El Salvador: Two Suspected Gang Members Die in Combat with the Police

Maximum emergency in prisons in El Salvador 3:33

(CNN Spanish) --

Two alleged gang members of the Mara Salvatrucha died this Wednesday when they confronted police officers when they were on patrol in the Las Lajitas canton, in the Morazán department, 171 kilometers from San Salvador, authorities reported.

According to the National Civil Police, the events occurred in an area of ​​difficult access, where they presume that the subjects were holding meetings and seized 2 firearms, two telephones and personal clothing.

• They capture 1,400 gang members in El Salvador in three days, says Bukele

The police patrols are carried out within the framework of the state of emergency approved by the Legislative Assembly early on Sunday and which, since then, has allowed the capture of 2,163 suspected gang members, President Nayib Bukele reported Wednesday.

Soldiers and police patrol the streets after the government declared a state of emergency, in San Salvador, on March 29, 2022. Credit: MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images

The state of exception, approved with 67 of 84 possible votes, has caused concern among international organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, which consider that it is repressive actions that do not solve the problem and that it opens possibility of abuse by the authorities.

• There are 62 murders registered this Saturday in El Salvador, the most violent day during the government of Nayib Bukele

Bukele, for his part, accused these organizations of defending gang members.

"Not a single word about the victims of these murderers," Bukele wrote on his Twitter account.

Nayib Bukele