Salvadorean gangs “have a strategy to penetrate key state institutions”
Not only have El Salvador’s street gangs abandoned their truce; they have also embarked on a strategy of penetrating institutions of the State, including the military and police, as well as targeted civil organisations. That, at least, is what Ricardo Perdomo, the justice & public security minister of the outgoing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), maintains. His claims, come against the backdrop of another increase in the number of homicides which could wipe out much of the improvement attributed to the truce between the two main gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS) and Mara-18 (M-18).