Among this year's 2025 World Press Photo winners is Carlos Barrera, a documentary photographer and photojournalist. His photo story, titled ‘Life and Death a Country without Constitutional Rights’, won the North America and Central America Long-Term Projects category, and hits particularly hard as a Salvadoran and journalist.
El Salvador has long been synonymous with violence. The Salvadoran Civil War, which raged from 1980 to 1992, is still fresh in many people's memories. The military, right-wing death squads, and guerrilla groups terrorized Salvadorans. After the civil war ended, corrupt governments and the gangs terrorized Salvadorans. Despite several right-wing and left-wing governments led by the two most powerful parties in the country, nothing really changed.
