A campaign against organized crime has been launched by its president El Salvador, Nagib Boukele, with the Authorities having arrested 20,000 criminals within a month. In this context, gang members burn their tattoos so that they can avoid arrest.
«Until recently, gang members proudly displayed their tattoos, giving them status, identity, rank, and serving to intimidate their victims. Now, they burn their bodies to try to hide them“, Said the head of state via Twitter.
Boukele uploaded to Twitter photos of three alleged gang members who appear to have burns, which have not healed or are being healed, on parts of their bodies where they had tattoo. One of them, according to the APE-MPE, with burns all over his chest, is according to the police, Luis Alberto Setino Mata, known as “Shayahin”. The other two detainees, pictured in the photos uploaded by Mr. Boukele, have minor burns where they had tattoos. “They will grow old in prison. “Their crimes are not statute-barred”, added Mr. Boukele.
A wave of 87 murders in two short days
Mr Boukele declared war on the gangs following a wave of 87 killings from March 25 to March 27, attributed by his government to members of the Maras.
According to law enforcement figures, 20,290 gang members have been arrested by police and the military since launching a large-scale operation against the gangs on March 26th. This is an unprecedented number in the last thirty years in the small country of Central America with 6.5 million inhabitants.
The gangsthe most notorious of which are Mara Salvatrouca (MS-13) and Barrio 18, number around 70,000 members, about half of whom are now in prison, according to authorities.
The 40-year-old president of El Salvador, who has been in power since 2019, enjoys high popularity, mainly thanks to his promises to fight crime. But his penchant for authoritarianism has drawn criticism from political opponents, NGOs and the international community, who say it undermines democracy.
His government has been accused of colluding with the two largest gangs in the recent past, offering their leaders better prison terms, money and other benefits if they reduced violence and supported Boukele’s party. The president and other officials have repeatedly denied the allegations, despite a series of revelations in the press.
Source: News Beast
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