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.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) announced the detention of 792 alleged gang members in a nationwide raid, including alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18.
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.
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.
Recent reports that dangerous Guatemalan street gangs from the MS-13 are teaming with even more dangerous Mexican criminal organization the Zetas are still as unfounded as when this was first reported several years ago.
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.
Despite President Mauricio Funes' denial that his government struck a deal with gang leaders to lower homicide rates in return for better prison conditions, it is now clear that someone in the administration helped broker this truce, setting what could be a dangerous precedent for dealings with gangs regionwide.
Representatives of the rival MS-13 and Barrio-18 gangs in El Salvador have confirmed the existence of a truce between them, negotiated with the help of the Church.
