El Salvador deploys 10,000 troops to surround Soyapango city in massive gang crackdown

In what may appear to be a massive crackdown on gangs, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced on Sunday that around 10,000 soldiers have been deployed around the city of Soyapango and all the roads leading to the city have been blocked.

The special forces have been ordered to search houses for gang members, and police officials are checking the identity of everyone trying to leave the city and checking identity papers.

'Soyapango is totally surrounded', tweets El Salvador President as thousands of troops surround the city

Taking to Twitter, President Bukele shared the image of heavily armed soldiers lined up outside the city and wrote, "As of this moment, the municipality of Soyapango is totally surrounded." Extraction teams from the police and the army are tasked with tracking down all the gang members still there one by one." He further maintained that ordinary people "have nothing to fear" and said that the ongoing clampdown was part of "an operation against criminals, not against honest citizens."

Crackdown on gangs in Soyapango city

This operation is part of a massive crackdown on gangs to control the surging cases of violence. The Justice Minister confirmed that at least 12 people have been arrested so far, and officials are hunting more gang members involved in criminal activities. Soyapano, one of El Salvador's most populous cities, has a population of nearly 3 lakh people. The city is spread across 13 kilometers (8 miles) west of San Salvador and has a long history of gang activity.

Ever since Bukele announced a state of emergency in late March, nearly 60,000 people have been detained by authorities in this country of 6.5 million people. The opposition and right-wing groups, on the other hand, have strongly criticised the idea of a harsh crackdown, claiming that the operation has resulted in arbitrary detentions because police are arresting suspects without warrants or full evidence. However, the supporters of Bukele have stated that this crackdown is an important initiative after a surge in criminal activities was recorded including the murder of 62 people in a single day on March 26. Recently, a poll taken by the Central American University (UCA) suggested that 75.9 percent of people living in El Salvador support the state of emergency and strong measures against gangs.

Image: Twitter/@Nayibbukele