Security & Strategic Review - January 2007

EL SALVADOR | New prison massacre revives calls for reform. For the second time in a little more than two years, a massacre resulting from a prison riot has prompted authorities and politicians to consider reforming the country's overcrowded prison system. The riot, which apparently started on 6 January as a confrontation between members of the Mara 18, one of El Salvador's biggest street gangs, and other inmates of the Apanteos prison, claimed 21 lives. It was only quelled after the prison service called upon the police for support and hundreds of officers of the élite Unidad de Mantenimiento del Orden (UMO) were rushed in. About 100 of the Apanteos inmates were later transferred to the Centro Penal de Occidente in Santa Ana. Critics have been noting that little has changed in prison conditions since the country was shocked by a similar episode in the La Esperanza prison in Mariona, in August 2004, when 31 inmates were killed and 30 were injured. The anti-mara drives conducted by the Flores and Saca administrations have greatly increased the prison population with the mass incarceration of street gang members. Close to 3,000 are currently behind bars.

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