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The Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy could face investigation over its coverage of gangs, which one of the El Salvador’s top detectives has claimed overstates the power and control of gangs in the country and instills fear among the population.
According to Hector Perla, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz, the accusation is an attempt to push back against a right-wing media campaign in El Salvador that is effectively “a psychological war of fear on the Salvadoran populace.”
Salvadoran Chief Inspector Joaquin Hernandez urged the Attorney General’s office in a letter dated Dec. 23 to open an investigation for a case of “Apology of Acts of Terrorism” against the right-wing newspaper El Diario de Hoy.
In the letter, Hernandez accused the newspaper of provoking “fear and terror” among the public by “magnifying” the presence and power of gangs in a series of stories about gang operations in the capital city of San Salvador that the newspaper published between Dec. 20 and Dec. 23.
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PNC pide investigar a El Diario de Hoy por hacer apología de actos de terrorismo https://t.co/yiQpyXePx8 pic.twitter.com/x4K5GajWno
— DIARIO LA PÁGINA (@DIARIOLAPAGINA)
January 13, 2016
“National Civil Police ask for investigation of El Diario de Hoy for making apologies for terrorist acts.”
As Perla explained to teleSUR English, the detective alleges the newspaper is guilty of creating a perception that gives gangs more power by “lionizing the gangs,” and thereby generating “fear and panic among the population.”
“It is not an attack on freedom of the press,” Perla argued, “but rather an attempt to stop the right-wing’s psychological warfare campaign designed to sow fear among the Salvadoran populace and delegitimize the FMLN government domestically and internationally.”
But Perla added that he doubts the case will get traction in the Salvadoran court system.
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El Diario de Hoy is owned by the Altamirano family, part of El Salvador’s landed oligarchy. The newspaper espoused far-right views during the country’s more than decade-long civil war and its director, Enrique Altamirano, has been implicated in financing death squads, according to U.S. State Department cables.
Perla maintains that the newspaper’s coverage demonstrates the “hegemonic power of the oligarchic press” in El Salvador.
El Salvador’s two most powerful gangs, Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, are now considered terrorist organizations by the Salvadoran government following a Supreme Court ruling last August that found that the actions of gangs “indiscriminately” affect the “fundamental rights of the population.”
The 2015 court ruling characterized “collaborators, apologists, and financiers” of gangs as terrorists as well.
El Salvador's Supreme Court has designated gang members as terrorists. | Photo: Reuters
teleSUR spoke to Nathan Weller of the solidarity organization EcoViva in August after the Supreme Court’s decision. He said labeling gangs as terrorist organizations could justify moves to combat gangs with an iron fist, without tackling the longstanding root causes of gang violence.
“Declaring the gangs terrorists may be popular publicly,” Weller told teleSUR, “but it distracts from the need to reinforce prevention, community policing programs currently in disarray, and employment opportunities for youth.”
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According to Perla, the move to characterize gangs as terrorist organizations “is part of the continued scapegoating, fear-mongering, and fear creating campaign targeting youth gangs.” He added that poor youth involvement in gangs is often the focus of mainstream media coverage, while many organized crime networks, including remnants of the old death squads, do not get media attention.
“In labeling them (as terrorist organizations) they give the legal justification to dehumanize them and declare a war against the gangs,” said Perla, adding that this leads to tough-on-crime solutions rather than approaches based on “prevention, rehabilitation, and reinsertion.”
According to Insight Crime, MS-13, Barrio 18, and other gangs in El Salvador are “rigid” when it comes to defending their turf. Navigating gang territory borders can be a challenge for people living in cities like San Salvador.
Find out the 2015 homicide rates for Latin America and Caribbean countries here: https://t.co/BUN6lXnDRe pic.twitter.com/3phjKbvqH6
— InSight Crime (@InSightCrime)
January 14, 2016
According to a study released last month and reported in El Salvador’s La Pagina, 60 percent of respondents said they felt unsafe, and 18 percent said that they had been victims of violence.
Violence in El Salvador has skyrocketed in the past year. Murder rates jumped 70 percent in 2015, making the Central American nation one of the homicide capitals of the world. Gangs are largely held responsible for the spike in violence.
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According to Perla, some “leftover networks” of civil war-era death squads, as well as private security forces that were never punished for human rights abuses, still exist in El Salvador’s “criminal underworld” and likely contribute to rampant violence.
As of now, most of the violence in El Salvador goes unpunished. Until that changes, many believe the country will never find peace.
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