Footage provided by El Salvador's Presidency show inmates at the Izalco prison lining up in tight lines during a security operation during the coronavirus pandemic, northwest of San Salvador, Saturday, April 25. <br /><br />Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele late on Friday ordered a 24-hour lockdown of prisons containing gang members, and said their leaders would be sent into solitary confinement after a sudden spike in homicides during the day.<br /><br />Bukele said the “maximum emergency” lockdown would be enforced while police investigated some 22 homicides reported on Friday. <br /><br />Only a few years ago, El Salvador, which has long been plagued by powerful street gangs known as maras, had the highest homicide rate in the Americas.<br /><br />El Salvador has imposed some of the strictest measures in the Americas to combat the spread of the coronavirus.<br /><br />Riots have broken out at prisons all over the world including in Argentina, Cameroon, and Malawi as the global health crisis exaggerates.<br /><br />Inmates are protesting hygiene conditions, lack of personal protection equipment and poor cell conditions, while some protested on the roof of prisons.<br />
