Salvadoran govt: Gang truce hasn't worked, with attacks on police, killings up

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The government of El Salvador says the truce between the country's main Mara street gangs hasn't worked, and that killings and attacks against police have risen again.

The pacts between the Mara Salvatrucha and the rival Mara 18 gang had been widely hailed as a success in cutting homicide rates almost in half.

But the public safety and justice ministry said in a statement published Monday that the gangs have increased their violence and have adopted a policy of attacking law enforcement officers.

Since the first pacts took effect in March 2012, homicides rates dropped from 12 per day in 2011 to an average of 6.8 per day in 2013.

But in the first three months of 2014, the rate spiked again, to about 8.9 killings per day.