{"id":19415,"date":"2017-01-16T05:58:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T05:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=19415"},"modified":"2017-01-16T05:58:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T05:58:19","slug":"el-salvador-marks-grim-milestone-first-murder-free-day-nearly-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/el-salvador-marks-grim-milestone-first-murder-free-day-nearly-2-years.html","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador marks grim milestone: Its first murder-free day in nearly 2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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El Salvador marks grim milestone: Its first murder-free day in nearly 2 years<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

El Salvador, one of the world\u2019s most dangerous places, for the first time in nearly two years passed an entire day without a homicide.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rare reprieve last Wednesday signaled a possible benefit from the recent truce between warring gangs. The country sees an average of 14.4 homicides a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

El Salvador’s rate of 81 murders per 100,000 residents, on average, is more than 10 times worse than that of St. Louis, the USA\u2019s deadliest city, which in 2014 recorded 8.8 murders per 100,000 residents, according to the FBI.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chicago, which has made headlines over the past year for epidemic violence, saw 6.3 murders per 100,000 residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time El Salvador went a full day without any killings was Jan. 22, 2015, according to The Associated Press. Police said they’d already recorded 99 murders in the first 10 days of 2017, The New York Times reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

While El Salvador\u2019s homicide rate fell by almost one-fifth last year, the Central American nation is still one of the world’s most violent. President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a former guerrilla, took power in 2014 with the aim of confronting the gangs, NBC News reported. Efforts were stepped up after a massacre last year, in which gang members used guns and machetes to slaughter 11 people.<\/span><\/p>\n

A military counteroffensive has helped reduce killings, the government said, but three main gangs \u2014 the Mara Salvatrucha, Barrio 18 Revolucionarios and Barrio 18 Surenos \u2014 last March said the crackdown was unnecessary because they had agreed to a non-aggression pact<\/span><\/p>\n

Howard Cotto, the director of the National Civil Police, told reporters on Thursday that violence had begun to decline last year: 2016 ended with 5,278 murders, 20% fewer than in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The killings resumed on Thursday, police said, when two gunmen riding a motorcycle fatally shot an off-duty police officer north of the capital, San Salvador. Also, the owner of a San Salvador car wash was killed in a suburb, The Times reported. Police suspected that her death was related to extortion payments often demanded of business owners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/2017\/01\/15\/el-salvador-first-day-without-homicide\/96620346\/<\/span><\/div>\n

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