Some, such as 42-year-old Luis Geovanni Vindel, a salesman from the central city of
Zacatecoluca, moved on quickly, hitching rides alone toward the Guatemalan border.
The police in the town of
Zacatecoluca allegedly worked for members of the Barrio 18 gang, and some officers had ties to the gang itself.
The administration of former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) helped broker the experimental tregua (truce) in early 2012 by transferring jailed gang leaders from the maximum-security
Zacatecoluca prison, 60 kilometers southeast of San Salvador, to lower-security facilities (NotiCen, April 26, 2012).
The loan will be used to build and expand prisons in Izalco, Santa Ana and Sonsonate, in the West,
Zacatecoluca (center) and Morazan (northeast).