Salvadoran gang crackdown

Rare card · No. 68011

A crackdown on gangs began in El Salvador on 27 March 2022 in response to a series of homicides committed by criminal gangs between 25 and 27 March 2022 which killed 87 people. After the killings, the Salvadoran government declared a state of emergency that suspended several constitutional rights and enabled the government to launch mass arrests of suspected gang members. The crackdown and state of emergency has since been extended 56 times as of 21 October 2026. In El Salvador, the crackdown has been called the "State of Exception" (Spanish: régimen de excepción) or the "War Against the Gangs" (guerra contra las pandillas). The State of Exception allowed authorities to make arrests without a warrant and gave the government access to citizens' communication. As of 21 October 2026, over 93,334 people accused of having gang affiliations have been arrested, which has overcrowded El Salvador's prisons and has led the country to have the highest incarceration rate in the world by 2023. As of...

Read on Wikipedia · Image La Prensa Gráfica Noticias de El Salvador, CC BY 3.0