Salvadoran Presidential Contest To Be Decided In A Runoff

Vice President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) won El Salvador’s Feb. 2 presidential election by an unexpectedly solid margin but fell just short of the 50% plus one valid vote needed to avoid a runoff.

Gang Truce Faces Hurdles In El Salvador

An experimental “tregua” (truce) signed last year by rival street gangs has cut El Salvador’s horrific homicide numbers by more than half. A remarkable turnaround for a country that until recently had the world’s second highest per capita murder rate, the Salvadoran experience is inspiring similar efforts in Honduras. Guatemalan leaders are taking note as well, prompting some wishful thinkers to contemplate a “second peace” for Central America.

Gang Truce Cuts El Salvador’s Murder Rate By 40%

Nine months after agreeing to an historic truce, jailed leaders from El Salvador’s largest street gangs say they are ready to curb more than just killings – at least in a handful of strategic “peace zones.” Before moving ahead with the experimental plan, however, the notoriously violent maras, as the groups are known, want the government to do something in return: repeal its repressive “anti-gang law.”

What’s Next For El Salvador’s Life-Saving Gang Truce?

A tenuous truce between rival street gangs has held up for four months and counting, halving El Salvador’s horrific homicide rate and raising hopes among some daring optimists of a lasting “peace process.”

Tenuous Gang Truce Halves Homicides In El Salvador

Salvadoran gang members surrender weapons (Departamento de Seguridad Publica OEA)

Something remarkable recently occurred – or rather didn’t occur – in violence plagued El Salvador. On April 14, for the first time in nearly three years, police did not record a single murder. For a country that normally counts its daily homicide figures in double digits, the sudden absence of murder reports wasn’t just good news; it was huge news.