Salvadoran authorities have deployed 8,500 military and 1,500 police officers in the municipality of Soyapango to locate several gang members.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has announced that the area, home to more than one million inhabitants, «is totally surrounded». «Ordinary citizens have nothing to fear and can continue to go about their lives normally» while «an operation against criminals, not against honest citizens» continues.
The Minister of Defense, Francis Merino Monroy, has assured that «we have twelve terrorists located», according to the Salvadoran newspaper ‘El Mundo’.
The interventions were concentrated in 40 points of the municipality. «Within the municipality of Soyapango there are 40 extraction teams. There are 40 strategic points that we are going to intervene», explained Merino.
«We are working in 40 points to extract gang members from these communities. We have 12 terrorists located there,» said the Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro.
«The operation is aimed directly against the gang members who are still hiding,» said Monroy. «We are going to withdraw from this municipality until there are no criminals,» he assured.
