El Salvador’s feared gangs extend truce to schools
Quezaltepeque.- El Salvador’s powerful gangs or Maras have pledged to end the forceful recruitment of young people and declared schools to be “zones of peace” in an unprecedented move linked to a March truce.
“We hereby declare the abolition of all forms of involuntary recruitment of minors and adults,” said Victor Antonio Garcia, leader of the Mara-18 gang, at a press conference at the jail where he is being held outside San Salvador.
The Mara Salvatrucha, the country’s other main crime syndicate, has also agreed to the move. The two gangs have some 32,000 members — 10,000 of them in prison — engaged in illicit trades like drugs and extortion.
The two gangs are known for being especially violent, and largely account for the tiny Central American country’s soaring homicide rate, high even by the standards of a region gripped by drug violence.
Since the announcement of the truce the average daily homicide rate in El Salvador has dropped from 14 to five, according to police.
You may be interested

Death toll rises to 58 due to liquor adulterated with methanol
The Tico Times - January 20, 2021At least 58 people have died since October in Costa Rica from the consumption of alcoholic beverages adulterated with methanol,…

Costa Rica not planning to require negative test for entry
Alejandro Zúñiga - January 20, 2021Costa Rica is not planning to require that tourists test negative for the coronavirus before entering the country. The Tourism…

Panama to receive reduced first batch of Pfizer vaccines
AFP - January 20, 2021Panama on Wednesday will receive its first 12,840 doses of Pfizer's vaccine against Covid-19, a much smaller shipment than expected,…