Honduras has passed on the unenvied
title of the world’s most murderous country to its neighbour El Salvador. In
the first 9 months of this year, there have been 4,930 killings in a population
of 6.5 million – giving El Salvador a murder rate 20 times that of the United
States.
A large part of the country is
controlled by gangs, who recruit children in primary schools and extort money
from businesses. It is estimated that nearly 300,000 people were forced to flee
from their homes last year.
The violence got worse when the
government withdrew its support for a truce between the gangs in the run-up to
last year’s presidential election. During
the ceasefire, killings had dropped by nearly two-thirds, but the gangs carried
on with their extortion rackets, which made the government look weak.
Now police and soldiers are trying to
try to wrest back control of neighbourhoods, so far with little success. The
Roman Catholic Church has tried to resurrect the truce, but for the moment, the
president is refusing to talk to the gangs.
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