Winning back walls from gangs, artists fill El Salvador's towns with colour

Salvadoran artist Isaac Sosa says muralists like him have 'won back the walls from the gangs' that used to terrorize neighborhoods. afp

CONCEPCION DE ATACO (EL SALVADOR) - On the walls where gang members in El Salvador once marked their turf, urban artists are now creating large murals in a traveling festival that fills the streets of the Central American country with colour.

Cans of paint are used by a dozen painters to depict jaguars, faces, flowers, birds, and other local elements, this time in the picturesque town of Concepcion de Ataco, Ahuachapan, nestled among coffee-growing mountains about 65 km (40 miles) west of San Salvador.