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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Tom Phillips in Salcoatitán

‘It’s a war on the people’: El Salvador’s mass arrests send thousands into despair

Prisoners sat on the cement floor of a courtyard at a prison. Their upper bodies are bare, their heads shaved, and they wear white shorts. They're surrounded by police officers with assault riffles. Some have '18' tattooed on their backs, signifying they are members of a gang.
Salvadoran gang members of the Mara Salvatrucha are seen during a search by security teams in the prisons of Quezaltepeque, in the department of La Libertad, in El Salvador on 28 March. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Only a few weeks ago, Sandra García was looking forward to the brighter future Nayib Bukele promised El Salvador’s opportunity-starved youth when he swept to power three years ago.

“I gave him my vote believing we’d have a better life,” said the 23-year-old, one of hundreds of thousands of young Salvadorans who chose the authoritarian-minded millennial as their president.

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