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 [...]
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 [...]
El Salvador: body of missing activist found with signs of torture
Comments OffOn July 8, DNA tests confirmed that a body found in a well in Cabañas department, El Salvador, on June 30 is that of prominent community activist Gustavo Marcelo Rivera. The body was found by community members who had organized a search for Rivera, missing since June 18. Witnesses reported that the body exhibited signs [...]
Gangs rule in El Salvador jails
“There are four ways our officers can get themselves killed,” says Major Gabriel Rodas, director of Ciudad Barrios prison in rural El Salvador. “First, if they receive money from the prisoners as part of a deal and then they don’t fulfil their side. Secondly, if they hit a prisoner. Thirdly, if they mistreat prisoners’ visitors. [...]
