El Salvador, in celebrating Roque Dalton, confronted by bitter past
Comments OffAn old killing has come back to haunt the government of President Mauricio Funes, scarcely a year after he took office as El Salvador’s first leftist leader. Roque Dalton, the nation’s most famous poet, was killed 35 years ago by comrades in the leftist guerrilla movement that fought in the long civil war. Now the [...]
Filmmaker slain in El Salvador was worried about growing violence
Comments OffChristian Poveda was dismayed by the increasing viciousness of the gangs he had chronicled. ‘Government authorities have no idea of the monster facing them,’ he said a day before his death. The day before he was killed this week, Christian Poveda, veteran photojournalist and documentary filmmaker, said he was worried. The Salvadoran street gangs whose [...]
The Gangs of El Salvador: A Growing Industry
The two most famous exports of El Salvador are rivals. Unfortunately, they are also ferocious gangs: Mara 18 and the Mara Salvatrucha. They have exported their gang culture — learned by expatriates returned from undocumented existence in the big cities of the United States — to other countries in Central and South America, re-exporting their [...]
Soyapango, El Salvador
Comments OffUntil Wednesday, the most striking aspect of this photograph, taken last year, was the face of the woman. Tattoos give a menacing edge to the petite young mother. But since someone put four bullets in his head last week, ending a courageous life, the figure who commands our attention is that of Christian Poveda, the [...]
DEA Informant Gunned Down in El Salvador
Comments OffA man suspected of being a drug trafficker and informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and two men accompanying him were gunned down by unidentified individuals, El Salvador’s National Civilian Police, or PNC, said Sunday. Edwin Reynaldo Argueta was pulled out of a local nightspot where he and four friends – two of whom [...]


