Police Arrest Dozens of Suspected MS Gang Members in El Salvador Raids

Probably the main reason why Central Americans are flooding into the USA is because most of Central America is run by violent gangs of drug traffickers. Rape and murder is common in most cities and it is almost impossible for a teenager to grow up without being recruited into a gang, whether they want to or not.

This is a good sign that at least one government is tackling the issue, although I would be more convinced if some of the arrests had occurred in San Salvador. 5 clans raided out of 600 or so, is a small beginning, but a beginning. 

Will this begin to clean up El Salvador, or will it start an all-out war on the feds?

By Renzo Pipoli

El Salvadoran police captured dozens of suspected gang members during raids across the country Tuesday.

Photo by Rodrigo Sura/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- El Salvador police arrested dozens of suspected members of the country's most dangerous gangs during coordinated raids Tuesday, officials said.

Police captured 37 suspected MS (Mara Salvatrucha) members early Tuesday through registrations and home searches in different municipalities, the prosecutor's office in San Salvador said. Local media reported high numbers of arrests, with diverse counts.

The prosecutor's office said dozens of arrests were made through coordinated, simultaneous operations, all involving alleged MS gang members and crimes including homicide, extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping, theft and terrorism.

A total of 227 arrest warrants were issued and directed against the MS and Barrio 18 gangs as part of the operation, Salvadoran newspaper El Mundo reported. Five different clans belonging to the two gangs were targeted, it said.

The arrest warrants are associated with 90 homicides, 47 cases of extortion and four kidnappings. Three other cases involved conspiracy to commit homicide and drug trafficking.

The gangs operated in the regions of Santa Ana, La Libertad, San Vicente, Cuscatlan, Cabanas, San Miguel and Morazan, El Mundo's report said.

One-hundred people were arrested, including the 37 cited by the prosecutor and others that resulted from operations in other regions, ElSalvador.com reported. El Salvador saw a murder rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, but that figure fell to 60 per 100,000 last year, the report noted.

The MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs have some 600 clans, or subgroups, throughout El Salvador. The country's government blames the two groups for most of the violence in the Central American country.

MS 13 originated in Los Angeles in the 1970s and later spread to other parts of the world -- Central and North America and Europe, with some members operating in Italy and Spain. In the U.S., the group's largest presence outside California is in Texas, and members are also found in several eastern states from Georgia to New York.

The gang is said to have been originally created by undocumented immigrants who wanted to protect themselves from other gangs in Los Angeles. It gained strength during the 1990s after it added some troops who were trained by the United States military during the civil war in El Salvador.

U.S. deportations of Salvadorans in recent decades contributed to the strengthening in Central America. Many of the migrants leaving Central America now do so because of the widespread violence.

The USA should be helping Central American governments, including Mexico, re-take their countries from the criminals who control it. It is the best thing they can do to slow the flow of migrants. And then they should help rebuild their economies.

Mass ‘Religious’ Suicide, or Murder? 11 Bodies Found in India’s Capital

A policeman writes notes in the house where the bodies of eleven members of a family were found dead © Stringer / Reuters

An Indian family of 11 has been found dead in New Delhi, with 10 members blindfolded and hanging from a ceiling. Initial reports indicate a twisted spiritual mass suicide attempt, but police aren’t discounting other possibilities.

The bodies of seven women and four men were discovered in the Burari suburb of the Indian capital on Sunday by their neighbor, who called the police in shock over what he has witnessed.

When authorities arrived at the scene, they discovered 10 blindfolded bodies, with cotton stuffed in their ears, hanging from an iron grille in the home’s courtyard, suspended by cables and 'chunnis' (scarves with religious motifs), local media report. The body of an 11th person, reportedly in her seventies, was found strangled and lying on the floor of the house.

The victims, which police say belonged to a single family, are believed to have committed a mass religious suicide, as authorities failed to discover any forced entry, gunshot wounds, or anything that would clearly indicate a homicide.

Instead, according to reports, law enforcement discovered handwritten notes, which indicated that the family had meticulously prepared for the “mass salvation” and had carefully examined ways of hanging themselves. No suicide notes were found at the scene. Only a dog inside the house survived the mass murder.

Based on the evidence, the victims were in “observance of some definite spiritual or mystical practices,” police said in a statement, according to AP. “Coincidentally, these notes have strong similarity with the manner in which the mouths, eyes, etc. of the deceased were tied and taped,” the statement added.

While police await the autopsy reports on the victims, including two 15-year-old boys, authorities have not discounted homicide as a possible cause of death. Treating the incident as a murder case, law enforcement teams are now analyzing call records from the victims' mobiles for possible clues and are interviewing witnesses. “It is still too early (to know what happened). It is an ongoing investigation and we haven't ruled out anything,” a police source told AFP.

According to one version of the events, shared with India Today by an anonymous police source, the mass suicide unfolded after family members were served sedatives with their dinner. Then at least one of the family allegedly proceeded to blindfold the rest of the unconscious victims before hanging them.

Death of Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman Ruled a Homicide

By Daniel Uria 

A federal judge charged IT security expert Diego Lagomarsino with accessory to murder in the death

of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisma on Tuesday. Photo by sebra/Shutterstock

UPI -- A federal judge in Argentina ruled the 2015 death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman was a homicide.

Judge Julian Ercolini charged IT security expert Diego Lagomarsino with accessory to murder on Tuesday as part of his 656-page ruling regarding the death of Nisman, marking the first time the incident was referred to as a murder.

"The death of Prosecutor Nisman was not a suicide, and was brought about by a third party and in a painful manner," Ercolini said in the ruling.

Ercolini said Nisman was killed with a weapon belonging to Lagomarsino, who was also the last person inside his apartment, where he was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head, on Jan. 18, 2015.

Lagomarsino previously admitted the bullet that killed Nisman came from a handgun he owned, but said Nisman asked to borrow the weapon after receiving threats against him and his daughters.

Lagomarsino said the courts should judge him for lending Nisman the gun if he "committed a crime" but said "I have nothing to do with the rest."

Nisman was killed days after he filed a report accusing former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other officials of covering up Iran's involvement in a 1994 Jewish community center bombing that left 85 people dead and more than 300 injured.

Kirchner, 64, was charged with treason on Dec. 7 as part of an ongoing investigation into the bombing.

Ercolini said there were numerous events that caused public officials to "publicly push the idea of suicide" following Nisman's death, which created an "almost unambiguous public certainty that Nisman had taken his own life."

He added while he accused Lagomarsino of role in the homicide the actual perpetrators "remain unknown."

Ercolini also indicted four of Nisman's bodyguards -- Ruben Benitez, Nestor Duran, Armando Niz and Luis Mino -- accusing them of negligence and failing to detect when the shooting happened, which he said allowed the perpetrators to leave the scene undetected.

So they were either grossly incompetent, or complicit. 

Venezuelan Army Mixed Up in Massacre

Six more Venezuelan soldiers arrested over

Barlovento massacre

By Andrew V. Pestano  UPI

Venezuela's Public Ministry, led by chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz, said six more Venezuelan soldiers -- 18 total -- have been arrested over the deaths of 13 people in the case now known as the Barlovento massacre. The soldiers are charged with crimes including homicide and torture. Photo courtesy Luisa Ortega Díaz

CARACAS, Venezuela, (UPI) -- Venezuela's Public Ministry on Friday revealed six more soldiers are under arrest over alleged involvement in the deaths of 13 people in the case known as the Barlovento massacre.

Twelve of the victims were killed between Oct. 16 and Oct. 19 while a teenager was detained and tortured to death between Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, the Public Ministry said. The incidents occurred in the Barlovento region's Acevedo municipality.

In response to investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the arrest warrants requested from the corresponding courts, a total of 18 Bolivarian National Army personnel have been deprived of their liberty for their alleged responsibility for the disappearance and death of 12 people, and a teenager," the Public Ministry said in a statement.

The soldiers, which includes high-ranking officers, are charged with crimes such as homicide, torture, inhuman treatment, forced disappearance of persons and improper use of weapons.

A dozen decomposing corpses, believed to be 12 people, including youths, who disappeared in October after a Liberation of the People, or OLP, security operation, were found late November -- most in a mass grave in mountainous terrain.

Venezuela's Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz previously said the victims killed did not have criminal records, adding that they were detained "without any form of judgment."

The killings of the young civilians has led to sharp criticism of President Nicolas Maduro's OLP, nationwide security program, which was created to combat Venezuela's high rates of crime and homicide.

Killing people is not the most elegant way of dealing with homicides. It would be interesting to know what these people had in common. Were they politically active? Is Maduro out of control?

80% of Firearms Deaths in Developed World Happen in US – Study

© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by a gun

compared to people living in other developed nations

around the world. This is according to a new study

highlighting the “US has an enormous firearm problem.”

The alarming statistics were published in The American Journal of Medicine, as part of a study carried out by researchers from the University of Nevada-Reno and the Harvard School of Public Health. The report was aiming to put America’s relationship with firearms into perspective.

However, one thing was immediately clear: “The United States has an enormous firearm problem compared with other high-income countries. Americans are 10 times more likely to die as a result of a firearm compared with residents of these other high-income countries,” the study, under taken by Erin Grinshteyn and David Hemenway, stated.

The researchers took data, collected by the World Health Organization in 2010, to compare the US to equally developed countries around the world, such as the UK, Japan and France. The findings proved to be an eye-opener and showed that the US suffers much higher rates of deadly violence, attributable to the considerably higher rate of gun-related murders.

“Overall, our results show that the United States, which has the most firearms per capita in the world, suffers disproportionately from firearms compared with other high-income countries. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that our firearms are killing us rather than protecting us,” said Grinshteyn, an assistant professor from the University of Nevada-Reno.

Taking into account all deaths caused by firearms in developed countries, the researchers were able to determine that more than 80 percent took place in the US, despite the country having only half the population of the other 22 highly developed nations in the study.

The paper also believes US gun culture isn’t helping matters, with citizens more inclined to resolve a problem or a threat through the use of firearms, rather than alternative options such as calling the police.

“Studies have suggested that the non-gun homicide rate in the United States may be high because the gun homicide rate is high. For example, offenders take into account the threat posed by their adversaries. Individuals are more likely to have lethal intent if they anticipate that their adversaries will be armed,” Grinshteyn added.

The study found an alarming development in cause of death among Americans aged between 15 and 34. Investigators determined that homicide was the second leading cause of death amongst Americans aged from 15 to 24, and the third in the 25 to 34 age range.

When compared to the rest of the developed nations in the study, the researchers found Americans aged 15-24 were an astounding 49 times more likely to die as the result of a firearms homicide, while for those aged between 25 to 34 the figure is 32 times higher.

Americans            Prob of Death by Firearms compared to rest of developed world
All ages           10 times
Ages 25-34      32 times
Ages 15-24      49 times          Feel safe now?

The prevalence of guns in the US also has a knock-on effect on how people in the US commit suicide. Despite having similar suicide rates to the rest of the developed world, American’s are eight times more likely to end their lives with a gun.

"Differences in overall suicide rates across cities, states, and regions in the United States are best explained not by differences in mental health, suicide ideation, or even suicide attempts, but by availability of firearms," said Hemenway, a professor at Harvard School of Public Health, as cited by Science Daily.

"Many suicides are impulsive, and the urge to die fades away. Firearms are a swift and lethal method of suicide with a high case fatality rate."

I'm sure that the NRA will come out 

with both guns blazing against this report, and that

most Americans will choose to believe the NRA.

For the NRA the answer is obvious, we need more guns in America. Of course, the NRA is interested in supporting gun sellers and makers and that's all!