NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 27, 2020

Q: El Salvador’s president on Sunday authorized the use of “lethal force” by police and military against gang members to crack down on heightened violence amid the coronavirus pandemic. Where is the small Central American nation of El Salvador?

Circle the area on this map


Q: After more 50 gang murders in three days, President Nayib Bukele said he was ordering a 24-hour lockdown in prisons housing some 12,862 gang members. El Salvador’s homicide rate is second only to its northeastern neighbor . . .

A. Belize

B. Guatemala

C. Honduras

D. Panama


C. Honduras has about 91 homicides each year for every 100,000 people compared with 69 in El Salvador and 38 in Guatemala, El Salavador’s northwestern neighbor. Central American nations have been ravaged by gangs competing to supply billions of dollars in illegal drugs to the United States.


Q: The violence of drug gangs in El Salvador and its Central American neighbors have led to a flood of ...

A. Asylum seekers

B. Food aid

C. Police help

D. Violence shelters


A. Thousands of Central American families fled to the U.S. border seeking asylum. The United States stopped allowing them to enter to apply for asylum, and many were sent back to their home countries. Many brought the coronavirus with them.


Q: El Salvador also has the world’s second highest number of prisoners for every 100,000 people. Which nation has the world’s highest percentage of its people in prison?

A. China

B. Honduras

C. Russia

D. United States


D. The United States has 655 people behind bars out of every 100,000. And, its prison population of 2.1 million is the largest in the world – more than the 1.7 million imprisoned in China which has a billion more people than the United States.


Q: In the nearly 50 years since President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the percentage of Americans in prison has tripled and drug dealers have corrupted much of Latin America. U.S. troops arrested the leader of which nation on drug charges?

A. El Salvador

B. Panama

C. Uruguay

D. Venezuela


B. U.S. troops invaded Panama in 1990 and deposed general and de facto dictator Manuel Noriega, who for a long time worked with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was convicted of racketeering and drug trafficking and imprisoned in the United States.