After the arrest of one of Juan’s (name changed for security) sons, his other two children had to leave their homes in the San Leonardo neighborhood, in the Apopa, San Salvador department. The detained young man, 23 years old, has been accused of illicit...
When the government of El Salvador declared a “state of exception” in March of last year, after a sudden spike in gang killings, it was supposed to be temporary. Soldiers and police officers could arrest anyone they considered suspicious. No one was entitled to a...
On Saturday, September 23, Dinora (name changed to protect the minor) accompanied her parents to visit friends in a hamlet in Teotepeque, department of La Libertad. In the afternoon, along with three other young people, they decided to go to the beach in the Mizata...
Residents of the Las Flores neighborhood in San Francisco Gotera are disheartened when asked about “Juancito,” as Juan de Jesús Orellana was known, because his death has moved everyone. “We all joined the procession to the cemetery,” said a...
Juan José feared approaching his cellmate in the Izalco Prison in El Salvador. The screams of the other inmate terrified him. And the worst part, he says, is that the screams didn’t stop for days: the man complained of pain in his stomach and lower abdomen,...
The Mara Salvatrucha (MS13), Barrio 18 Sureños, and Barrio 18 Revolucionarios still maintain 54 armed groups, mostly in rural areas. Nearly 43,000 people who have been profiled as gang members remain at large. These people have been classified into three categories:...
