14 dead in El Salvador prison gang violence – official

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador –  At least 14 inmates were killed when violence erupted between two factions of a notorious gang in an El Salvador prison on Saturday, August 22, an official said.

The killings happened in Quezaltepeque prison, north of the capital San Salvador, and were linked to an internal dispute involving the Barrio 18 gang, a spokesman for the presidency told Agence France-Presse.

An official report into the bloodshed will be released in the coming hours, said Eugenio Chicas, the communications secretary for the presidency.

The deaths underline how gang violence has made El Salvador one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

On Wednesday, police said there were at least 125 murders in just three days, a staggering toll even by El Salvador’s standards.

“These are worrisome numbers. These are Salvadorans who are dying. Regardless of who is a gang member or not,” National Police chief Mauricio Ramirez told reporters.

There were 3,332 murders between January and June, up from 2,191 a year earlier, government data show. 

The gangs have some 72,000 members, including 13,000 behind bars.

Criminal gangs have been pressuring the government to include them in a commission examining ways to stem endemic urban violence for which these same groups are, to a large extent, responsible.

Since taking office last year, President Salvador Sanchez Ceren has tried to crack down on crime in the country and refused to negotiate with the gangs. – Rappler.com