They discover a grave in El Salvador where they would have buried victims of the Barrio 18 gang

The Security authorities of El Salvador located and began excavations in a clandestine grave left by gangs in a town near the capital, where they buried their victims, a spokesperson for the Police Workers Movement (MTP) told EFE.

Marvin Reyes, representative of the MTP, confirmed the above and pointed out that “a clandestine grave is indeed being excavated” in an area known as Cumbres de San Bartolo, in the district of Tonacatepeque.

He argued that In this area they had a stronghold of “the strongest” the Barrio 18 gangSureños faction, and that said discovery “is part of 51 graves that have been located nationwide in various departments.”

“It was already known and they have begun to carry out excavations to locate victims who had been executed and buried there by members of this gang,” he said.

Reyes indicated that the Salvadoran gangs, which according to the Government are operationally dismantled due to the emergency regime that has been implemented since March 2022, They used these types of places to hide the bodies of their victims.

“In the country we have consequences of the actions of the gangs and this is a method that they had used to hide the bodies, burying them in clandestine cemeteries, to prevent them from being located by the authorities and being counted as homicides,” he said.

He maintained that with this they prevented “the sector from being filled with police, from carrying out searches, raids and arrests.”

Meanwhile, Idalia Zepeda, from the Salvadoran Association for Human Rights (ASDEHU), told EFE that her organization “I had requested months ago that an inspection be carried out” and excavation efforts in the area.

“The Prosecutor’s Office has not communicated to us directly what findings they have had or what progress the process has made,” said the human rights defender and called for genetic samples to be taken from the searching mothers to have “a bit of truth and justice.” in these cases.”

The latest public official data on this topic show that about 150 clandestine gang cemeteries found since 2014 in various parts of the country, with more than 220 victims of homicidal violence.

In El Salvador, after Nayib Bukele came to power in 2019, the numbers of missing people, clandestine cemeteries and any type of violence were kept secret by the security authorities, the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.

According to an investigation by the Foundation for Studies for the Application of Law (Fespad), between 2019 and June 2022, 6,443 cases of missing persons were registered, of which 2,400 have not been located.

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