In April, Wendy Yamileth Alfaro Mena, 27, became the first policewoman to be murdered in El Salvador. However, she was not the first police officer murdered nor the first person that month murdered. El Salvador's murder rate is one of the highest in the world.

Wendy Yamileth Alfaro Mena was shot 50 times by either the Mara Salvatrucha or the 18th Street gang, as criminals begin to treat police as prey rather than running scared from them.

A relative of Mena's, also a police officer, told Al Jazeera, “If you’re in the gangs and kill a police officer you move up the ranks. They left her in the street like a dog. As a woman, she paid the highest price."

A gang leader spoke with Al Jazeera and said that it was not the gangs who were the real culprits.

"The police are committing massacres, summary executions in El Salvador," he told the broadcaster, anonymously. "This is a push from the leftist government."

10 countries with the highest murder rates Show all 10 1 /10 10 countries with the highest murder rates 10 countries with the highest murder rates 1) Honduras Homicide count: 7,172 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 85.5 Public Domain 10 countries with the highest murder rates 2) Venezuela Homicide count: 16,072 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 53.7 LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images 10 countries with the highest murder rates 3) US Virgin Islands Homicide count: 56 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 52.6 Creative Commons/Old Pine 10 countries with the highest murder rates 4) Belize Homicide count: 145 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 44.7 Chris Jackson-Pool/Getty Images 10 countries with the highest murder rates 5) Jamaica Homicide count: 1099 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 40.6 MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images 10 countries with the highest murder rates 6) El Salvador Homicide count: 2,246 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 35.7 House109/Creative Commons 10 countries with the highest murder rates 7) Anguilla Homicide count: 5 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 35.4 Roy Googin/Creatve Commons 10 countries with the highest murder rates 8) Guatemalla Homicide count: 5,237 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 34.7 Rigostar/Creative Commons 10 countries with the highest murder rates 9) Swaziland Homicide count: 416 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 33.8 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images 10 countries with the highest murder rates 10) Colombia Homicide count: 15,733 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants: 33.8 GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images

Most recently, the gangs have stepped up their violence in a tactic meant to pressure the government of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren to negotiate with them. The gangs want the administration to rein back its recent crackdown on gangs and for the president to secure better conditions for gang members currently in prison. The government is rejecting any dialogue with the gangs.