A Deal With Gang Leaders to End Violence .. from the link ..
Two of El Salvador’s most violent street gangs are Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha. With 30,000 to 50,000 members and weaponry that includes assault-style rifles and grenades, the two gangs are virtual armies that have the power to affect the security of the entire region — and they have used it to terrorize a population still weary from years of civil war and instability.
Many gang members end up in El Salvador’s notoriously squalid prisons, which suffer from chronic overcrowding. The country’s 19 prisons were built to hold 8,000 people, but these days, 24,000 people are stuffed into them.
In March 2012, imprisoned gang leaders and the government agreed on a truce to halt street killings in exchange for better prison conditions. With a military chaplain and a former lawmaker officiating, the gang leaders held a moment of silence for the thousands of people their street armies had killed. After a few more meetings — and the government’s concession to transfer 30 of the leaders to less-restrictive conditions — they shook hands on a pact to put an end to the killings.
By August, the truce had endured and was moving the country in the opposite direction, leading to a precipitous drop in violence. But others questioned whether the government should have essentially made what some consider a pact with the devil for the public good.
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