The Government of El Salvador has recovered more than 11,000 houses occupied by alleged gang members, within the framework of the war against the bands decreed three years ago by President Nayib Bukele, the Ministry of Housing reported Friday.
On March 27, 2022, in response to 87 homicides registered the previous weekend, Bukele established an exception regime to combat gangs, which controlled 80 % of the territory.
We have recovered more than 11,000 homes nationwide, says the Ministry in a report.
The police and the army were deployed in gang -controlled neighborhoods, which facilitated the recovery of houses occupied by alleged gang members or abandoned by their owners.
Bukele’s war has brought thousands of alleged gang members to prison and has allowed a considerable reduction of homicides. However, it is criticized by human rights groups that claim that it does not respect civil freedoms and that there are many innocent behind bars.
Gangs are financed with extortion and drug sales, but also with the rent of usurped housing they offered for rent, according to the authorities.
90 % of recovered homes needed improvement; 60 %were totally or partially dismantled, the ministry said.
In the neighborhoods, the gangs had submitted by the fear of the inhabitants, and the government attributes more than 120,000 homicides in the last three decades.
The Police and the Army have arrested more than 86,000 alleged gang members, although about 8,000 are already released after being declared innocent.
For fear, thousands of families left the houses that were paying the state Social Fund for Housing (FSV) on credit.
Apart from the houses returned to their legitimate owners, another 9,044 that had not been paid were sold to working lower income families with FSV credits, the ministry said.
To this end, the FSV allocated 119 million dollars for credits without a premium and an annual interest of 2 %.
The recovered houses were mainly in the departments of San Salvador and La Libertad, in the center of the country, and Santa Ana and Sonsonate, in the west.
With the exception regime, homicides fell from 106 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 1.9 in 2024.