SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CN) — Violent gangs have infiltrated virtually every corner of life in El Salvador, from businesses to police to housing — even to whether one can leave one’s home to go to the outhouse.
The gangs own bus routes, hotels, bars, restaurants, body shops. There are lawyers and doctors and teachers in gangs. There are mayors in gangs. President Nayib Bukele has announced a huge effort — much applauded — to improve security. Thousands of troops and police are trying to pacify the gang insurgency that has terrorized the country for twenty years. Here are some stories told by average Salvadorans this month.
Fernando has a barbershop in Soyapango, a sprawling city that borders San Salvador, the capital. He once had a business selling mobile phone time, where people put a dollar or two worth of minutes on their phones. His wife ran a small restaurant. Gang members, young ruffians in the neighborhood, would demand free lunches or free phone minutes, so those activities proved unprofitable. Fernando still cuts hair and barely squeaks by.
He says he told the gang to just kill him, as he refused to pay extortion money to them. They stopped bothering him. A day in the life in one part of Soyapango. A happy ending, perhaps.
It's hard to find people willing to talk about the criminality that surrounds them. Most small shopkeepers say they pay nothing to the thugs rather than admit to it, and prefer to change the subject. When asked, Lázaro, a prominent owner of a general goods business, stared at a reporter with fear in his eyes, made the sign of the cross and pointed the reporter to the door.
An old farmer refused to speak about gang violence, but his body shook and he turned away.
Rita sold pupusas out of her two-room house in rural Chalatenango. “First they came and demanded two dollars and I was afraid to say no. Within a week they were back and said I had to pay $10 a day,” she said. Rita wasn't earning $10 a day, and had to shut down.
A neighbor was willing to talk, at a police station.
“We have no choice but to obey them,” said Elena, who, like virtually everyone interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified by her full name.
“The gangs tell us when we can leave our houses to work the fields. Nobody can be outside after dark, not even to use the outhouses. The women wear no makeup when they go out to wash clothes for fear of appealing to one or more of them and being raped.”
Elena told of what happened after Rita refused to pay the 18 gang. Her daughter was raped by eight men next to the pump where she had gone to fetch water. She was too afraid to report the crime for fear of reprisal.
Even the doctor who attended to her injuries was afraid to write the word rape in the medical report. Contacted by a reporter, he declined to speak and pleaded to not be quoted or mentioned or ever contacted again.
“If you go to the police, the gang will know and they will kill you,” Elena said.
