Gangs left out of peace talks
First renounce violence, says El Salvador government
AS ONE of Latin America’s most insecure and violent countries, El Salvador plans to tackle the problem through a new dialogue process that has failed to include the country’s gangs. Much to their protest, MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs have not been included in the so-called “second peace accords” mediated through the UN.
As part of the new dialogue to work towards a new national agreement on security, gangs were not brought to the negotiation table to help reduce violence and insecurity, which has risen to levels akin to civil war. The country’s main gangs, MS-13 and two factions of the Barrio 18 gang, sent a letter to the special envoy asking to be heard in the peace dialogue.
However, they asked not to have direct meetings with the envoy but instead have church groups act as mediators. The gangs had previously reached out to the government to join peace negotiations when the new dialogue was first announced.
The dialogue was launched by President Salvador Sanchez Ceren as part of El Salvador’s 25th anniversary of peace accords on January 16, which ended more than a decade of fighting between the state and leftist guerillas called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.
The UN mission, led by Benito Andion, will have the power to decide who participates in the process, according to Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez.
The government has been steadfast in its stance that there will be no future dialogue with gangs.
“Legitimacy implies being within the law, and gangs are outlawed,” said Andion in an interview with local outlet El Faro.“If they said: tomorrow we stop all violence, extortion, we stop injuring society and the production system, we want to be heard and give us a chance.Then they could be considered to enter the scheme of law and can have the rights.”
In recent years, violence and insecurity in El Salvador has hit levels similar to its civil war, with an average of 14 people killed a day in 2016.
Last week, the international spotlight also fell on El Salvador after a hippopotamus was attacked and killed in El Salvador’s national zoo.
But the 12 murders of Salvadoran citizens that took place last weekend – including the murder of a 90-year-old man, the fatal shooting of two gang members in a police confrontation and at least one death categorised as a femicide – were not covered outside of the country.
More than 5 000 people were murdered in El Salvador last year. More than 90 percent of homicides go unpunished. – Telesur