The area of the Tutunichapa community, in this capital, has dawned surrounded by the military presence of more than 1,000 soldiers and 130 police agents in search of gang members and to break up drug sales.
President Nayib Bukele announced this morning the “Cerco Tutunichapa”, and said that the Cerco Soyapango is maintained.
“All terrorists, drug traffickers and gang members will be removed from this community, until a few months ago a stronghold of crime. Honest citizens have nothing to fear and can continue to lead their lives normally,” warned the president.
The area is known for the sale of illegal drugs at retail. In addition, canine agents who have detected marijuana hidden in some homes also participate in the operation. The PNC already reports the first captures.
Since last Saturday, December 3, the most populous municipality in the country, Soyapango, in the department of San Salvador, was besieged by more than 10,000 soldiers and 1,500 police officers, to begin phase 5 of the government security plan called Control Territorial. The presence of the authorities is still maintained in that area.
The objective is to hunt down and capture the remnants of gangs in the country.
“Never in the history of our country, had such a number of troops been concentrated. The mobilization of a complete division of the Army was only in manuals, but it had never been done in El Salvador. This is also an unprecedented logistical achievement,” the president reacted upon learning of the first 140 captures that the operation left behind, two days after being in Soyapango.
The arrests take place under an exception regime, which was established at the end of March of this year.
The war against the gangs has consisted of five stages: the first was the preparation of the security forces; the second was based on social investment in children and youth; the third, focused on the modernization of Police and Army equipment; the fourth, in the increase of personnel in the corporations of public order; and the fifth, called the “extraction phase”.
