El Salvador
El Salvador has no gun manufacturers; all guns are therefore supplied from outside the country. A large number of weapons are found in the hands of gang members that control certain areas.1 Since the end of the civil war in 1992, El Salvador has sought to limit the influence of criminal gangs and prevent crime.2
In 1999, the country implemented the Law on Arms, Ammunition and Explosives. El Salvador has signed and ratified the Arms Trade Treaty and the UN Firearms Protocol.3 The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) launched a project in 2013 to support the upgrade of munition storage facilities given their high vulnerability to theft.4 In addition, the UN Development Programme (UNDP); the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR); the HALO Trust; and the UN Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) have supported various ammunition management programmes.5
1 Sarah Kinosian “Arming the Conflict: El Salvador’s Gun Market,” Latin America Working Group, 2015, https://www.lawg.org/arming-the-conflict-el-salvadors-gun-market.
2 “El Salvador,” International Crisis Group, 2022, https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/central-america/el-salvador
3 Philip Alpers, Amélie Rossetti and Leonardo Goi, El Salvador – Gun Facts, Figures and the Law (GunPolicy.org, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, 2022), https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/el-salvador
4 “El Salvador – Military Officials Charged with Trafficking Surplus Weapons,” International Action Network on Small Arms, 2017, https://iansa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/El-Salvador-Case-1.pdf.
5 “Ammunition Management Activity Platform (A-MAP),” GICHD, 2022, https://a-map.gichd.org.
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Further information
Accidental explosions
Since the Small Arms Survey began collecting data in 1979, four accidental explosions have been reported in El Salvador.
Table 1. Accidental explosions in El Salvador (1979–2021)
Year | Location | Owner/manager | Deaths | Injuries |
2015 | San Juan Opico | State (military) | 0 | 13 |
2000 | San Salvador | State (military) | 60 | 65 |
1990 | Ilopango | State (police) | 0 | 0 |
1988 | N/A | State (military) | N/A | N/A |
Source: “Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites (UEMS) Database,” Small Arms Survey, updated December 15, 2021, https://smallarmssurvey.org/database/unplanned-explosions-munitions-sites-uems.
Cases of diversion
Several cases of diversion have been reported in El Salvador.
Table 2. Cases of diversion of arms, ammunition and explosives in El Salvador
Year | Location | Description |
2016 | N/A | A former colonel was involved in the illegal sale of arms from military store sites. |
2013 | N/A | An army officer stole weapons designated for destruction. |
2011 | N/A | An army officer stole 14 rocket launchers designated for destruction from the military stockpiles. |
2011 | N/A | Surplus weapons and those collected by Salvadoran military personnel and designated for destruction were stolen and trafficked. |
Sources: Lauren Pinson, Addressing the Linkages between Illicit Arms, Organized Crime and Armed Conflict (Geneva: UNIDIR, 2022), https://www.unodc.org/documents/firearms-protocol/2022/UNIDIR-UNODC_Adressing_the_linkages_between_illict_arms_organized_crime_and_armed_conflict.pdf; Peter Danssaert and Brian Wood, Surplus and Illegal Small Arms, Light Weapons and their Ammunition: The Consequences of Failing to Dispose and Safely Destroy Them (New York: International Action Network on Small Arms, 2017), https://ipisresearch.be/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gun-Destruction-Report-IANSA-2017.pdf.
Disposal
In cooperation with UNLIREC, 30 tonnes of ammunition had been destroyed by 2013.1 From 2017 to 2018, the HALO Trust supported the destruction of 127,606 small arms ammunition.2
1 “UNLIREC Strengthens the Capacity of Women in El Salvador to Combat Illicit Arms Trafficking,” UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, November 2013, https://disarmament.unoda.org/update/20131210/.
2 “US Embassy and HALO Trust Destroy More than 24,000 Small Arms Ammunition,” US Embassy in El Salvador, December 12, 2018, https://sv.usembassy.gov/us-embassy-and-halo-trust-destroy-more-than-24000-small-arms-ammunition.
Needs
To further enhance safe and secure ammunition management, the following need has been identified for El Salvador:
- Development or refinement of standards and procedures on stockpile management.
Source: El Salvador, National Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI), (New York: Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the UN, 2022), https://unoda-poa.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/SLV-English-1211-SUBMITTED.pdf.
