Security Update (Wed)

The government of President Elí­as Antonio Saca is about to implement a new approach to its campaign against the 'mara' street gangs. Its key feature is that the gangs will henceforth be treated as manifestations of organised crime. It will also include the precise targeting of gangs on which police are able to collect enough evidence to ensure that charges can be filed against those arrested — an indirect admission that the judges have been right in arguing that releases of arrested suspects were usually inevitable because the police had furnished insufficient evidence.