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Caribbean & Central America - April 2016 (ISSN 1741-4458)
El Salvador’s Sánchez Cerén ratchets up pressure on gangs
“Only by means of dialogue and reconciliation, and with a spirit of national unity, could we put an end to this cruel civil war [1980-1992],” El Salvador’s President Salvador Sánchez Cerén said during a visit to the country by his Colombian peer Juan Manuel Santos on 5 April. Sánchez Cerén’s comments were eye-catching because this is the polar opposite of his government’s dealings with the mara street gangs which lie behind soaring levels of violence that are statistically on a par with the civil war. The former guerrilla commander would argue that the maras are not legitimate political actors (although many of them enrolled in the gangs because of the poverty, rampant inequality and lack of opportunities which fuelled the civil war), but his determination to intensify the conflict and wage an all-out “war” on the gangs, especially when this strategy has been found wanting for most of the last 15 years, is still striking.
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