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El Salvador: life in Mara Salvatrucha’s territory

Only a profound change in the country’s economic model, a policy of victim assistance, and engagement in community dialogue with those who want to put crime behind them, can improve El Salvador's prospects. Español

By Sofía Martínez
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Salvatruchas_0.jpg
Salvatruchas_0.jpg

Members of Mara Salvatrucha listen to a mass in Ciudad Barrios, San Salvador, El Salvador. Edgar Romero/DPA/PA Images,. Todos los derechos reservados.

Leaving behind the cacophony of car exhausts in “Great San Salvador”, the high-sounding name our driver uses to refer to the metropolitan area of El Salvador’s capital city, we head towards a neighborhood on the outskirts controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13 gang.

As part of the field research for an International Crisis Group report on security policies in El Salvador, the aim of our visit is to find out first-hand what day-to-day life is like in a gang-controlled area and what the people who live here are most concerned about.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0