Editing Armed Forces of El Salvador (section)

=== Crackdown on gangs ===
{{Main|2022 Salvadoran gang crackdown}}
Beginning on 25 March 2022, three days of gang-related violence occurred that left 87 people dead.<ref name="france24.com">{{Cite web |date=10 April 2022 |title=Más de 9.000 pandilleros detenidos en El Salvador en 15 días, dice Bukele |url=https://www.france24.com/es/minuto-a-minuto/20220410-m%C3%A1s-de-9-000-pandilleros-detenidos-en-el-salvador-en-15-d%C3%ADas-dice-bukele |access-date=21 April 2022 |website=France 24 |archive-date=21 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421024739/https://www.france24.com/es/minuto-a-minuto/20220410-m%C3%A1s-de-9-000-pandilleros-detenidos-en-el-salvador-en-15-d%C3%ADas-dice-bukele |url-status=live }}</ref> In response, President Bukele asked the Salvadoran parliament to ratify a state of emergency.<ref>{{cite web |title=El Salvador declares state of emergency after gang killings |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/el-salvador-invokes-state-of-emergency-after-62-killings-in-a-day |access-date=21 April 2022 |website=www.aljazeera.com |archive-date=5 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220405234029/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/el-salvador-invokes-state-of-emergency-after-62-killings-in-a-day |url-status=live }}</ref> On 26 March, Bukele also ordered the police and army to initiate mass-arrests against those responsible for the violence.
[[File:Elementos de seguridad en CECOT.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Soldiers and police officers]]
A day later, [[Legislative Assembly of El Salvador|Congress]] approved a [[state of emergency]] that gives legal coverage to arrest any citizen suspected to be a gang member even with no proof. In addition, Congress also approved reforms to increase the maximum sentence for gang member from nine to 45 years in prison and punish the dissemination of gang messages, including independent journalism talking about the gang crisis, with up to 15 years in prison.

The law was directed against those who "mark" their territories with acronyms of the gangs, a practice that gang members use to intimidate, and threaten with death those who denounce them to the authorities. The Directorate of Penal Centers began to erase the graffiti that the gangs use to mark the territory in which they operate.

The [[MS-13|Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)]] and [[18th Street gang|Barrio 18 gangs]], among others, were estimated in 2022 to have around some 70,000 members, and as of August 2023, around 72,000 people have been sent to prison as a part of the government crackdown on the gangs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://diario.elmundo.sv/politica/asi-procesaran-a-los-71976-detenidos-en-el-regimen-de-excepcion|title=Así Procesarán a los 71,976 Detenidos en el Régimen de Excepción|trans-title=This Is How They Will Process the 71,976 Detained in the State of Exception|language=es|date=25 July 2023|access-date=8 August 2022|work=[[El Mundo (El Salvador)|El Mundo]]|first1=Jessica|last1=Guzmán|archive-date=25 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230725195654/https://diario.elmundo.sv/politica/asi-procesaran-a-los-71976-detenidos-en-el-regimen-de-excepcion|url-status=live}}</ref>