El Salvador, one of the world’s deadliest countries, has recorded a rare day without a single homicide.
National Civil Police commissioner Howard Cotto said at a news conference on Thursday that no murders were reported the previous day in the gang-plagued Central American nation.
The last time the country went a full day without any killings was January 22, 2015, according to records kept by The Associated Press. It also happened once in 2013 and on two days the year before that.
The police did not offer any explanation for the lack of violence on the day, local media reported, but authorities clarified that they had not restored a controversial truce with the gangs.
Director de la Policía Nacional Civil @Cotto100 confirma que ayer no se registraron homicidios en el país.
Mr Cotto said at the beginning of the month that steps taken by the government to combat the country’s violent street gangs, known as Maras, helped to cut the homicide total by 1,378 from the previous year to 5,278, a decline of 20.7 percent.
The commissioner said then that the government’s plan to target 10 municipalities where violence was particularly acute had yielded “very palpable” results.
The nation of about 6 million people averaged 14.4 murders a day last year.
Mr Cotto said that to date 99 homicides have been reported so far this year, representing a downward trend in homicides since last year when, on the same date, approximately 250 had been reported.
Homicides fell by about 20 percent in 2016, but it was still one of the most violent countries with 81.2 murders per 100,000 residents.
By way of comparison, per 100,000 inhabitants, Britain’s homicide rate in is about one, the United States’ is about five, and Brazil’s is 25, according to the latest available data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Neighboring Honduras had held the distinction of being the most murderous nation between 2011 and 2012, according to figures compiled by the United Nations. Respective national data showed El Salvador’s murder rate surging past Honduras in 2015.
Much of the violence that plagues El Salvador, driving tens of thousands to seek refuge in the United States, can be traced back to the country’s civil war that ended in 1992.
(This article was retrieved from The Telegraph)