Reports of disappearances are up 8 percent so far this year in El Salvador compared to 2011, calling into question the achievements of a gang truce which has slashed murders by some 60 percent in the last two months.
Four years after several of its members were arrested, the Perrones, El Salvador's formidable illicit transport organization, has quietly regrouped, reestablishing its dominance in the eastern part of the country and recuperating its control of public institutions to facilitate its illicit activities, according to Salvadoran police, police intelligence documents, and media sources.
In a joint communique, El Salvador's two largest gangs have promised to extend their cease-fire to school zones, as well as bring an end to forced recruitment, a positive development allegedly brokered by the same bishop credited with bringing about an earlier drop in homicides.
El Salvador saw an average of five murders a day in April, according to police statistics, down 58 percent from the same month last year, as a ceasefire between rival gangs apparently continues to hold.
An elite police unit dedicated to dismantling "mara" street gangs has begun operations in San Salvador, as a drop in killings appears to show that gangs are behind the majority of violence in the country.
A new US-sponsored wiretapping center will begin operations next month in El Salvador, aimed at stepping up efforts against crime in the country.
After a truce between warring gangs cut murders by half in El Salvador last month, the government is moving to consolidate its security gains through work opportunities for former gang members -- but this will prove more difficult than brokering the peace deal.
El Salvador has announced the arrest of an alleged migrant smuggler who is accused of handing over a group of migrants who were murdered by the Zetas drug gang in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 2010.
El Salvador's Security Minister David Munguia said that the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs carried out half of the murders registered in the last month, despite a truce brokered between them by the Church.
After reportedly negotiating a gang ceasefire in El Salvador, the Church is now attempting to broker a reduction in criminal extortion, and the government says they are willing to facilitate the talks.
