News Summaries in January 2024
“The Dark Side of El Salvador’s War on Gangs,” Agence France-Presse, Jan. 31, 2024 The regime of President Nayeb Bukele has rounded up more than 75,000 suspected gangsters, a move credited with slashing homicide rates in El Salvador. It’s praised for “restoring security and dignity to citizens of what was once one of the world’s most dangerous countries,” writes Agence France-Presse reporter María Isabel Sánchez. But at the same time, innocent people and their families are paying a terrible price under the crackdown, says Sánchez. Sandra Hernandez said her husband, a day laborer, was taken by the police and never returned. She said her husband was falsely accused of gang membership. She was informed by authorities he had died of kidney failure. “But at the funeral home I was told that the body had bruises,” she told Agence France-Presse. Maricela Mendez said she was awakened by police in the middle of the night and taken to prison, and her children, aged 7 and 11, sent to stay wi...