Bukele closes with 10,000 police and soldiers a large Salvadoran city to catch "one by one" all the gang members of the maras

By Marcos Aleman -

More than 10,000 Salvadoran soldiers and police, supported by the elite forces of the security services, completely closed a city on the periphery of the capital, which is the third most populous municipality in the country, this Saturday to arrest gang members.

"As of these moments, Soyapango is totally

," said the president, Nayib Bukele, on the social network Twitter.

And he added: "8,500 soldiers and 1,500 agents have surrounded the city, while the extraction teams of the police and the Army are in charge of extricating all the gang members that are still there one by one."

Operation of the Salvadoran security forces in Soyapango on December 3.

Salvador Melendez / AP

Police and soldiers controlled all access to Soyapango, five miles northeast of the capital, which until months ago was one of the main gang strongholds.

were being inspected and people

to enter and leave the area, while anti-terrorism units searched communities to locate gang members.

"Ordinary citizens

and can continue to lead their lives normally," Bukele said, "this is an operation against criminals, not against honest citizens."

Soyapango, with more than a million inhabitants, is the first municipality intervened by Bukele in the fifth phase of the Territorial Control Plan —called “extraction”— against the gangs.

The Minister of National Defense, Francis Merino Monroy, explained to the journalists that "

" teams were located at 40 strategic points;

in the first hour 12 people were arrested.

March in El Salvador against arbitrary arrests during fight against gangs

Nov 17, 202200:47

Bukele announced at the end of November that he would intensify the persecution of the gangs and would resume the experience of the military siege set up in the municipality of Comasagua, south of San Salvador, to capture those responsible for the murder of a peasant.

He warned that fences will be imposed in big cities regardless of criticism from human rights defenders.

That heavy-handed policy was accentuated after 62 homicides were reported on March 26 in a single day.

Congress, at Bukele's request, approved a declaration of a

to combat gangs that limits freedom of association, and suspends the right of people to be informed of their rights and the reason for arrest, and the

.

Since the beginning of the state of emergency, more than

of belonging to gangs or collaborating with them have been captured, according to the Government.

Social organizations have said they have documented more than 4,000 cases of

during those eight months and say they have reports that at least 80 people have died in custody.

According to official statistics, from January 1 to November 30, 598 homicides were registered, 43% less than the 1,052 in the same period of 2021.

The

are involved in drug trafficking and organized crime.

They extort merchants and transport companies, and kill those who refuse to pay, according to authorities.

gangs terrorist groups

.

In his sentence, he declared the leaders, members and collaborators terrorists.