El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world. So far, an average of 10 people a day has been murdered in the country, but last Wednesday no murders were reported.
Most of the violence is caused by criminal gangs, which are known as Maras, and they operate across Central America. As for why there was a lack of violence on Wednesday, the police didn’t have an explanation.
Howard Cotto, the director of the National Civil Police, spoke with local reports and said police registered 99 murders during the first 10 days of the year. Cotto noted that last year, violence started to decline. The year ended with 5,278 murders and the average was more than 14 per day. However, that was still 20 percent less than 2015.
Director de la Policía Nacional Civil @Cotto100 confirma que ayer no se registraron homicidios en el país. pic.twitter.com/yOm3tjuxrW
— M_JusticiaSeguridad (@MiSeguridad_SV) January 12, 2017
El Salvador has 81.2 murders per 100,000 residents. This is compared to England’s homicide rate of about one in 100,000 inhabitants, while the United States is about five in 100,000 inhabitants.
Between 2011 and 2012, Honduras was the most murderous nation in the world. National data showed that El Salvador’s murder rate surged past Honduras in 2015.
A lot of the violence in El Salvador can be traced back to the the country’s civil war, which ended in 1992. The civil war drove thousands to seek refuge in America.
