Feared Salvadoran gang asks gov't to end crackdown

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Members of a feared street gang called on El Salvador's government on Thursday to halt a crackdown on gangs and denied it was behind a wave of murders in the Central American nation.

Three followers of the "Mara Salvatrucha" gang, their faces covered, read a communique to journalists in which they demanded "the end of the implementation of the super-heavy-handed" anti-gang plan, which they said "only represses Salvador's poor youth."

They also demanded that human rights be respected for gang members who had been thrown in jail.

President Tony Saca launched an anti-gang campaign last August, putting thousands more soldiers and police on the streets to counter the gangs, which have caused havoc in poor neighborhoods from Central America to the United States.

The street gangs, or "maras," which grew out of Hispanic youth gangs in Los Angeles, have terrorized El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in recent years with dozens of murders and mutilations.

"We do not want to continue to be the scapegoats," the three gang members said, flanked by a dozen more tattooed youths, saying recent killings were the work of others.

The other main Salvadoran gang is the Mara 18, accused in January of shooting to death six people at a soccer match after rounding up players and fans and forcing them to lie facedown on the pitch.

The Mara Salvatrucha gang members said they were ready to reach a truce with the Mara 18 -- both gangs often face off in bloody battles -- to prove they were not behind the wave of violence.

El Salvador has about 10,000 gang members, of whom around 3,000 are in jail.