El Salvador Has Its First Murder-Free Day In Three Years

Business Insider
Sanya Khetani

El Salvador received some much-needed good news this weekend, when officials announced that Saturday was the first homicide-free day in the country in three years, Reuters reports.

"After years when the number of murders reached alarming levels of up to 18 per day, we saw not one homicide in the country," President Mauricio Funes said in a statement released on Sunday.

The central American country has been plagued by drug wars for years, but last month, a truce was brokered by the Catholic church (with help from the government) between Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18, the country’s two most powerful rival gangs, Salvadorian newspaper Contrapunto reports. However, Funes credits the drop to increased security measures.

At the beginning of Funes’ term as president in 2009, El Salvador saw an average of 12 murders a day, and according to statistics from the United Nations, the country’s homicide rate is 66 deaths per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world. Much of the violence is blamed on Mexican cartels, who use the country as a transit point.

The Catholic church is reportedly now in talks with gang leaders to eradicate extortion, which mainly affect small and medium entrepreneurs. If it goes well, it could dramatically improve the country’s economy by attracting foreign investment, according to the president of the Central Reserve Bank (BCR), Carlos Acevedo.

U.S. Air Force C17 transport caught smuggling arms and drugs into Argentina

Aletho News

Argentina’s foreign ministry has issued a press release stating that it will be making a formal protest over undeclared weapons and drugs brought into the nation at Ezeiza last Thursday.

A manifest provided by the US did not list war materiel and drugs which were seized by Argentine authorities.

Among the confiscated materiel were communications interception equipment , encrypted communications equipment, sophisticated GPS devices, high power rifles, a machine gun and narcotics as well as a full trunk of expired pharmaceuticals including stimulants. All boxes had the stamp of the 7th Army Airborne Brigade based in North Carolina.

The Argentine government estimates the value of the goods and the C17 transport expenses to exceed $2 million.

The unreported contents also included an odd brochure with the phrase “I am a United States soldier. Please report to my embassy I have been arrested by the country.” translated into fifteen languages.
US documents described the shipment as intended for an Argentine government approved Federal police training course.

Argentina reiterated that it does not wish for the internal security practices of Rio’s favelas or El Salvador’s gangs to be the model for the Argentine nation.

The Argentine government will be suspending the police training program.

Argentina’s ambassador to the US described the situation as “a shameful embarrassment” before returning the cargo to North Carolina.

It is noted that any Argentine, civilian or military, who attempted to smuggle weapons and drugs into the US would be arrested immediately.