A city of 242,000 inhabitants completely surrounded by 10,000 members of the security forces.

This is what the residents of Soyapango, near the capital of El Salvador, discovered on the morning of Saturday, December 3.

A deployment of force which is part of the anti-gang war launched last March by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

"From now on, the commune of Soyapango is totally surrounded: 8,500 soldiers and 1,500 agents have surrounded the city" of 242,000 inhabitants, located east of the capital, wrote President Bukele on his Twitter account.

The president had announced on November 23 that towns would be surrounded, so that the military could search homes one by one and arrest gang members.

Soyapango is the first city where this procedure is applied.

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Reporters © France 24

Soldiers and police were stationed from dawn on all the access streets to the city, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving without being checked.

The security forces are responsible for arresting one by one "all the gang members who are still there", President Bukele said.

An operation to "extract" gang members

A few hours after the start of the operation, the Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro, announced that "twelve gang members have already been arrested, all with criminal records".

Military and police vehicles roamed the streets, while drones hovered over the area looking for gang members.

Forty "checkpoints" have been set up in the municipality of Soyapango, said Salvadoran Defense Minister René Merino.

"It surprised us, they ask us for our identity papers to verify our home, but it's okay, it's for our safety," said a resident, Guadalupe Perez, 53, to AFP.

The police also stop the buses, in order to check each of the passengers.

"Citizens have nothing to fear and can continue their activities in peace, reassured President Bukele. This operation is launched against criminals and not against honest citizens."

The encirclement of cities in order to "extract" gang members from them is part of the security plan launched by the government.

“People see that the measures taken are giving results,” argued criminologist Ricardo Sosa, adding that “it is not surprising that they mainly support these operations because they themselves have suffered from the gangs”.

75.9% of Salvadorans support the state of emergency and nine out of ten believe that crime has dropped, according to a survey by the Central American University (UCA).

Some 58,000 suspected members of criminal gangs, the dreaded "maras", have been arrested in El Salvador since the proclamation at the end of March by President Bukele of the "war" against these gangs, which reign terror in the country.

With AFP

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