El Salvador sends troops to surround town after police officer killed

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — More than 5,000 soldiers and 500 police have encircled a small town in northern El Salvador after President Nayib Bukele said gang members had killed a member of the national police there. Bukele said Wednesday via Twitter that the deployment in Nueva Concepción, about 43 miles (70 kilometers), north of the capital, was “in search of those responsible for the homicide and the entire gang structure and collaborators still hiding in that place.” Bukele has been waging an all out war against the country’s powerful street gangs since March 2022. He requested the Congress grant him extraordinary powers after gangs were blamed for 62 killings on March 26. The measures include the suspension of some fundamental rights.