On the dusty streets of the Primero de Diciembre neighborhood, they lived in a state of constant panic. They enjoy traversing San Salvador by night, order pizza from delivery services newly entering former gang territories, and open businesses without gangs extorting them for money.įor others, the transformation comes at a steep price. Small freedoms mark the monumental shift for many Salvadorans. The national homicide rate, the highest in the world as recently as 2015, has dipped to numbers more comparable to Maine or New Hampshire, though some analysts question the integrity of the government data. Police stops like the one at Zaldivar's home are the new norm. Bloodshed has faded away in places like La Campanera as the presence of the most fearsome gangs dwindles. Bukele has imprisoned over 65,000 of the nation's 6.3 million people, packing thousands inside a “ mega-prison ” that's set to be one of the world’s largest. “They’re always here.”Įl Salvador has undergone a radical transformation since President Nayib Bukele – the self-described “world’s coolest dictator” – ordered a state of emergency in response to an alarming surge in gang violence. “Now it’s normal,” Katherine Zaldivar said after her house was searched, her 4-year-old daughter peering up at the two officers as she sat on the floor finishing her cereal. Neighbors look on not with surprise, but resigned acceptance. Residents scrape together any evidence they can to prove they aren't members of Barrio 18, the gang that once dominated here. Officers demand men strip off their shirts so they can examine their bodies for tattoos, and flip through deeds and energy bills, once unpaid under gang rule.

Today, police march past skeletons of ransacked homes, abandoned by those fleeing the bloodshed that marked these streets for decades.

Stepping foot in La Campanera, once one of El Salvador's bloodiest neighborhoods, would have been unthinkable before the government suspended constitutional rights and started an all-out offensive on the gangs one year ago. They rap sharply on door after door, pushing into homes with dozing teenagers listening to music or toddlers eating breakfast and watching cartoons. SOYAPANGO, El Salvador - With semiautomatic weapons pressed to their chest, a pack of camouflage-clad police officers marches through rows of small brick homes winding up hills on the fringes of El Salvador’s capital.

The price is steep download