[4] On 17 May 2023, the Salvadoran Army and the National Civil Police initiate a blockade of Nueva Concepción, a municipality of the Chalatenango Department in northern El Salvador.

[4] Radio YSUCA reported that residents in southern Chalatenango noticed an increased military presence following the homicides, and some claimed that the government was going to implement a blockade.

[6] Bukele ended his announcement by stating that "we will not stop until we eradicate what little remains of the gangs" ("no nos vamos a detener hasta erradicar lo poco que aún queda de las pandillas").

[6] Minister of National Defense René Merino Monroy wrote on X that "we will clean the zone completely, we will extract up to the final remnants of the gangs" ("limpiaremos por completo la zona, vamos a extraer hasta el último remanente de pandillas").

Cristosal also claimed that the blockade was established in the four municipalities specifically because they voted for Manuel Flores of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) over Bukele in the presidential election two months earlier.