El Salvador's gang ceasefire is bad news for police

Phillip Sherwell argues Why El Salvador gang ceasefire is bad news for police for The Telegraph.

For Father Antonio Rodriguez, a priest who for 15 years ran a rehabilitation programme for former gang members, the uncompromising stance is a depressing re-run of the failed policies of the past when rampant violence continued even as jails were filled with tattoo-covered gang members.

“Nobody is offering anything new, any real policies on trying to tackle the underlying causes of crime in this country,” he said.

“We are just hearing the failed old ’iron fist’ approach of previous governments. I don’t know what Giuliani will recommend, but any lessons from New York are not going to work here. El Salvador is a different place with different problems.”

The article is fine, for the most part, but I find it unusual that Father Toño is featured so prominently at the end. He was arrested last year on a variety of charges that went above and beyond facilitating a benign truce between El Salvador's two main gangs. Last I read, he was found guilty and then returned to his native Spain. Omitting the criminal nature of his involvement with El Salvador's gangs and simply describing his involvement as "a priest who for 15 years ran a rehabilitation programme for former gang members" is troublesome.

Beyond that, his argument is problematic as well. Father Toño also seems to conflate the broken windows model of policing with zero tolerance and iron fist policies. My colleague Mike Jenkins and I should have something out on this issue in the next week or so.

There's also the claim that no one is offering anything new or trying to tackle the root causes of the violence. The Salvadoran and the United States governments have funded hundreds of programs to tackle the root causes of violence in the country from investments in jobs creation programs to a renewed emphasis on school attendance. There's been a great deal of change in the health sector. The US has invested several hundred million dollars through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, CARSI, and Partnership for Growth programs. There's ILEA, the International Law Enforcement Academy. There are a number of gang prevention and rehabilitation programs. There's the Plan for Prosperity that might be funded in some capacity.

Nothing?

Take a read - what are your thoughts?