The cancer of gang violence is growing at an alarming rate in El Salvador, and the government has embarked on an increasingly bloodthirsty war to contain it. Law enforcement has classified all gang members and their associates as terrorists, a reclassification that has the potential to fuel greater fear, victimization, injustice, and social instability. The viability of this conflict, and the moral considerations surrounding it, form the basis of a new Vice News documentary, Gangs of El Salvador.
The statistics are staggering. In a country of fewer than 6 million people, where there is one murder every hour, 11% of the population is affiliated with gangs, both as members and as citizens who depend on them for their livelihoods.
Two major gangs rule the streets of El Salvador, and their tyranny is brutal and extreme. The gangs are divided in their struggle for control of the territory but are united in a common war against the police. This nefarious intent has translated into car bombings at police stations and the scourge of certain gangs whose role in law enforcement death squads has been banned. Given the nature of the threat to gangsters, it is understandable for police to declare war on gangsters, and while the vast majority of the public sees it as a necessary step, others see it as only fueling the flames of chaos and bloodshed.
VICE News reporter Danny Gold has bravely taken on law enforcement responsibilities on several of their late-night raids where the impending violence was chilling. The same climate of terror pervades the streets of El Salvador, and Gold struggles to reach ordinary citizens too scared to comment on the carnage they face every day. Others refuse to speak out against an organization that offers them opportunities more lucrative than any legitimate industry to operate in the country.
El Salvador is clearly losing its identity with a wide range of criminal elements. Gangs of Salvador is an immersive exploration of the struggle to take it back.
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