El Salvador
Boosts National Police To
Fight Crimes
San Salvador - El
Salvador's National Civilian Police (PNC) on
Monday formally drafted 519 new officers
under a presidential commitment to reduce
crime, the PNC said in a statement.
The recruitment represented an immediate
3-percent boost to the PNC's existing
17,000-strong force, according to reports
reaching here.
The new recruits will serve in capital city
San Salvador and across five other
departments as part of a strategy
implemented by new President Mauricio Funes,
who took power on June 1.
All of the new officers are graduates of the
National Public Security Academy (ANSP) and
at least 480 more ANSP graduates are
programmed to join the force this year, ANSP
director Jaime Martinez told local media.
A further 330 students have entered the
academy and are set to enter the force in
2010, with further recruitments planned, he
added.
At present, the nation witnesses an average
of 11 murders a day, many of them linked to
an aggressive international criminal gang,
Mara Salvatrucha, which originated in the
U.S. city of Los Angeles in the 1980s, but
has spread to Central America, other parts
of the United States and Canada.
|
