More than 10,000 members of El Salvador’s armed forces and police, backed by elite security forces, on Saturday completely closed off a city on the outskirts of the capital that is the third most populous municipality in the country, in order to persecute gang members who continue to operate in the area.
“As of these moments, the municipality of Soyapango is completely fenced off,” President Nayib Bukele reported on his official Twitter account. “8,500 soldiers and 1,500 agents have surrounded the city, while extraction teams from the police and the army are in charge of extricating all the gang members still there one by one,” he added.
Units of the Police Operational Tactical Section, accompanied by soldiers, took control of all access to Soyapango, seven kilometers northeast of the capital, which until a few months ago was one of the main gang strongholds.
inspections
All passenger and private vehicles were being inspected and people must identify themselves in order to enter and leave the area, while anti-terrorism units searched communities to locate and capture gang members.
In a message to the inhabitants of Soyapango, Bukele said that “ordinary citizens have nothing to fear and can continue to lead their lives normally. This is an operation against criminals, not against honest citizens.” Soyapango is the first municipality to be intervened.