El Salvador fights gangs by destroying members’ tombstones

SANTA TECLA, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador's government took its efforts against the country's powerful street gangs to another level by sending inmates into cemeteries to destroy the tombs of gang members at a time of year when families typically visit their loved ones' graves.

Armed with sledgehammers and pry bars, inmates broke up tombs marked with “MS,” of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, in a San Salvador suburb Tuesday.

Santa Tecla Mayor Henry Flores said the crews had destroyed nearly 80 tombstones in the municipal cemetery and erased gang-related graffiti. “Our plan is that there is no graffiti so the people feel safe,” Flores said.

El Salvador has been under a state of exception since late March. President Nayib Bukele requested and received the special powers, which suspend some constitutional rights, after gangs killed 62 people across the country in one day.

Since then, authorities have arrested more than 56,000 people for alleged gang ties. Nongovernmental organisations have tallied several thousand human rights violations and at least 80 in-custody deaths of people arrested during the state of exception.

Authorities had already painted over or removed gang graffiti that used to be visible in neighbourhoods throughout El Salvador, but destroying gang members' tombs was a new step. It came as some Salvadorans visited cemeteries for the Day of the Dead.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.