Where to be young is a crime
Salvadoran youth continue to bear the brunt of the violence in El Salvador. People say that to be young in El Salvador is a punishment. Life is hard. Neither schools nor homes provide refuge from the insecurity that permeates the country. There are few economic opportunities for the educated and the under-educated.
Others say that to be young is a crime. The gangs harass you, perhaps kill you, if you do not carry out criminal acts for them. It's also rather clear that death squads are operating in the country. They've gone around torturing and killing youth simply for being youth. While I was thrown off by the comparison, one officer told me that some people see poor, young men here the same way that police see black men in the United States.
On Monday, a seventeen-year-old boy was shot and killed in Soyapango as he was about to board a bus to bring him to school. He was shot at least 15 times. Bryan was preparing to go to university to study systems engineering. According to the Asociacion de Colegios Privados de El Salvador, 13% of students who had been enrolled at the beginning of the year have dropped out of their schools because of insecurity.
According to authorities, Bryan was the 34th student killed in 2015. He is also the fourth student killed in the last week. Three children murdered near a river in Olocuilta last Thursday. The police believe that Brandon, Alfredo and Cesar were killed because they refused to carry out favors for a gang in their neighborhood. However, there is a strong possibility that they were instead murdered by death squads operating within the country's security forces. There also doesn't appear to be any connection between the three young men and the country's gangs.
Their only crime? To be a young male looking to survive a war between the State and the country's two main gangs.
Others say that to be young is a crime. The gangs harass you, perhaps kill you, if you do not carry out criminal acts for them. It's also rather clear that death squads are operating in the country. They've gone around torturing and killing youth simply for being youth. While I was thrown off by the comparison, one officer told me that some people see poor, young men here the same way that police see black men in the United States.
On Monday, a seventeen-year-old boy was shot and killed in Soyapango as he was about to board a bus to bring him to school. He was shot at least 15 times. Bryan was preparing to go to university to study systems engineering. According to the Asociacion de Colegios Privados de El Salvador, 13% of students who had been enrolled at the beginning of the year have dropped out of their schools because of insecurity.
According to authorities, Bryan was the 34th student killed in 2015. He is also the fourth student killed in the last week. Three children murdered near a river in Olocuilta last Thursday. The police believe that Brandon, Alfredo and Cesar were killed because they refused to carry out favors for a gang in their neighborhood. However, there is a strong possibility that they were instead murdered by death squads operating within the country's security forces. There also doesn't appear to be any connection between the three young men and the country's gangs.
Their only crime? To be a young male looking to survive a war between the State and the country's two main gangs.
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