My momma wanted me to have a nanny as soon as I was born. Someone to take care of me, teach me things, and lean on if my momma wasn't there—however, the nanny I got meant so much more to me than just a caretaker. Pictured below are me (left), my nanny, Sara (middle), and her son Louis (right).
Sara is from El Salvador but fled to America in 2005 because of the terrible gang violence going on in her hometown just outside of San Salvador. El Salvador lies southwest of Honduras and east of Guatemala with a central plateau that falls between the two major mountain ranges that span the country from east to west.
From 1980 to 1992, this tiny Central American country was torn apart by a brutal civil war. The conflict killed more than 70,000 people, and there was no clear winner. Although the war is now over, El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas. Criminologists report that combined, the two primary street gangs — the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and 18th Street — had upward of sixty thousand members in El Salvador as of 2020. According to Gale in Global Contexts, MS-13 and 18th Street are international criminal gangs that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Originally, the gangs were set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area. Over time, the gangs grew into more traditional criminal organizations.
In an NPR interview, Police Inspector Jose Eduardo Martel says, “Businesses, stores, beauty salons, barbers, any type of business, Martel says, has to pay la renta to the gangs.” Both gangs demand money from anyone and everyone in El Salvador and threaten them with death if they refuse to pay. Consequently, many El Salvadorians fled the country for safety and a better life. Sara, my nanny, recounts a personal encounter with MS-13 and says, “I'm only alive because my late husband stood in front of me before a bullet killed me from MS-13. They were shooting at me because I didn’t have enough money to pay them since my son was going through heart surgery. Me, my son, and two daughters fled by sneaking through the mountain ranges and got on a plane to the USA. At the airport, we almost got denied into the USA bc a lot of El Salvadorians were fleeing at that time as well and the USA didn't want us in, in case gang members were sneaking through with us.” Gale in Global Contexts communicates the same issue: “El Salvador’s crime problems have significantly affected its relations with other nations, in part because of the role of criminal networks engaged in international drug trafficking and street gangs that perpetuate extreme levels of violence and destabilize the region while sparking an exodus of Salvadoran refugees.”
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, is addressing this armed conflict. Bukele was first elected in 2019 when he made a populist appeal to an electorate frustrated with the corruption of the political establishment and their inability to stem chronic gang violence. According to Gale in Global Contexts, “Bukele adopted a hardline stance against street gangs with a Territorial Control Plan, which he credited with a significant drop in homicides.” Fortunately, President Bukele’s plan is working. According to a Guardian resource video, President Bukele got 66,000 arrested because of an anti-gang crackdown. United States Institute of Peace states that “In both the United States and Central America, basically we’re talking about young people who are searching for belonging and trying to respond to the questions about identity that you always have when you’re young. Because of the conditions where they live — poverty, exclusion, marginality — the gang becomes their immediate group of reference” Consequently, the USA is helping El Salvador by making gang and violence prevention programs. Although it’s just a start to ending the madness, the country of El Salvador feels safer now. Also, other Latin countries that are in a state of trying to solve violent crime rates have taken this model and are starting this approach as well such as Honduras and Ecuador. Because President Bukele’s plan is successful, with a 91% approval rate by the people of El Salvador, LA Times says he plans to run again in 2024 even though it’s technically not allowed in El Salvador’s Constitution.
Overall, I am glad that the people of El Salvador feel safer in their communities, but even though this has been an ongoing conflict since the civil war, not enough has been done. The conflict should've been continuously worked on year after year instead of just seeing success now. However, I am so glad to see whom I consider my second extended family safe.
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