SAN SALVADOR: It will be much harder for El Salvador’s prison population, including gang leaders, to communicate with those on the outside. The government on Friday ordered mobile telephone service providers to disable their signals in the facilities. The decision by President Nayib Bukele, who took office earlier this month, is aimed at reducing the country’s high murder rate and other violent crimes.

President Nayib Bukele says most of the murders are often ordered by those behind bars. The country’s mobile telephone providers, including Claro, Tigo, Digicel and Telefonica have 72 hours to comply with the order. The order would block both data and calls in and around 28 prisons spread across the country and would likely affect service to people who live near the facilities. The president’s security cabinet met with executives from the phone service providers earlier on Friday.

Since the beginning of this year, some 1,500 murders have been reported in El Salvador as Bukele’s government seeks to reduce the violence by targeting the country’s gangs. (agencies)