Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area. Over time, the gang grew into a more traditional criminal organization. MS-13 has a long time rivalry with the 18th Street gang.
Crime in El Salvador has been historically extremely high due to the presence of various gangs. As of 2011, there were an estimated 25,000 gang members at large in El Salvador; with another 43,500 in prison. The best-known gangs, called maras in colloquial Salvadoran Spanish, are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and their rivals 18th Street; maras are hunted by death squads, including Sombra Negra. Newer rivals include the rising mara, The Rebels 13. El Salvador is one of the three countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America, along with neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, which are all afflicted with high levels of violence.
Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who is the 43rd president of El Salvador, serving since 1 June 2019. He is the first Salvadoran president since 1984 who was not elected as a candidate of one of the country's two major political parties: the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), of which Bukele was formerly a member.
Legislative elections were held in El Salvador on 18 February 2021. Salvadorans elected all 84 deputies of the Legislative Assembly, all 262 mayors of municipal councils of the country's municipalities, and all 20 of El Salvador's deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
Nuevas Ideas is a Salvadoran political party. The party was founded on 25 October 2017 by Nayib Bukele, the then-mayor of San Salvador, and was registered by the Supreme Electoral Court on 21 August 2018. The party's current president is Xavier Zablah Bukele, a cousin of Bukele who has served since March 2020.
René Francis Merino Monroy is a Salvadoran military officer who currently serves as the Minister of National Defense. He was appointed to the position by President Nayib Bukele in June 2019, becoming the first officer from the Salvadoran Navy to serve as minister of defense.
David Victoriano Munguía Payés is a former Salvadoran Army general who served as Minister of National Defense of El Salvador from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2013 to 2019.
The Salvadoran gang crackdown, referred to in El Salvador as the régimen de excepción and the guerra contra las pandillas, began in March 2022 in response to a crime spike between 25 and 27 March 2022, when 87 people were killed in El Salvador. The Salvadoran government blamed the spike in murders on criminal gangs in the country, resulting in the country's legislature approving a state of emergency that suspended the rights of association and legal counsel, and increased the time spent in detention without charge, among other measures that expanded the powers of law enforcement in the country.
Opinion polling has been conducted in El Salvador since September 2019, three months after President Nayib Bukele took office on 1 June 2019, to gauge public opinion of Bukele and his government. Despite negative reception from outside of El Salvador, domestically, Bukele is considered to be one of the most popular presidents in Salvadoran history as his approval ratings generally hover around 90 percent.
The Honduran gang crackdown, referred to in Honduras as the Régimen de Excepción, began in December 2022 after parts of the constitution were suspended to fight criminal gangs in the country.
The Terrorism Confinement Center is a maximum security prison located in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador. The prison was built from July 2022 to January 2023 amidst a large-scale gang crackdown; it was opened in January 2023 by President Nayib Bukele and received its first 2,000 prisoners in February 2023.
From March 2012 to May 2014, the Salvadoran government, the Catholic Church, and the country's two largest criminal gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang, came to a truce, known in El Salvador simply as the Gang Truce, to lower the country's rate of homicides and extortions in exchange for improved prison conditions and certain visitation privileges. The truce's principal negotiators were Minister of Public Security David Munguía Payés, former deputy Raúl Mijango, and Bishop Fabio Colindres, and the negotiations were overseen by President Mauricio Funes.
Protests against re-election occurred in San Salvador, El Salvador on 1 May 2023 and 15 September 2023. In two protest marches, protesters marched from the Cuscatlán Park and the Rosales Hospital to the Gerardo Barrios Plaza in protest of the 2022–23 gang crackdown and President Nayib Bukele's re-election campaign. Protesters also demanded an increase in minimum wage and that the government respects the rights of syndicates and respects the constitution.
The blockade of Nueva Concepción was an operation by the military and police of El Salvador against Mara Salvatrucha members operating in the town of Nueva Concepción. It began on 17 May 2023, one day after a police officer was ambushed and murdered by alleged gang members; in response to the killing, the government deployed 5,500 soldiers and officers to the municipality and announced an operation to search for the perpetrators and other gang members. Despite initially meager results, police announced on 26 May that the operation had led to the capture of fifty gang members, including the supposed killers and various gang leaders.
The blockade of the Cabañas Department is an ongoing military operation in El Salvador occurring as a part of the Salvadoran gang crackdown. On 1 August 2023, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced that 7,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES) and 1,000 police officers of the National Civil Police (PNC) had surrounded the department of Cabañas to capture gang members within the department.
Osiris Luna Meza is a Salvadoran politician who currently serves as the General Director of Penal Centers and the Vice Minister of Justice and Public Security. He previously served as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from the department of San Salvador from 2018 to 2019.
The Territorial Control Plan is an ongoing Salvadoran security and anti-gang program. The program consists of six phases and a potential seventh phase if phases one through six are unsuccessful. In 2019, the Salvadoran government estimated that the Territorial Control Plan would cost US$575.2 million in total.
Héctor Gustavo Villatoro Funes is a Salvadoran politician who currently serves as the Minister of Justice and Public Security. He was appointed by President Nayib Bukele in 2021. During Villatoro's term, he has overseen the Salvadoran gang crackdown which has since led to the arrests of over 74,000 alleged gang members as of 7 December 2023.
Jorge Alejandro Muyshondt Álvarez was a Salvadoran politician who served as a national security advisor to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele from 2019 to 2023. Muyshondt previously served as Bukele's security advisor from 2017 to 2019 while Bukele was mayor of San Salvador.
The blockade of southern Chalatenango began on 24 March 2024 when Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele ordered 5,000 soldiers and 1,000 police officers to blockade and enter the four municipalities in southern Chalatenango. The blockade is the second to be implemented in the Chalatenango Department after the blockade of Nueva Concepción which began in May 2023. The blockade aims to dismantle the 18 Sureños clique of the 18th Street gang.
