Lawmakers in El Salvador on Friday passed a law imposing heavy prison restrictions on convicted bosses of the violent gangs that have made the country one of the most dangerous in the world.
The new measures, valid for a year, include boosting security and monitoring in seven penitentiaries where the criminal leaders are held, limiting their movements and family visits, and forcing telephone companies to block cellphone signals in the facilities.
The imprisoned crime bosses would also be required to take re-education and rehabilitation courses.
President Salvador Sanchez Ceren is to sign into action the government-sponsored law, which aims to prevent locked-up gang leaders from continuing to give orders to their followers on the outside via smuggled phones.
El Salvador's vice president, its minister of justice and security, and its minister of defense sat in as the text was passed by 83 of the 84 lawmakers present in the unicameral congress.
The justice and security ministry has the power to apply the law to other prisons in the country if it deems it useful.
"We want to make it clear that we don't see this law stopping the violence. But it is a new weapon in the battle that we are going to wage and win against the gangs," said the deputy speaker of the chamber, Guillermo Gallegos.
- Gang 'truce' -
The law's passage has unnerved El Salvador's main gangs. Nearly 20 percent of the country's estimated 70,000 gang members are behind bars.
A week ago, three of the gangs called a temporary halt to murders by their members while urging the government to drop the "unconstitutional" crackdown measures.
But the head of the police force, Howard Cotto, rejected any negotiations with the gangs. And the defense ministry has ordered the deployment of 1,000 army reservists to prisons to back up police and prevent the gangs from trying to get around the crackdown.
More than 6,600 people were murdered in El Salvador last year, with the government reporting that most were victims of gang violence. Police say the killings have ticked up even further this year, with an average of 22 people slain each day.
The nation's per-capita homicide rate of 104 per 100,000 inhabitants is the highest in the world for a country not at war.
El Salvador along with neighboring Honduras and Guatemala make up what is known as Central America's "Northern Triangle" -- a trio of countries scarred by past civil wars in the region and which are prey to ultra-violent gangs imported from Los Angeles' mean streets and US prisons.
Lawmakers in El Salvador on Friday passed a law imposing heavy prison restrictions on convicted bosses of the violent gangs that have made the country one of the most dangerous in the world.
The new measures, valid for a year, include boosting security and monitoring in seven penitentiaries where the criminal leaders are held, limiting their movements and family visits, and forcing telephone companies to block cellphone signals in the facilities.
The imprisoned crime bosses would also be required to take re-education and rehabilitation courses.
President Salvador Sanchez Ceren is to sign into action the government-sponsored law, which aims to prevent locked-up gang leaders from continuing to give orders to their followers on the outside via smuggled phones.
El Salvador’s vice president, its minister of justice and security, and its minister of defense sat in as the text was passed by 83 of the 84 lawmakers present in the unicameral congress.
The justice and security ministry has the power to apply the law to other prisons in the country if it deems it useful.
“We want to make it clear that we don’t see this law stopping the violence. But it is a new weapon in the battle that we are going to wage and win against the gangs,” said the deputy speaker of the chamber, Guillermo Gallegos.
– Gang ‘truce’ –
The law’s passage has unnerved El Salvador’s main gangs. Nearly 20 percent of the country’s estimated 70,000 gang members are behind bars.
A week ago, three of the gangs called a temporary halt to murders by their members while urging the government to drop the “unconstitutional” crackdown measures.
But the head of the police force, Howard Cotto, rejected any negotiations with the gangs. And the defense ministry has ordered the deployment of 1,000 army reservists to prisons to back up police and prevent the gangs from trying to get around the crackdown.
More than 6,600 people were murdered in El Salvador last year, with the government reporting that most were victims of gang violence. Police say the killings have ticked up even further this year, with an average of 22 people slain each day.
The nation’s per-capita homicide rate of 104 per 100,000 inhabitants is the highest in the world for a country not at war.
El Salvador along with neighboring Honduras and Guatemala make up what is known as Central America’s “Northern Triangle” — a trio of countries scarred by past civil wars in the region and which are prey to ultra-violent gangs imported from Los Angeles’ mean streets and US prisons.
