Soyapango Operation In El Salvador, Soldiers Patrol Where Gangs Once Ruled.

AFP

Mauricio González, an evangelical pastor in a Salvadoran town overrun by violent street gangs, says life there used to be terrible. 

In his La Campanera neighborhood in the town of Soyapango on the outskirts of San Salvador, he was threatened with death by gang members for preaching to young people. "The gang didn't tolerate it. So I left and didn't come back,” González said, Bible in  hand.

He said that for a decade  no one from his church had dared to venture to La Campanera, where mostly factory workers live. But that changed this weekend when 10,000 soldiers and police officers, many armed with assault rifles, surrounded the site. town and began patrolling its streets, going from house to house arresting suspected gang members. 

Here the gang that runs things is called Barrio 18, "barrio" means neighborhood. It's one of the most violent gangs in El Salvador." Before, not even the cold god saved us from the gangsters.

Today is different, said González, who is 52 years old. In fact, González arrived in La Campanera on Sunday with about 30 members of his church to preach. The massive security operation, which began on Saturday, was part of a state of emergency declared by President Nayib Bukele this spring following a spike in gang violence. 

The president  last month announced a plan to use troops to surround cities while conducting house-to-house searches  for gang members. Soyapango is the first city  to be subject to this approach. 

On Saturday,  authorities reported just 12 arrests in the Soyapango operation. But on Sunday, police said they had arrested a senior Barrio 18. They identified him as Guillermo Alexander Pineda, aka "Lazy," and said he  ordered assassinations and extortions across the country. 

On Sunday, a group of soldiers were positioned on the only road leading to La Campanera and searched everyone who entered or left, whether on foot or in cars. Apartments in this working-class area.

Residents walked around relaxed and shopped at the street stalls. There used to be far fewer such vendors, as the merchants could not afford the extortion payments demanded by the gangsters. they are now,” said Etelvina Rosas, 36, who sold fruit. “Today everything is safer. People are happy to do business.

You don't see young people on the street," he said, referring to the gang members. He said he had to bribe gangs on several occasions. Since Bukele declared a state of emergency in March, more than 58,000 suspected gang members have been arrested, the government says, although humanitarian groups have questioned what they say could be a heavy-handed tactic. between March 25th and 27th. 

Despite opposition from humanitarian groups, Congress extended the emergency order through mid-December. Soyapango Mayor Nercy Montano said last week that government action in the city had significantly improved security. - War Zone - On the road leading to La Campanera there is a settlement called Las Margaritas, which is historically  controlled by a gang. named Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13,  the nemesis of Barrio 18. At least six armored cars were visible on one of the streets of Las Margaritas on Sunday. "Our orders are not to let a single terrorist into Soyapango," a soldier, who  declined to be named.

Gangs in El Salvador, known as maras in Spanish, typically paint walls with distinctive graffiti to mark their territory, but in Las Margaritas, authorities have erased the writing. said Mirna Polanco, a 24-year-old college student,  as I walked down the road that connects Las Margaritas to La Campanera, which used to be a war zone due to the shootings between the two gangs. Polanco said: "We will  not leave Soyapango until we have caught the last gang member," said Defense Minister René Merino.