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Gang wars in El Salvador, bloodiest year

Gang violence continues to claim more lives in El Salvador, after the collapse of the truce.

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Members of the New Reaction Special Forces, a unit of the army created to fight the gangs, train in an army base in the outskirts of San Salvador. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
By Manu Brabo
Published On 16 Sep 2015

San Salvador, El Salvador –  The government-brokered ceasefire between the two largest gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street Gang, has failed and violence is skyrocketing in El Salvador once more.

In May, 635 gang-related homicides were reported, according to official figures. In June, the number rose to 677, and in August, a record number of violent murders took place for over the course of three days.

RELATED: El Salvador’s murder rate: a record high

This summer has seen the highest number of homicides since the end of the bloody 13-year civil war in 1992. In fact, with around 700 murders a month, the numbers of victims in 2015 closely resemble those reported during the most violent months of the war in 1981.

RELATED: As murders soar, El Salvador gangs want to talk truce

The security measures implemented by the new government of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, have been ineffective against the chaos and the violence which overwhelm the poorly prepared police department struggling to gain control over the situation.

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The critical situation in the country began with the collapse of the truce between the gangs in El Salvador. Elements of the Airborne Infantry, the Special Forces and anti-terrorist forces have come together to create a special army unit to fight the gangs. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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A crime scene in the town of Soyapango. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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Members of the 18th Street Gang in a detention cell originally built for 20 people, which now holds 130 inmates at the police station in Soyapango. Overcrowded jails have left gang members stuffed in dungeons at police stations. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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At least 26 police officers have been murdered by the gangs since January. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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Relatives, friends and colleagues of Carbin Aguilar, a police officer killed by gang members, attend his funeral in Santa Ana, the second largest city in El Salvador. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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A suspected gang member is arrested during an operation of the Fast Response Corps of the police force known as 'Halcones' - the Falcons - in downtown San Salvador. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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Members of the Falcons on a mission in San Salvador. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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A member of the Fast Response Corps checks a block of houses in search of gang members. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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A woman breaks into tears, while her son identifies the body of a relative who fell victim to the gang war, at the Legal Medicine Institute in San Salvador. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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Dozens of pictures of missing people hang inside a showcase at the forensic department in San Salvador. Every month, hundreds of relatives come here looking for their missing family members. The luckiest ones find the remains, the unlucky ones simply leave a photo in hopes of finding some information. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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Around 900 civilians were killed by the El Salvador army in 'El Mozote', in one of the biggest massacres of the civil war. Many bodies have yet to be identified. Remains found in the 'El Mozote' mass graves are being analysed at the Anthropologist Forensic Department of San Salvador. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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Member of 18th Street Gang and MS-13 are handcuffed at the main police station of Soyapango after being arrested in a police raid. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]
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More than 3,800 people have been killed in El Salvador this year, with August being the bloodies month since the 1992 UN-brokered peace deal that ended the country's civil war. [Manu Brabo/MeMo]