With the purpose of eliminating “the plague of gangs” that cause damage to El Salvador and the honest population, the President of the Republic launched yesterday the Fifth Phase of the Territorial Control Plan (PCT) called “Extraction.”
The president explained that this new phase entails extracting all gang members who are still committing crimes in neighborhoods across the country.
The PCT, a security strategy implemented by President Bukele in June 2019, includes different phases, and its main purpose is to “guarantee the security and tranquility of the population.”
«We are going to launch Phase 5, but a little modified. It has two elements: one is extraction, and the other is, based on what has been learned during the regime, encircling large areas while extracting gang members,” the president said before a military contingent of more than 10,000 soldiers in the canton of Las Granadillas, in Opico.
The president explained that in this new stage of the flagship plan of the current government, which has made it possible to stop the actions of terrorist groups and imprison more than 58,000 gang members, the fence modality will be included as it was established a few months ago in Comasagua, La Libertad.
«We have included what was done in the siege of Comasagua. Municipalities will be surrounded to extract the criminals. It will not be in small municipalities but in large municipalities », he explained.
The president said that this new phase requires a lot of technology and investigation from the National Civil Police, which is going to coordinate with the Armed Forces, as they have done throughout the eight months since the War against the Gangs was implemented and the Exceptional Regime.
Bukele made the official launch of this new phase in front of more than 14,000 members of the Armed Forces, who are part of the personnel that is at the forefront in the frontal combat against the gangs.
“Some say that I am brave, but I am not brave on a par with the soldiers and policemen who risk their lives daily and who come face to face with criminals and evil,” Bukele said in front of the security forces present.
Bukele assured that “El Salvador will become an idea that any country can get ahead if it puts God in front.”