PhotoMEXICO CITY — It might have been any other day in El Salvador, but as the hours ticked into evening it became notable not for what happened, but for what didn’t. An entire day had passed without a single murder in one of the world’s most violent places. Gang violence in El Salvador, an impoverished Central American country of 6.5 million, has given it one of the highest murder rates of any nation that is not at war. More than 17 percent said that somebody in their family had been forced to leave El Salvador because of threats and violence. On Thursday, two gunmen riding a motorcycle fatally shot an off-duty police officer in a town north of San Salvador, the capital, according to the attorney general’s office.

Source: New York Times January 14, 2017 01:14 UTC