The postwar has not been without it challenges, but the peace has held and the country remains an example to the world as to how two warring parties can lay down their arms and instead compete against each other nonviolently through the democratic process. The present is rather bleak in El Salvador but neighboring Honduras and Guatemala have demonstrated that improving homicide statistics is possible even when one has a weak government, little revenue, excessive corruption, and a host of other challenges.
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