Salvadorean police count two murders in "crime-free" district

A man's bruised body was found on 11 February in the district of Ilopango outside San Salvador, suggesting a second killing in recent days in one of the districts gangs had pledged would be free of violence, La Prensa Gráfica reported on 12 February. The body indicated the victim had been strangled and possibly stabbed to death and initial police investigations suggested gang involvement; gangs reportedly told police they had nothing to do with the first killing in this district, of an 18-year-old boy on 3 February. Ilopango was among the safe zones listed in the second phase of a national plan to disarm and pacify the Mara gangs. The mayor of Ilopango who has coordinated the ceasefire between gangs locally and the Justice Minister did not immediately attribute the crime to anyone. The minister David Munguía Payés reportedly declared however that police counted 76 homicides in El Salvador in 2013 to 10 February, 263 fewer than for the same period in 2012. La Prensa Gráfica separately reported the arrests on 10 or 11 February of six presumed gang members as they raped a 16-year-old girl, in the district of Apopa north of San Salvador. Three of the detained were described as "minors," presumably children or teenagers.