El Salvador Has First Murder-Free Day Since 2009

No one was murdered on Saturday in El Salvador. Unfortunately, that is a newsworthy event since it is the first time in nearly three years that the Central American country has gone a full 24-hours without a report of a murder.

According to Reuters, it isn’t unusual for El Salvador to see dozens of murder reports a day due to the violent drug gangs that roam the country.

President Mauricio Funes said that it was the first murder-free day since he took office in June 2009. Funes said:

“After years when the number of murders reached alarming levels of up to 18 per day, we saw not one homicide in the country.”

When Funes took office, El Salvador has an average of 12 murders per day. That number rose to 18 earlier this year. El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world. According to the United Nations, the Central American country has a homicide rate of 66 per 100,000 people.

Much of the violence in the country is blamed on the drug gangs. Reuters reports that two of the country’s most powerful gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and gang Mara 18, called a truce earlier this month. Funes, however, believes that the murder-free day was the result of increased security measures around the country.