El Salvador: Violence Continues Unabated Since Gang Truce

Violence continues to rise in El Salvador, which has overtaken Honduras as the country that reportedly has the world’s highest murder rate. A truce between the country’s two main gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, began to fall apart last year. The country has reported over 4,200 homicides in the first eight months of the year, surpassing last year’s total figure. That comes out to 17.5 murders per day. According to authorities, 80% of the homicides are related to purges and score settling between the gangs that are made of approximately 60,000 young people. teleSUR