E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Jose Cabezas / AFP - Getty Images
Members of the Mara 18 gang, attend a mass at a jail in Izalco, El Slavador, on April 13. They were giving thanks for the recent gang truce.
SAN SALVADOR -- No one was murdered in El Salvador on Saturday, officials said, in what was the first homicide-free day in nearly three years for the Central American country plagued by violent drug gangs.
"After years when the number of murders reached alarming levels of up to 18 per day, we saw not one homicide in the country," President Mauricio Funes said in a statement released on Sunday.
The murder-free day was the first recorded since leftist Funes took office in June 2009. At the beginning of his term, the country had an average of 12 murders a day, but that tally climbed closer to 18 per day in early 2012.
Rival gangs operating in El Salvador called a truce last month and bloodshed between the country's two most powerful gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and gang Mara 18, has abated.
According to United Nations data, El Salvador has recently tallied a homicide rate of 66 per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world.
Much of that violence is blamed on Mexican drug cartels that use the country as a transit point.
Mockumentary but no laughter: Child actors shame Mexico
Funes, who attended this weekend's Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, credited his government's security measures for the drop in violence.
Funes has recently ordered the military to pick up routine security duties.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
I thought this was going to be about the USA. Wishful thinking.
In a way the story is connected to the USA. During the El Salvador revolution many salvadorian families fled to the USA and many of their children grew up to become inner city gang members. Later when they were deported kids in El Salvador began to idolize these gang members and eventually almost overnight in fact gangs became a culture.
Me too. That will never happen. We need more guns.
According to some unreliable sources we're at 45 per day.
Do the demographics of those doing the murders in this country.......poor attempt at trying to make this country look bad. Will you vote for obama again?
I knew wasn't the U.S., msnbc was on the air. They would have found one, fabricated one or dug up one from the past and reported it as it just happened.
Back to El Salvador, truce day is over, back to business as usual.
That's what I thought, too. Wow...an entire day without a murder in the U.S. What? El Salvador? Why do we care?
sam adams, we don't need more guns. we just need to do a better job of taking them away from honest citizens and getting them into the hands of criminals. (sarcasm) then you misguided liberals will be happy. you idiots come out of the woodwork at every opportunity. our guns keep keep us safe from criminals and our government from taking all of our freedoms away. that's why the 2nd amendment allows us to own guns. wake up!
Its like at work the day after someone gets hurt they write on the board, 1 accident free days.
You would have to end Abortion with that gun ban if you want to end murder.
Ooooooops, truth bomb.
When was the last year the good ole USA had a murder-free day, 1900???
Apparantly Funes is a little bad at math.............18 is higher than 12...........so it has gotten worse not dropped........must be an election year.
Ummmm...no. More like an opinion bomb.
dman1115 (#1.6): We care because our gangs are the cause of their gangs that have run rampant and created such crime in El Salvador to begin with. And we care because it is basically a miracle for their country to not have a single murder in a day, seeing as how they have a homicide rate that is many times that of the U.S. (which has a rate of something like 5 per 100,000), and no one thinks the U.S. would ever experience a murder-free day. It's really quite something to take in, and is certainly news-worthy.
So in your opinion ending life is not killing life? I know it's hard for people to not admit what it really is because you support it. However face the facts if you end life you are killing someone.
I am not against abortion if you want to kill your baby go ahead, it's your choice. Just don't pretend it's something other than what it is.
That's your opinion. Can a fetus survive outside the womb (and I'm not talking 7 months along as I expect would be your first argument)? In my opinion, you can't kill something that isn't capable or breathing or eating on it's own yet.
Support your opinion all you like, just be prepared for others to voice their opinion on the matter. If it were fact, as you claim, then you can drop your "truth bomb". Until then, your just supporting your stance on something that is still undecided.
And there is your "oooops, truth bomb.
Can you survive without food or water? There are necessities for all life to survive. Every single form of life is supported by something else right? It's still life.
No I am not going to use any form of age argument because it's irrelevant. It is a fact that an abortion ends life. How is that a stance that is still undecided?
The opinion is that a fetus is not human.
I am not against abortion like I said and it's not against the law. It's a choice people are free to make. You are not going to jail for having an abortion, and I wouldn't judge someone for having one. However it's still ending life and there is no changing that fact, no matter how you try and rationalize it.
It's not an easy decision to make luckily people are free to make it for themselves.
It is still very undecided, your opinion or view on the matter does not make it fact. A truer statement would be that abortion ends the potential for life. A fish egg can sit in a dry riverbed for years without food or water. The potential for life is there as long as certain circumstances are met, but until it is hatched, it is still just a potential fish.
"In my opinion, you can't kill something that isn't capable or breathing or eating on it's own yet"
So a newborn that can't eat on its own isn't human? And if the doctor doesn't open the airway when you come out of the womb means your lifeless?. Ahh I'm sure you mean that a fetus that is still in the womb that is actively obtaining nurishment from it mother is lifeless... Well hell let get even more basic than that. A single cell oganism is better than that of a fetus cause... because???
Not better, per se, but a single cell organism is self sustaining. A fetus, of any species, is a symbiote or parasite, that connot survive without the host.
And I never said a fetus isn't human. A fetus is a human embryo. I said, in my opinion, that a fetus is not a life yet, it is, to me, the potential for life.
I never had planned to visit there before, but now, it certainly is not on my list. I hope they get this in check better. Those gangs think they are above the law. They need to be taken down. Kids should not idolize gang members. I would like to think there are things we can do to stop this.
In those countries gangs are above the law, they have so much power that they threaten the government officials. It is also a great source of revenue for those countries. The taliban are actually not that different from these gangs with their opium trade.
Well at least they go to church on Sunday. I think laughter is the best medicine in this case- the prison authorities should sew dark blue ovals on their yellow shirts and label them the Chiquita bunch until they renounce gang membership.
it may be murder free but that doesnt exclude massive beatings lol
Either increase the murder rate of these scum or force these porch monkeys to get vasectomies!
Yep, keep those borders open. Thats a lot of what we are getting. Arizona now is first in Home invasions, and Second only to Columbia in kidnappings. over 90% committed by illegal aliens. Yet if they try to address it (because Obama wont) they are called racists.....
Sad fact is, over 80% of those crimes are committed on Hispanic Americans. So I guess in reality, the liberals that dont want to address it are the racists?
If obama/holder have their way, these vermin will be voting this november.
Must have been giving away free cheese......
I'm sure it wasn't murder free, they just haven't found the victim(s) yet.
Oh, Darn. I thought they were taking about Chicago. First read was that not possible, second confirmed not possible for Daly-land to be murder free for one day.
now if only the u.s. could have a murder-free day. i wonder how many years it has been.
Not to worry brothers and sisters, unless we can get those jackasses in Washington off their asses and DO SOMETHING, we all can have this standard of living 5-10 years from now.
Pipe, I think it too late. We so far in debt we can never get out. The so called Jackasses are simply there to find ways to spend us deeper in debt. We recently find out they are making a million a year for themselves, none for anybody else. The real problem.
Sad isn't it? At 5-10 I was thinking like an optimist, one of my faults. Hope our children will forgive us.
i understand that the Vatican also had a murder free Saturday.
It is obvious that Obama's strategies are working.
Great day for El Salvador. Hopefully it will happen here, too.
I guess Holder hasn't opened up his gun shop there yet.
He will as soon as he figures out how to get the guns past the Mexicans without them hijacking the shipment before it reaches the hands of thier southern niegbors.
So they've had at least one murder per day for the past three years, and what's the population of El Salvador? Sounds like murder might be in the top 5 leading causes of death there!
According to a 2009 census, pop of El Salvador is just shy of 6 million people; 2m less than New York City. Can NYC go a day w/o a killing?
We Salvadorans have been living in fear for a long time. We used to fear the government's police and death squads. Then the U.S. began deporting the youngsters who had fled there for safety during our civil war. These kids had joined gangs in L.A. or while they were in jail for petty crimes and their expertise came home with them.
Our current government is making a concerted effort in our small country, about the size of Massachusetts, to end the reign of terror that the gangs have visited upon hard-working poor people. Despite the ignorant and sarcastic postings above, we are a proud people struggling to raise and educate our kids, create jobs for all our citizens, and make a better life for all. We are not going around the world waging war. We don't meddle in other countries' internal affairs. We don't isolate countries whose political ideology does not suit our sensibilities. We are not international bullies. We don't cry about the price of gas ($4.73 regular, $4.93 high test, $4.48 diesel) and blame President Funes for it. We have no kooky Tea Parties and we don't have a death penalty. We have God in our schools. God on our radios. And God in our news reports. So we don't need any Chiquita Banana comments about our prison inmates.
So let me get this right, your kids came here illegally and joined gangs? So in no way where they planning on being productive citizens, they became thugs or continued being thugs and you want to whine about them being deported. I take it you live here in the USA and you are bitching... Maybe you should entertain the thought of going back to your beloved country.
Sounds like they need a good dose of an operation fast and furious of thier very own, compliments of the Obama administrations Eric holder and the good old dept. of justice. That way America's NRA, second amendment, gun manufacturers, dealers, and owners can take the fall for all of thier gun related misuse and tradgedies too, just like Mexico.
Meanwhile, in El Salvador there's someone, somewhere reading this story, grinning and saying to themself "Ha, ha! Fooled ya!"
And to kountryking, I wish you all the luck in the world. It really sucks that the drug cartels, and the education your youth got courtesy of some time as illegal aliens in the USA are terrorising your country. Seriously. I'm glad that you still have God in your lives -- even though we have "In God We Trust" on most of our currency, every day more and more here in the USA would like us not to have even that reminder that this country was actually founded as a haven for religious freedom.
Well really they did have a murder everyday for last three years..2012 is a leap year (extra day Feb. 29th).
USA one of the most violent coutries on the earth.........and all you guys can do is make jokes about it or blame the president or some other BS......
I guess he can't stand the fact that the gangs called a truce and his leadership had nothing to do with it!! And, we still need to get the guns out of the criminals hands if you want to see murder-free days here or get them out of the hands of racist, community watch people!!!!
It won't matter, if someone wants to murder they will murder. Cars, knives, ballbats you will never stop it.
Everyone needs to take a day off sometime.
when I read the headline, I thought they were talking about the United States....
El Salvador is a stunningly beautiful country, full of friendly people. I know this because I have been there. I’m not saying they do not have their share of violence, who doesn’t? Saying you would not go there due to gang violence would really be the equivalent of a foreign visitor choosing not to come to America because there are dangerous gangs in L.A. and on average, across our nation there are 45 murders a day.
The gangs Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 originated in L.A. (See the National Geographic Documentary called “World’s Most Dangerous Gang”). They did not originate with the purpose of being violent or running drugs; that is what they have evolved into.
I think it is all too easy for people living in developed nations to condemn the actions of others because we have never had to look our starving children in the face and tell them we cannot feed them, not because we are lazy and choose not to work but because there is no work and the few jobs there are do not pay sufficient for even basic necessities. For many people, gangs and drug running start out as nothing more than a way to provide for their families and as a possibility of a better life. The reality however, is much different.
We can blame the gangs, we can blame political parties, we can blame government, we can point our fingers at different nationalities but the fact is we are all to blame. It is entirely too easy to disassociate ourselves from the plight of billions of people on this planet because we have the advantage of simply being able to power off our TV’s, to “Click” to happier news… and while that may appease our conscience because it is no longer in our face, the rest of the world continue to live that reality each and every day. What we need is not a better government, or better police forces, or less immigration but for each of us to simply be better, more caring people… If we could just do that, maybe others would not have to take such drastic measures to obtain what some of us take for granted…
Just take the gang bangers you have locked up now and kill them. Once the jail fills up with more gang members simply escort them to the jungle and kill them. Eventually no one will want to join that gang and the problem will be solved. Show them the same pity they show their victims - None