EL SALVADOR’S NEW ISSUES ON VIOLENCE

Resumen

This text, based on the observation that El Salvador regularly ranks
among the most dangerous countries in the world, offers an overview
of these new issues on violence in the country. Today, although the rate
of violence has dropped by half, the number of disappearances is on the
rise. The article describes the conflict’s reconfiguration, involving new
actors, rapidly deteriorating the national equilibrium. Indeed, the maras,
urban gangs omnipresent in the North Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras,
Guatemala) saw their structures upset because of internal struggles for
power. Moreover, the civilian population, exhausted by years of violence,
supports the increasingly repressive initiatives of the government, despite
their inefficiency. The state allows, or at least turns a blind eye to, the
actions of certain groups operating outside the law to fight crime (death
squads, self-defence militias). Police corruption, abuses by security forces,
and draconian measures in detention centres undermine prevention and
reintegration efforts, as well as the truce currently in place, but with little
commentary. These factors crystallise the relationship between the public
authority and the maras, and could lead to a perilous future, with the
expected mass repatriation of Salvadorians, due to the end of the Temporary
Protection Status in the United States (TPS).