Buses running again in El-Salvador despite gang threat

A heavy police and military deployment in El Salvador on Thursday dampened an effort by gangs to halt public transport as they seek inclusion in security talks in the violence-plagued country.

Police say gang members enforcing the ban have killed seven bus drivers who defied it starting Sunday, but buses began circulating again on Thursday.

Criminal gangs have been pressuring the government to include them in a commission examining ways to stem endemic urban violence for which these same groups are responsible to a large extent.

A little more than 100 bus routes, most of them circulating in the capital San Salvador and outlying towns, faced threats from the gangs.

But now, "many companies have started working and hope that this will be normalized gradually," Deputy Transport Minister Nelson Garcia told reporters.

The government offered security personnel to help private bus companies resume operations.

Police and soldiers guarded bus stops in San Salvador neighborhoods and surrounding areas, while police patrols and military tanks circulated on the streets in the capital of some 1.8 million inhabitants.
"We will maintain security during transport as long as necessary," said Eugenio Chicas, the communications minister of the presidency.

Some companies that cover routes on the south side of San Salvador and between the capital and cities in the east of the country such as San Miguel and La Union have yet to resume work.

In areas where bus service has yet to be restored, people are moving by truck.

President Salvador Sanchez Ceren has blamed the transport-related violence on a gang called Barrio 18, and made it clear he would not dialogue with criminal groups.

The Central American nation of six million people is flooded with gangs and has faced a severe spike in violence since 2014 -- 677 homicides were recorded in the country last June with 841 people killed in March.

Since taking office last year, Sanchez Ceren has tried to crack down crime in the country and refused to negotiate with gangs.

Notorious gangs Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 (M-18) have 70,000 members in the country, 10,000 of whom are behind bars.