The deputy director of investigation for the Salvadoran National Civil Police (PNC), Howard Cotto, claims that authorities believe imprisoned gang leaders are contacting gang members on the outside and directing them to attack security forces. In remarks to
Deputy director of prisons, Nelson Rauda, backed the claim, saying that authorities had intercepted letters from mara leaders which contained a call to attack “members of the Salvadoran Armed Forces, the PNC, prison staff members, as well as judges and prosecutors.”
It is true that the Central American country’s gangs are a growing security threat. As reported,
Despite the threat they pose to citizen security, the non-hierarchical nature of
What’s more, the lack of details released by both Cotto and Rauda make their claims difficult to take seriously. For one thing, neither official made mention of which particular street gang was behind this strategy. It could be that this omission was due to security considerations, but it casts the authenticity of the claim into question.
Ultimately, the remark could have more to do politics than with the reality of gang violence in the country. The PNC is currently in the middle of a major anti-corruption purge which has resulted in the investigation of more than 1,600 officers for misconduct. As such, the claims may simply be designed to garner public sympathy for the police, in an attempt to cast the police force as the “good guys.”
Mara attacks on police officials are more likely to take place on an individual basis, and to come in response to direct interference with the gangs’ activities. Ironically, such interference does not always come in the form of justice or strict law enforcement, a point which could backfire for the PNC. It is just as likely that a gang would target police in retaliation for a crackdown as it is that they would target them for charging too much for a “cut” of the action, or for entering into an alliance with a rival gang.
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