El Salvador: President Nayib Bukele Escalates Anti-Gang Operations By Destroying MS-13 Members' Gravestones

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's crackdown on violent street gangs like MS-13 has taken a new turn, as he is now aiming at the graves of fallen gang members.

The El Salvadoran government under Bukele has now turned to grave desecration, sending work crews made up of inmates to smash gravestones with hammers and metal poles.

According to Reuters, the reason for this action was that the El Salvador government is "aiming to prevent any would-be admirers from paying their respects."

This happened on Tuesday, November 1, which is All Souls Day, the day when families typically go to cemeteries and visit dead loved ones.

MS-13 Gravestones Targeted

The government targeted a cemetery in La Libertad, located west of the capital San Salvador. There, they instructed inmates to identify gravestones belonging to deceased MS-13 gang members and smash them to pieces.

Osiris Luna, El Salvador's deputy minister of justice and top prison director, said in a statement that they cannot have a "single symbol alluding to the Maras or gang members in any community, neighborhood, or part of this country." MS-13 is also known as the Mara Salvatrucha gang, and members are also known as "Maras."

The El Salvadoran government also targeted cemeteries in Santa Tecla near San Salvador. It is widely considered an MS-13 stronghold. Police also destroyed a gravestone in Candelaria de la Frontera, Santa Ana after residents reported that it had MS-13 markings.

While the move has raised a few eyebrows, many residents actually welcomed it. One of them, Juan Escamilla, talked to the Associated Press that there is now "a lot of happiness in visiting their deceased relatives. He stated, "before it was normal to see gang members inside the cemetery, but today there's no danger."

According to France 24, although the gravestones were targeted and destroyed, the remains of the deceased gang members will remain intact. The government did not state how many graves they destroyed in total over All Souls Day.

El Salvador's Nayib Bukele Intensifies Crackdown vs. MS-13

Previously, police would just paint over or remove gang-related graffiti that used to be visible in neighborhoods around the Central American country. However, this new method of going after MS-13 member graves is a new escalation in the fight against El Salvador's violent street gangs.

Earlier this year, President Nayib Bukele requested special powers, and since then, El Salvador has been under a state of exception, suspending some constitutional rights, after gangs killed 62 people across the entire country.

El Salvadoran authorities have since arrested over 56,000 people who are allegedly tied to not just MS-13, but also other violent street gangs. However, the move has been highly criticized by nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups as they tallied thousands of human rights violations during El Salvador's state of exception

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: The Truth Behind Street Gang MS-13 - Inside Edition