El Salvador Asks for Help in 'Unprecedented Battle' with Gangs

The foreign minister of El Salvador, Hugo Martinez, urged the United Nations Saturday to observe the Arms Trade Treaty to strengthen the security of his country in the face of gang violence.

“El Salvador wages an unprecedented battle against organized crime,” the Salvadoran foreign minister told the summit in its New York base. “I call upon the international community to work together on the arms trade treaty and its universalization. It means no less than life or death for millions of individual.”

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Martinez’s plea comes soon after El Salvador’s Supreme Court fundamentally changed the country’s war on organized crime amid spiralling gang violence. The ruling in September redefined terrorism as any attempt to seize the state’s legitimate monopoly over the use of force, extended the “terrorist” designation to members of El Salvador’s various gangs, and made clear that any individuals or organizations associated with the gangs could find themselves facing charges of terrorism as well.

The decision was in response to gangs forcing a shutdown of public transit at the end of July for four days, paralyzing the capital city San Salvador, leaving thousands of commuters to find alternative transportation.

Martinez called on the backing of other nations in El Salvador’s struggle for security, saying that his country had in the past benefited from U.N. peacekeepers.

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“The size of the challenge makes us come to the international community to request support so we can win the battle against groups who threaten our family,” he said.

Martinez also took the opportunity to emphasise the detrimental effect debt has had on El Salvador, calling for a “restructuring of the global financial architecture” since it affects “the ability of the state to implement public investment.”

The Central American nation’s minister ended his speech calling for the lifting of the U.S. economic blockade on Cuba, and declared that the resumption of relations between the two nations has already had a “positive effect on the region.”