Security & Strategic Review - August 2005

EL SALVADOR | Army reserves mobilised against crime. In late July, following the publication of police statistics showing that the number of homicides in the first half of this year up 32% on last year, President Elí­as Antonio Saca has ordered the mobilisation of about 1,000 army reservists and 1,100 police academy cadets to reinforce the police in the country's 20 most violent municipalities. The number of homicides in the first six months of the year rose to 1,715, or 36.5% more than in the same period of 2004, and equivalent to an annual rate of 52.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.