In a tweet, the president affirmed that the State’s territorial control is total, an action that several Internet users echoed and supported the measure initiated by authorities on early Saturday.

A total of 10,000 troops from the Army and the National Civil Police (PNC), accompanied by their ministers and chiefs, with the deployment of military technology including light armored vehicles, surrounded the municipality, the most populous in the nation, to act on 40 areas from where gang criminals would be extracted.

On Sunday, the Catholic Church embraced the cause when Monsignor Jose Luis Escobar Alas, Archbishop of San Salvador, underlined that the military siege executed as part of phase V of the Territorial Control Plan is not only a right but an obligation of the State.

The religious leader pointed out that if crime exists, prosecuting it is an obligation of the State, and the Government executes it while keeping and respecting the rights of honest people, making the operation more legitimate.

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