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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Army
Joins Fight Against Crime in El Salvador
By Laura Barros
SAN SALVADOR – Around 4,000 Salvadoran
soldiers left today, under orders from
President Mauricio Funes, for areas with a
“high crime rate” to combat violence and
reduce the number of homicides, a move
greeted by the public with a mixture of hope
and skepticism.
In an attempt to control crime, which causes
14 deaths a day in a country of 6.1 million,
Funes, whose leftist FMLN party is descended
from guerrillas that fought the army during
the 1980-1992 civil war, called on the armed
forces to provide backup for the police.
Some 2,500 soldiers will join the between
1,200 and 1,300 troops that since June 18
have participated in mixed units with the
PNC national police, which had been
overwhelmed by the wave of homicides and
reports of extortion.
The country has seen 3,673 slayings in the
last 10 months, more than in all of 2008,
according to official figures.
Transit workers report that around 11,000
buses pay between $5 and $8 per day in
protection money to the gangs blamed for the
122 murders of drivers, conductors and bus
company owners registered so far this year.
“We’re living under exceptional
circumstances that lead us to use the armed
forces,” Funes said Thursday in a statement
to reporters.
Funes has said that the soldiers, who will
be deployed to five of the nation’s 14
provinces including San Salvador, will have
the power to search people and vehicles,
arrest criminals caught in the act, guard
“blind spots” on the border, provide
security in jails and provide land, sea and
air support.
But some like the Rev. Jose Maria Tojeira,
chancellor of the Jesuit-run Central
American University, or UCA, said that the
decision contains an element of
“propaganda.”
“I don’t believe that the presence of
soldiers will contibute greatly to the
diminishing the violence. It could have a
dissuasive effect in some places where
soldiers are stationed, but nowadays crime
has the ability to get organized, to move
elsewhere,” he told Efe.
He said that what is required is a
“systematic, consistent” policy against
crime that would include such preventive
measures as a ban on bearing arms, promoting
work for young people and the
“technification” of the PNC in areas like
investigation.
“It’s more of the same,” said Benjamin
Cuellar of UCA’s Human Rights Institute,
recalling that for “more than 15 years El
Salvador has been patrolled by the
military.”
He expressed his concern that this “de facto
state of siege,” far from diminishing the
violence, will only exacerbate it.
He pointed out that in countries like Brazil
and Mexico the use of troops for law
enforcement has significantly increased the
violence.
Nonetheless, about 94 percent of the
inhabitants of the Greater San Salvador area
support troops patrolling the streets,
according to a recently published survey, as
do most politicians.
“What is most important is to know that the
Salvadoran people trust us and we’re going
to try not to disappoint them,” Defense
Minister David Munguia Payes said.
In fact, certain elements in the right-wing
ARENA party, now in opposition after nearly
20 years in power, are openly backing the
presidential decision. EFE
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