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Wonder what the long term plan is.
I doubt there is one.
It's a really tough situation isn't it? Ideally you want rule of law, due process, etc. But i guess there are times when you have such endemic criminality that you need to break it. My understanding is that for many people living in gang neighbourhoods, you are more or less forced to join. However, El Salvador has a pretty solid history of right wing authoritarianism, so it doesn't feel great. When I was there it seemed a bit sureal seeing police with covered faces.
Plus you inevitably have innocent people caught up. In Colombia in the past 10yrs there's been a lot more come out about the extrajudicial killings in the early '00s. Iirc some soilders received bonuses for bodies of FARC rebels - so unsurprisingly lots of them just killed anyone.
This is a grim read
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64770716