country's homicide rate. Upon assuming office in June 2004, Saca increased the security policies of La Mano Dura, announcing that Super Mano Dura ("Super Iron Fist") would replace the original policy. The policies of La Mano Dura and Super Mano Dura included joint police and military patrols of gang-controlled areas, random searches of suspected gang members, and the ability to arrest individuals on appearance alone. As a result of both La Mano Dura and Super Mano Dura, around 4,000 gang members were arrested, leading to overcrowding in El Salvador's prisons. Upon assuming office in June 2009, President Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) maintained some of the policies of Super Mano Dura. He ended mass raids of gang territory to instead focus on the police's investigation capacities. In September 2010, the Legislative Assembly passed the Gang Prohibition Act in response to an increase in gang violence. The law doubled the maximum prison sentence for minors, allowed authorities to freeze bank accounts and seize assets of gang members, and made gang membership illegal. In February 2012, Funes implemented new anti-gang policies to increase the militarization of the police and a proposed curfew to prevent gang members from being in the streets at night. The policies resulted in an increase of homicides, however, and the government blamed the increase on "backlash" from the gangs against the policies. Truce Beginning of the truce On 9 March 2012, 30 gang leaders of MS-13 and Barrio 18 were moved from the Zacatecoluca maximum-security prison to lower-security prisons with "more relaxed rules on visitors". On 11 March, the online newspaper El Faro suggested that the Salvadoran government had been secretly negotiating with MS-13 and Barrio 18 in an effort to reduce the country's homicide rate. The following day, 12 March, was reportedly "the least violent day the country has seen in three years" when only two people were killed. On 21 March 2012, Bishop Fabio Reynaldo Colindres Abarca (es) claimed that the Catholic Church helped mediate a truce between MS-13 and Barrio 18 to end "deadly attacks". He stated that the government had not given the gangs any concessions and that they gangs contacted him to mediate in the truce's negotiations. Raúl Mijango (es), a former deputy of the Legislative Assembly, stated that he helped mediate the truce and that the government was fully aware of the truce. Representatives of both MS-13