When I arrived to San Salvador in December for a three-month stay, I asked a neighbor for recommendations on where to go jogging. It was his preference, he said, to avoid leaving the house whenever possible, but I could try the parking lot of the soccer stadium, which—like so many places in the Salvadoran capital—came equipped with a bevy of armed security guards.
To be sure, for the average Salvadoran, the obstacles to maneuvering in public cannot be overstated. In a city that consistently ranks among the most violent and homicidal in the world, the innumerable invisible borders delineating territory controlled by rival gangs means that an act as simple as crossing the street can literally be a death sentence.
On a recent excursion to San Salvador’s historic center—site of the Metropolitan Cathedral—I spoke with a man in his late forties who requested anonymity before remarking that, despite the government’s much vaunted “rehabilitation” of the area, “one block west of the cathedral is one gang and one block north of the cathedral is another gang.” For him, he said, navigating the boundaries was not as much of an issue as it was for his 19-year-old son, who, on account of his age, was automatically presumed by gang members to be from an opposing gang.
Moreover, because his son resides in a San Salvador neighborhood presided over by the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)—and because his place of residence is specified on the national ID Salvadorans are required to carry—encounters with members of the Barrio 18 gang can be particularly perilous. But it’s not only the gangs, the man was careful to emphasize; there’s also a “criminalization of youth” by Salvadoran security forces, who are well known for their habit of antagonizing young men—thereby further cramping the freedom of public movement for that demographic. Then, of course, there’s the habit of extrajudicially assassinating people and passing off the carnage as gang-related shootouts. READ MORE AT EL FARO ENGLISH.