El Salvador is widely regarded as the deadliest place on earth that is not a war zone, but it may as well be one. The gang culture that has evolved since the end of the year-long civil war in is unmatched for its brutality and scale of violence. Almost all the murders in El Salvador over the past two decades have been connected in some way to a three-way gang war among members of the two largest gangs, Mara Salvatrucha MS and Barrio 18 La 18 , and government security forces.
A forensic policewoman stands over a body in one of the busiest places in the capital—the San Salvador Central Market—on Sept. The victim was handcuffed behind his back and shot seven times at around in the morning, the National Civil Police reported. Tariq Zaidi for Foreign Policy. El Salvador is characterized not only by widespread violence but also by the brutality with which the violence is carried out.
After firearms, machetes are the most common murder weapon. Often, the aim is not just to kill, but to torture, maim, and dismember the victim. The emergence of an intricate gang culture with its own traditions, rules, and structures has transformed the act of killing into a ritual, filled with intentional references to sadism and satanism. Videos and stories of these killings, which usually involve a group of laughing gang members gleefully hacking away at the body parts of a victim and removing organs, have paralyzed Salvadoran society, creating a pervasive atmosphere of fear: Anybody can be an informer for a gang, nobody is safe, any street can become a crime scene, anybody can disappear.
Public killings are common , accounting for nearly 40 percent of all murders. The war was brutal and exposed many Salvadorans, particularly children, to horrific violence. Many Salvadorans fled to the United States, and in particular to Los Angeles, where Salvadorans teenagers joined together in ethnic solidarity to protect themselves against other established gangs in the city. Inmates crowd a cell at the Penal Center of Quezaltepeque on Nov. Inmates look out of an overcrowded cell while a prison officer wearing a balaclava to protect his identity stands guard above at the Penal Center of Quezaltepeque on Nov.
Following the end of the civil war in , immigration policies in the United States became more restrictive, and migrants who had been convicted of crimes were sent home, bringing gang culture and violence to an already struggling state.
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