You can't just flee to another town. You need to leave the country.

Some links to posts about El Salvador that I found interesting this week.

In El Salvador, Jesuit program offers alternatives to gangs, emigration

The Jesuit-run educational program, Fe y Alegria (Faith and Joy), attempts to provide alternatives to emigration and gangs through educational and vocational programs, which provide skills for achieving success in both work and life. It also provides psychological assistance for students, tries teaching values that go beyond the workplace and helps students reach for higher goals, such as attending high school and college. Administrators acknowledge it's no easy task, while success is relative.

"Success for young people here can't (always) be a university degree. It can be having a job and being able to bring home beans for the family. ... It's very relative," said Alexander Ayala, director of a Fe y Alegria training center in Soyapango, a suburb of San Salvador.

"This is success for many young people: that they can go and get a job, that they know they can help the household," he said. "When they achieve this they can set a higher goal. It's cyclical."

The Deadly, Invisible Borders Inside El Salvador - You can't just flee to another town. You need to leave the country.

How Not to Repeat the Failures of El Salvador's Gang Truce

I suppose you are not referring just to El Salvador.

No. Throughout the world, when a war breaks out between criminal groups, the authorities try to calm things down. But how do they do it? Well, when there are strong institutions, normally they try to correct the principal problem that led to the conflict between the groups. The problem with the maras in El Salvador is that this cannot be done, because it is something so big, the chain of deaths is so long, that ending the fighting between them is not easy.

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Sadly, but it has been that way since long before the gangs. In El Salvador we have had incredibly high homicide rates at least since the 1960s, and I say that as a way of explaining how Salvadorans relate to homicides. 

I remember fifteen years ago hearing that before the wars, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Colombia were the region's three most violent countries. They didn't become violent with the wars.

El Salvador Community Police Force: A Sign of What Is to Come? The Nicaraguan Embassy sent out a note highlighting the development:

The Nicaragua Preventive Proactive Community Model is being emulated in other countries. This week, the government of El Salvador began to implement a Community Police Model to fight delinquency and organized crime. Mauricio Ramirez, Director of the El Salvador National Civil Police (PNC), said the Community Police Model is a new approach to deal with insecurity and violence caused by “maras” (gangs). "Agents will have to establish a relationship with the community, identify their problems and work with them to find solutions". He also announced that in the coming days the government will appoint members to the Comprehensive Citizen Security Council. 

Poverty Reduction in El Salvador shows positive trend for 2009 - 2013. Official statistics say that poverty has fallen from 41 percent in 2011 to 29 percent in 2013. More good economic news that contradicts the unaccompanied minors narrative?

Housekeeper and Two Accomplices Murder Judge and Wife in El Salvador. Good old-fashioned robbery and murder. It's not all gangs (still often the scapegoat) and organized crime (under-reported scapegoat).

Calvo gains certification for working conditions in El Salvador...Must be CAFTA's fault.

PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, met with Sigfrido Reyes Morales, the President of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, and his delegation, at the PLO headquarters in Ramallah, and welcomed them to Palestine.

Finally, the July update on El Salvador from the Center for Democracy in the Americas.