El Salvador orders maximum emergency in all prisons housing gang members

Inmates at the Izalco prison, northwest of San Salvador, during a security operation, after President Nayob Bukele decreed a maximum emergency in all penitentiary centers housing gang members. Bukele ordered the director general of Penitentiary Centers, Osiris Luna Meza, to decree a maximum emergency, following intelligence reports detailing that the recent increase in homicides in the country was registered by orders issued from prisons.

Inmates at the Izalco prison, northwest of San Salvador, during a security operation. President Bukele on Sunday also authorised the use of "lethal force" by police and military against gang members to crack down on heightened violence amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Police investigators collect evidence at a crime scene where a private security guard was purportedly killed by gang members, in San Martin, El Salvador. The Central American country reported 24 homicides on Friday, the worst one-day toll since Bukele took office in June, prompting him to order a 24-hour lockdown in prisons housing gang members.

Inmates at the Zacatecoluca prison, southeast of San Salvador. By late afternoon on Sunday, police had registered another 29 murders, prompting Bukele to introduce tougher measures against gangs he said were taking advantage of the fact security forces were busy helping to contain the virus outbreak.

Police guard inmates during a security operation in the Izalco prison in San Salvador. "The police and armed forces must prioritise safeguarding their lives, those of their companions and of honest citizens. The use of lethal force is authorised in self-defense or in defense of the lives of Salvadorans," Bukele said.

Inmates at the Izalco prison, northwest of San Salvador. The government this weekend also ordered members of rival gangs into shared cells in a bid to break up lines of communication between members of the same group, and carried out searches in at least five prisons.

A relative reacts as police investigators collect evidence at a crime scene where a security guard was killed by gang members, in San Martin. Some 12,862 gang members are incarcerated in El Salvador, prison authorities said.

Police guard inmates during a security operation in the Izalco prison in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Inmates at the Izalco prison, northwest of San Salvador, during a security operation.

Inmates at the Izalco prison, northwest of San Salvador, during a security operation.

Inmates at the Izalco prison, northwest of San Salvador, during a security operation.