El Salvador - August 2023

President Nayib Bukele’s government has imposed a military siege on the department of Cabañas, one of El Salvador’s 14 administrative regions. According to Bukele’s statements on social media, the objective of the operation, which involves 7,000 military and 1,000 police officers, is to prevent gang members from fleeing and to cut their supply lines. Even though the government has carried out similar operations in towns and cities since it first declared a state of emergency in March 2022, it is the first time this kind of operation is implemented in an entire administrative region, which has a population of around 150,000 people.  

Sources: El Pais, Al Jazeera