G.R.E.A.T. stands for “Gang Resistance Education And Training,” and it’s a new program here sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and carried out by Costa Rica’s Public Security Ministry.

In El Salvador, the homicide rate has spiked to its highest level in a decade, putting the tiny Central American nation on pace to become the most deadly country in the hemisphere. Since a 2012 truce between the two most powerful street gangs crumbled last year, violence has surged.

Police in the city of San Pedro Sula told reporters that late Sunday unidentified assailants forced the victims, aged 16 to 19, to lie down in the street and then opened fire.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This year’s highly publicized influx of child migrants from Central America via Mexico to the U.S. border has sparked intense debate about the proliferation of gangs in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. But efforts by the three countries to eliminate gang violence have been ineffective and often counterproductive.