His war started in March, after this article was written.
He is going after the last holdouts. He is devoting a large force to seal the area so that there is no escape as they go door by door. Gangsters there helpfully tattoo themselves, which makes it easy. That, and they have a database. Declaring war means simple membership in the gang is all they need for arrest and imprisonment.
As I say, the last holdouts are in hiding. Gang members in jail are held incommunicado, so the gangs are no longer run from inside prison, and jailed gang members can no longer threaten guards, cops, judges as they could before. Without the (in effect) legal declaration of war it was impossible to defeat them, since in a country this size, they know where the guards, cops, and judges live, where their kids go to school, and establishment politicians were in bed with them. Those days are done, at least until the establishment can figure a way to get rid of him. His party controls congress, though, and his support in the streets is around 90%.
Soros, State, and the press hate him. They can’t defeat him in an election so they keep threatening a coup. But for now he is winning.