Speaker 1: On the last couple of days of my trip to Alsavador,
Speaker 1: I finally got to take some time off reporting and
Speaker 1: just relax with my family. One of the first things
Speaker 1: we did was take a tour of the house that
Speaker 1: my parents built in their hometown, San Miguel.
Speaker 2: It's Okira, yeah there from fourteen.
Speaker 1: The plot of land that this house is built on
Speaker 1: was bought by my great grandmother almost one hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: It's the land where my grandmother was born, then my
Speaker 1: mom and my sisters too, Where there was once only
Speaker 1: a wooden shack on dirt. My parents built a five
Speaker 1: bedroom house with concrete walls and ceramic tile floors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's nicetyle.
Speaker 1: It's not the taj Mahal, but it's nice, comfortable and homie,
Speaker 1: and it's nice to see my mom so happy and excited.
Speaker 1: And while my mom is really happy to be retired,
Speaker 1: my dad's happy too, but for very different reasons. So
Speaker 1: here I am in the finest famous Langer, my mom
Speaker 1: and dad's restaurant that they opened uh next to their
Speaker 1: house in San Miguel.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: It's hard to describe. Behind the house, my dad has
Speaker 1: constructed a giant, and I mean giant dance hall slash restaurant.
Speaker 1: He named it e Langer the Hangar and made the
Speaker 1: whole place airplane themed for reasons unknown. And on top
Speaker 1: of this restaurant is a life sized single seater metal
Speaker 1: plane that my dad welded out of scrap metal. And
Speaker 1: my dad will probably tell everyone that you can see
Speaker 1: it from space, which is not true, but you can
Speaker 1: see it on Google Maps. For Google Maps, you you
Speaker 1: can look down and see the plane that was on
Speaker 1: top of my dad's restaurant, Elangarre. The plane is painted
Speaker 1: bright yellow with a red racing stripe down the sides,
Speaker 1: and when I asked him how he got it on
Speaker 1: the roof, he told me he paid a crane to
Speaker 1: come and lift it onto the building. On the side
Speaker 1: of the plane is a sticker with the cover art
Speaker 1: for the last show that I made, Princess of South Beach,
Speaker 1: which if you need a palate cleanser from this show,
Speaker 1: that's a good bet. I have to say I never
Speaker 1: thought this day would come my whole life. My parents
Speaker 1: told us that when they we retired, they wanted to
Speaker 1: go live in El Salvador, that they wanted to live
Speaker 1: out their old age in the place that they still
Speaker 1: thought of as home. My dad has dreamed of opening
Speaker 1: this restaurant and getting to MC karaoke nights here his
Speaker 1: entire life, but that just never really seemed like a possibility.
Speaker 1: It was dangerous to open a business here. You didn't
Speaker 1: know how much trouble the gangs were going to give
Speaker 1: you if they let you do it at all. But
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, after spending their whole lives working
Speaker 1: in the US, my parents finally felt confident enough to
Speaker 1: do it. And there's one person who my mom credits
Speaker 1: with making that happens book.
Speaker 3: So Lueirasier was penctralive.
Speaker 4: General.
Speaker 2: Yes, I guess a really.
Speaker 1: President naib Bukele. My dad loves to tease my mom
Speaker 1: about how much she loves him. In twenty nineteen, naib
Speaker 1: Bukele became president of El Salvador and the sole focus
Speaker 1: of his administration was getting rid of the gangs to
Speaker 1: make El Salvador a safe place to live, and in
Speaker 1: large part he has done that. There is finally peace
Speaker 1: in El Salvador, but the price for that piece has
Speaker 1: been very, very steep. I'm Jasmine Romero and this is
Speaker 1: sacred Scandal. Nation of Saints episode ten the Future. On
Speaker 1: a hot summer morning in twenty nineteen, a then thirty
Speaker 1: seven year old Naive Bugle walks across the steps of
Speaker 1: the National Palace in San Salvador. It's across the plaza
Speaker 1: from La Catrel, the cathedral where Oscar Romero's funeral was held,
Speaker 1: and just like that day almost forty years ago, the
Speaker 1: plaza is filled with Salvadorans, but this time they're not
Speaker 1: crying tears of mourning. They're openly weeping with tears of joy.
Speaker 1: Bukele has a thick black beard and slicked back hair.
Speaker 1: He stands smiling before his adoring crowd, and he's wrapped
Speaker 1: in a blue and white sash that's emblazoned with the
Speaker 1: crest of the Salvadoran flag. This young man has just
Speaker 1: become the first person to win the Salvadoran presidency as
Speaker 1: part of a new party, No Lessivas, No Ideas, and
Speaker 1: this party it's important for a lot of reasons, but
Speaker 1: mainly because it's considered an alternative to the two parties
Speaker 1: that have been in power since the end of the war.
Speaker 1: The FMLN and ARENA have taken turns running the government
Speaker 1: since nineteen ninety two, and both sides have been charged
Speaker 1: with corruption. Presidents from both parties have been convicted of
Speaker 1: embezzling millions of dollars, all while the country plunged further
Speaker 1: and further into gang controlled violence. And so, in many ways,
Speaker 1: Bouken's rise is seen as a rejection of the politics
Speaker 1: of the war embrace of a newer, more relevant kind
Speaker 1: of politics. So on this sunny day, Bucele steps up
Speaker 1: to the mic like a preacher on the pulpit to
Speaker 1: address the nation.
Speaker 3: Nostro pays is common inia fermo No sto cara toos
Speaker 3: puiarlo no stock calorratos tom marga, No sto caloratoos so
Speaker 3: freedom pocomermandos.
Speaker 2: Familia.
Speaker 1: And he tells the crowd, our country is like a
Speaker 1: sick child and it's up to all of us to
Speaker 1: take care of it, even if that means drinking medicina
Speaker 1: a marga, bitter medicine. But the crowd doesn't flinch. They
Speaker 1: love him, and it's clear to see why. He's a
Speaker 1: young man with an excellent smile and a ton of charisma.
Speaker 5: Nod.
Speaker 1: When coming into office, Bugle's big promise to the people
Speaker 1: of El Salvador was to get rid of the gangs
Speaker 1: MS thirteen and Barrio gangs that had terrorized the population
Speaker 1: for decades and given the country the title of murder
Speaker 1: capital of the world. But to get rid of those gangs,
Speaker 1: Bugle needed money, lots of it. Within six months of
Speaker 1: taking office, Bugle asked the Legislative Assembly the salvador In
Speaker 1: Congress to pass a two hundred million dollars spending bill.
Speaker 2: To pay for.
Speaker 1: Oral his plan to combat the gangs. But there was
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about exactly how that money would
Speaker 1: be used. Buchen's administration claimed that he couldn't reveal that
Speaker 1: information because the plans were all top secret, and when
Speaker 1: he couldn't provide answers for how he would spend the money,
Speaker 1: the Legislative Assembly signaled that they wouldn't pass the bill,
Speaker 1: which really pissed off Bugle claimed that this was all
Speaker 1: a game of dirty politics, that the members of the
Speaker 1: Assembly were just working against him because he wasn't part
Speaker 1: of their political parties at AA and the f MLN.
Speaker 1: He told the legislatives, sent you have until this weekend
Speaker 1: to get me the money or else, And by the
Speaker 1: weekend the world got a taste of the bitter medicine
Speaker 1: that Bugle had promised.
Speaker 6: The country's soldiers entered the building while President Naib was
Speaker 6: about to address lawmakers. The soldiers were armed with automatic weapons.
Speaker 6: The reason for such action was to step up the
Speaker 6: pressure on lawmakers to force them to back a proposed
Speaker 6: plan to fight crime.
Speaker 1: On February ninth, twenty twenty, Bucele stormed the Assembly building
Speaker 1: with forty armed soldiers behind him to preside over the
Speaker 1: voting and ensure that his bill passed. It was a
Speaker 1: move straight out of an authoritarian textbook, and it made
Speaker 1: headlines around the world, condemning this action as anti democratic.
Speaker 7: COSEI miiuel vivanco victoria hum and RAI watch par las
Speaker 7: America's opin to Kenixsimi soon for urgent organization The americanos.
Speaker 8: Cordo a military military age user algo vierno.
Speaker 3: Is tamos protestando ericamente tito.
Speaker 2: Singressol latio.
Speaker 1: But in El Salvador it drew cheering crowds. It was
Speaker 1: seen as a power move by someone who was finally
Speaker 1: willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of
Speaker 1: the gangs. Bukele even leaned into the international fame changing
Speaker 1: his Twitter bio to quote the world's coolest dictator. In
Speaker 1: the end, buccell got the money that he needed and
Speaker 1: he got to work executing his grand vision for Al Salvador,
Speaker 1: one that included a lot of big, flashy projects. He
Speaker 1: invested in the now famous Surf City, an entire beach
Speaker 1: town sponsored by the government to promote El Salvador as
Speaker 1: a global surf destination, And in perhaps the flashiest and
Speaker 1: most confusing move, Bugle made bitcoin one of the official
Speaker 1: legal currencies in El Salvador.
Speaker 4: De Bitcoin lawmakers in El Salvador broke into applause after
Speaker 4: voting to approve bitcoin as legal tender on Wednesday, making
Speaker 4: the Central American country the first in the world to
Speaker 4: fully adopt the cryptocurrency.
Speaker 1: And while these things might sound a little outlandish for Salvadorans,
Speaker 1: it was really a breath of fresh air. For once
Speaker 1: the world was hearing a story about us that wasn't
Speaker 1: about gangs or death and destruction. It was something good,
Speaker 1: or at least it was something different. Plus, Bucele might
Speaker 1: be a little eccentric, but his plans seemed to be working.
Speaker 1: Within the first two years of his presidency, the murder
Speaker 1: rate dropped by fifty two percent. To be fair, the
Speaker 1: murder rate had already been on the decline since it's
Speaker 1: high in twenty fifteen, but still, even for people living
Speaker 1: in the US, people like my parents, the progress Bugele
Speaker 1: was making was clear.
Speaker 5: El siempre siempre quiso di questuviera el pa mejor peroo pora.
Speaker 1: Yes, my parents had always wanted to come back to Alsavor,
Speaker 1: and while my dad was a little more cavalier about
Speaker 1: the threat of gang violence, my mom was more fearful.
Speaker 1: She worried about being extorted or threatened. But with the
Speaker 1: progress that Bugele was making, my mom finally felt confident
Speaker 1: enough to sell their home in the United States, and
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one they moved to San Miguel permanently,
Speaker 1: to the house that they had spent a lifetime building.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one is also the year that Bugele's party
Speaker 1: Novasiveas overwhelmingly won seats in the Legislative Assembly, and that
Speaker 1: Legislative Assembly promptly voted to oust five sitting Supreme Court
Speaker 1: justices and basically got the entire judicial branch of the government.
Speaker 1: In doing so, cases across the country were dropped in
Speaker 1: an instant, including one seeking justice for the victims of Elmosote.
Speaker 1: But again this move drew cheers from many, as Bugle
Speaker 1: insisted that these were necessary steps to weed out corruption
Speaker 1: and fight the gangs. With the murder rate under control
Speaker 1: and the country rapidly drawing more bitcoin and surf tourists,
Speaker 1: it seems like Bugel could do no wrong. That is
Speaker 1: until the weekend of March twenty seventh of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 9: Tonight about that is under state of emergency after a
Speaker 9: deadly weekend of gang violence, the National Civil Police reporting
Speaker 9: fourteen people murdered on Friday and sixty two the following day,
Speaker 9: making Saturday one of the deadliest days in thirty years.
Speaker 10: Over two thousand arrests made in just four days in
Speaker 10: response to one of the bloodiest weekends in the country
Speaker 10: in thirty years, the National Civil Police reporting sixty two
Speaker 10: homicides on Saturday alone.
Speaker 1: All over the country, there were reports of murders and
Speaker 1: not gang shootouts, seemingly random murders. In the span of
Speaker 1: a weekend, eighty seven people were killed in El Salvador.
Speaker 1: One body was even hauntingly laid out on the road
Speaker 1: to Bucelees, surf city, after the break the message behind these.
Speaker 9: Murders Tonight, El Salvador is under state of emergency after
Speaker 9: a deadly weekend of gang violence.
Speaker 1: After all the progress made, it really felt like a
Speaker 1: slap in the face for Salvadorans to have the deadliest
Speaker 1: weekend on record in more than a century. These murders
Speaker 1: were of seemingly innocent civilians, and all the reports signaled
Speaker 1: that they were carried out by gang members, gangs that
Speaker 1: President Bugle claimed to have under control. The murders seemed
Speaker 1: to be a direct message aimed at the president himself,
Speaker 1: news that he did not take lightly.
Speaker 3: Las amb Salvador solicitude the president and najib rehimen deception
Speaker 3: an alpais queda palo el projecto treto ke containing rejimeng
Speaker 3: de escepsion.
Speaker 1: In an emergency session of the Legislative Assembly, Bukele called
Speaker 1: for unestallo de excepcion, a state of exception. What Bukele
Speaker 1: was asking for was an immediate suspension of civil liberties
Speaker 1: once guaranteed in the constitution, so that he could declare
Speaker 1: all out war on the gangs, and with his party
Speaker 1: controlling judicial and legislative branches, the state of exception easily passed.
Speaker 1: Within that state of exception, the government could now arrest
Speaker 1: anyone for any reason. There would be no presumption of innocence,
Speaker 1: no need for warrants, and no guarantee for when you'd
Speaker 1: be released. Agents of the state could come and pick
Speaker 1: you up on the mere suspicion that you were a
Speaker 1: gang member. Bukelet also approved the use of deadly force
Speaker 1: for officers of the state. Overnight, billboards went up across
Speaker 1: the country showing the number for tip lines, where you
Speaker 1: could anonymously report anyone who you thought might be in
Speaker 1: a gang or affiliated with one. I even saw a
Speaker 1: couple on my trip on the highway there was a
Speaker 1: sign listed or I guess like a billboard over the
Speaker 1: highway that's said, with your tax dollars, we keep fighting
Speaker 1: the gangs. And there was a phone number and it
Speaker 1: said declare your rent, meaning the rent that people paid
Speaker 1: monthly to the gangs to keep them from bothering them.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just gang members that they were after.
Speaker 1: It was anyone who could be affiliated with the gangs.
Speaker 1: You could be arrested for being a collaborator, someone suspected
Speaker 1: of giving the gangs information or money, or of hiding
Speaker 1: a gang member. Within days of the state of exception
Speaker 1: being declared, the Bukee administration sent the police and military
Speaker 1: out to conduct massive raids. Thousands of people were rounded
Speaker 1: up and sent to processing centers. Children as young as
Speaker 1: twelve were sent into overcrowded prison cells to await processing
Speaker 1: in the now backlogged judicialsts. Between March and December of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, over sixty thousand people were detained by
Speaker 1: Bugeli's administration, and to hold all of these arrested people,
Speaker 1: Bugele approved the building of a megaprison with a capacity
Speaker 1: for forty thousand people, one of the largest in the world.
Speaker 11: The Terrorism Confinement Center can fit up to forty thousand
Speaker 11: inmates and is considered to be the largest jail in
Speaker 11: the Americas.
Speaker 8: The president announced that he was moving thousands of high
Speaker 8: ranking gang members to the country's new so called mega jail.
Speaker 11: It looks like a sea of skin and tattoos. These
Speaker 11: images released by El Salvador's government shows the transfer of
Speaker 11: about two thousand inmates.
Speaker 1: Human rights groups around the globe criticized these actions, saying
Speaker 1: that the roundups were accept that many of those detained
Speaker 1: and arrested had no verifiable connection with the gangs. Tebukele
Speaker 1: and his government were using the state of exception to
Speaker 1: arrest and threaten those who opposed his regime, including environmental activists, journalists,
Speaker 1: and academics in opposition to the administration, and that abuses
Speaker 1: and death were happening within the prison system. But still
Speaker 1: the Salvadoran people supported the president all over social media,
Speaker 1: Salvadorans snapped back at the president's critics.
Speaker 7: How can you be worried about criminals human rights?
Speaker 9: They didn't care about our human rights when they killed us.
Speaker 11: Anyone who criticizes the government is for the gangs and
Speaker 11: should be arrested.
Speaker 9: If some innocent people have to suffer to get rid
Speaker 9: of the gangs, it's worth it.
Speaker 1: It feels weird to say this, but on a certain
Speaker 1: level I get it. Looking across the last forty years
Speaker 1: at how much the Salvadoran people have suffered. What price
Speaker 1: wouldn't they be willing to pay for peace, for a
Speaker 1: chance that their children could grow up in safety. And anyway,
Speaker 1: it was the gangs who provoked him, right, They're the
Speaker 1: ones who killed almost one hundred people in a weekend.
Speaker 1: Well as it turns out.
Speaker 12: For the mostly Confianza.
Speaker 8: But miyao, mi mono.
Speaker 1: What you're hearing is a conversation between a senior member
Speaker 1: of the Bugle administration and a leader of MS thirteen.
Speaker 1: Remember in twenty twenty one when the murder rate dropped
Speaker 1: by fifty percent. Well, as it turns out, that's because
Speaker 1: Bugle had a pact with the gangs basedummer reporting by
Speaker 1: the Salvador news outlet El Faro. In exchange for lowering
Speaker 1: the murdery, the Bukele administration agreed to give preferential treatment
Speaker 1: to high ranking gang members in prison. That's what this
Speaker 1: conversation we're listening to is about, Antossente Royer. In the recording,
Speaker 1: a Bugle official is talking to a gang leader and
Speaker 1: telling them how much their administration has done to show
Speaker 1: them its loyalty and good faith, and he even admits
Speaker 1: to personally escorting a gang leader named Elgruk from his
Speaker 1: prison cell in El Salvador across the border to freedom
Speaker 1: in Guatemala. It was the breakdown of these negotiations that
Speaker 1: led to the spike in murders during that deadly weekend
Speaker 1: in March of twenty twenty two. The reactions to this
Speaker 1: news from the public have varied. Some of Bukeli's supporters
Speaker 1: say that the news is fake, that Ilfaro is simply
Speaker 1: against the president and working in service of the gangs.
Speaker 1: Others say that the president was justified in doing whatever
Speaker 1: he needed to do to get rid of the gangs,
Speaker 1: even if that includes these kinds of negotiations. Either way,
Speaker 1: the reports of these negotiations didn't affect the president's approval ratings,
Speaker 1: which are currently around ninety two percent. In September of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, as Bugel was nearing the end of
Speaker 1: his term as president, he decided to address the country
Speaker 1: for a special announcement. The venue stood in stark contrast
Speaker 1: to the sunny morning when he took office. Instead of
Speaker 1: the open steps of the National Palace, the announcement took
Speaker 1: place in a darkened conference room well into the night.
Speaker 1: In place of the adoring crowds, a small group of
Speaker 1: well dressed officials and foreign dignitaries stood clapping, welcoming Bugle
Speaker 1: to take his place at the dais. Behind the president
Speaker 1: is a towering portrait of a man dressed in white
Speaker 1: robes with a cross necklace draped across his chest. It's
Speaker 1: a portrait of a man with some seriously enviable eyebrows,
Speaker 1: whose face carries the weight of the entire salvadorn people.
Speaker 1: The man, of course, is Oscar Romero, who was named
Speaker 1: saint in twenty eighteen. President Bucele steps in front of
Speaker 1: the portrait of Oscar Romero and proceeds to tell the
Speaker 1: audience that he plans to run for president once again.
Speaker 3: Esporeso quefamilia ano esi correcom candiato a preci.
Speaker 1: The audience collaps. No one is surprised, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that this move goes directly against the constitution of El Salvador.
Speaker 1: According to that constitution, no president is allowed to remain
Speaker 1: in office for two consecutive terms. To run again is
Speaker 1: the equivalent of an American president running for a third time.
Speaker 1: But Bugele doesn't care. With the support of so much
Speaker 1: of the Salvadoran population behind him, he knows that this
Speaker 1: rule doesn't apply to him, and he's right. The unconstitutionality
Speaker 1: won't matter, and in February of twenty twenty four, Bugele
Speaker 1: easily wins his second term. With his win, he controls
Speaker 1: all three branches of government, such all the power in
Speaker 1: El Salvador outside a full military guard stands at attention.
Speaker 1: Since implementing the state of exception, almost ninety thousand people
Speaker 1: have been arrested in Al Salvador. At least two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty people have died in police custody, and while
Speaker 1: the murder rate is now one of the lowest in
Speaker 1: the world, reports of disappearances are up, and it's hard
Speaker 1: to get a solid number on exactly how many because
Speaker 1: Bugeli's administration has changed the way it counts disappearances, but
Speaker 1: human rights organizations say that there are over twenty eight
Speaker 1: thousand cases of disappearances currently open in El Salvador. After
Speaker 1: making this series and seeing how much death and destruction
Speaker 1: came from the hands of the government, Bugeles rise is
Speaker 1: really scary to me. Salvador in history is full of
Speaker 1: governments using order as a justification for horrendous acts of violence.
Speaker 1: There are always innocent people who are collateral damage, whether
Speaker 1: they're peasants or priests, or student activists or my Dia Margarita.
Speaker 1: I went on this journey to understand my family and
Speaker 1: our history, and over the course of the last two years,
Speaker 1: I've realized that our story isn't just ours. It's the
Speaker 1: story of a country and a history that's too easy
Speaker 1: to repeat. Seeing the military on our streets, searching people
Speaker 1: at bus stops, arresting people with impunity, it all just
Speaker 1: looks like the start of the same cycle over again.
Speaker 1: But my mom, she sees it differently.
Speaker 5: With Mirida Tingos Struta Viatopor Nadi Nipo, al kal Nipur
Speaker 5: presidentes Piro alfink Pusami Esperanza, sen Al yinqus Promtiplin though
Speaker 5: he is naibuke.
Speaker 1: My mom had never voted in a savador In election
Speaker 1: before twenty nineteen. Since she left the country as a teenager,
Speaker 1: she's watched a government after government come in and failed
Speaker 1: to protect its own people, first the death squads and
Speaker 1: the war, and then the gangs. After spending a lifetime
Speaker 1: waiting for Al Savador to be safe, the fact that
Speaker 1: Bukela has made the country livable for her is enough
Speaker 1: to win her love and support.
Speaker 5: Ike boys.
Speaker 1: In a world where you have to choose between freedom
Speaker 1: and safety, safety wins every time. Al Savor now holds
Speaker 1: the title for the country with the highest incarceration rate
Speaker 1: per capita in the world, and bus approval rating has
Speaker 1: never been higher. My mom is part of the ninety
Speaker 1: two percent of Salvadorans who say they approve of the
Speaker 1: president's actions. On one of my last days in al Savador,
Speaker 1: my parents decided that we should take a trip to
Speaker 1: a nearby beach, Elkuco. It's about a thirty minute drive
Speaker 1: away from my parents' house. My mom called up Mitiavilma
Speaker 1: to see if she wanted to come too, and she
Speaker 1: said yes, but only if she could bring along my
Speaker 1: little cousin, Anguel Jokin. He's seven and he rarely gets
Speaker 1: a chance to go to the beach. Angueil Jokin's mother,
Speaker 1: my cousin Carmen, is in prison for being in a gang.
Speaker 1: His father is too. Back when Mitia Margarrita died, Mitiavilma
Speaker 1: took in her kids and now she's raising a new
Speaker 1: generation of kids left behind, including Angheljokin. We all pile
Speaker 1: into my dad's pickup truck and head off to Alkugo.
Speaker 1: I remember trips like this when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: Every time we came to visit. We had to go
Speaker 1: to Alkugo and need some fresh fish and play in
Speaker 1: the warm ocean water. The beach is different now there
Speaker 1: are more resorts and the streets are better paved, but
Speaker 1: it's still full of old men coming in with the
Speaker 1: catch of the day and little brown children playing in
Speaker 1: the sand.
Speaker 12: It's one nineteen in the afternoon and I'm at Elcucouco.
Speaker 12: She's the closest beach to my family's house in San Miguel,
Speaker 12: is about a thirty forty minute drive, and I'm here
Speaker 12: with my aunts and my cousin. The beach is beautiful.
Speaker 12: The water is like backwater. You keep walking and walking
Speaker 12: and it doesn't pass your knees. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: As we walk down the beach, I noticed a pickup
Speaker 1: truck that's driving down along the water. The truck parks
Speaker 1: and four men hop out of the back.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: This is surprising. Four guys and for four soldiers and
Speaker 1: full fatigues and rifles, just just scrolling down the beach.
Speaker 1: The soldiers are wearing helmets, boots, and carrying what looked
Speaker 1: like M sixteen rifles. As they walk past us, I
Speaker 1: can see that they're inspecting us. They linger for a moment,
Speaker 1: but then they continue to walk down the beach. Their
Speaker 1: boots leave heavy footprints in the sand. As of this recording,
Speaker 1: the state of Exception in El Salvador has been renewed
Speaker 1: twenty six times. There is no timeline for when civil
Speaker 1: liberties will be re established, and until the state of
Speaker 1: exception is dropped, El Salvador will in essence be a
Speaker 1: police state, one where there is safety but not freedom.
Speaker 1: After a good meal of biscalo and some time laying
Speaker 1: in the hammock, it's time to go. As the sun
Speaker 1: starts to set, we start packing up to make the
Speaker 1: drive back to San Miguel. But before we go, I
Speaker 1: decide to take one last step in the water, and
Speaker 1: I ask my little cousin, ang uell Joaquin if he
Speaker 1: wants to come to He smiles a big, gap toothed
Speaker 1: grin and takes off running for the water. I catch
Speaker 1: up to him and hold his hand. As we run
Speaker 1: towards the water. I watch his little feet pound the
Speaker 1: sand as he dives headfirst into the waves. In another lifetime,
Speaker 1: this boy might have been conscripted into the army or
Speaker 1: into the Geria. He might have left his family to
Speaker 1: travel north and cross a river, or stayed home and
Speaker 1: become a marero, a foot soldier in a street gang.
Speaker 1: These pathways are still possible, but for now he can
Speaker 1: be what he is, a little boy enjoying a day
Speaker 1: in the sun with his cousin from the States. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the future will bring for Al Salvador,
Speaker 1: how long Bugel will be in office. I don't know
Speaker 1: what Anguel Joaquin's future will be. But at least for now,
Speaker 1: there is a future to dream of. There is hope
Speaker 1: for what this boy might become, for what this place
Speaker 1: might become.
Speaker 2: And Anghel Hacquin is having a good time. Raby there Ahala.
Speaker 1: If you're interested in learning more about Bukele and the
Speaker 1: current state of El Salvador, I highly recommend you check
Speaker 1: out the podcast buke fromos and Umo Murder and Silence
Speaker 1: in El Salvador from Sonoro. If you've enjoyed our show,
Speaker 1: please leave us a rating and review in the podcast
Speaker 1: listening app of your choice and send the show to
Speaker 1: someone you think would enjoy it. We'll be back next
Speaker 1: week in a special conversation with one of the people
Speaker 1: who sent me on this journey, Salvador in American comedian Marcelo.
Speaker 1: Sacred Scandal. Nation of Saints is a production of a
Speaker 1: HA podcast in partnership with Iheart's Mikultura podcast network and
Speaker 1: is hosted and written by me Jasmine Romero. Produced by
Speaker 1: Jasmine Romero with help from Alvaro Sespelez. Research and reporting
Speaker 1: by Jasmine Romero, edited by sare Kevelo. Nation of Saints
Speaker 1: was recorded in New York City at the Relic Room
Speaker 1: with engineering by Sam Bear, mixing and sound designed by Paciquinones.
Speaker 1: Original music by Golden Mines, Darko and Dieme based on
Speaker 1: Patrick Hart's original composition. Fact checking by Erendira Aquino Ayala.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Carman gerterol isaac Lee Rose Reed, and
Speaker 1: Nando Villa. Our executive producers at iHeart are Giselle Mances
Speaker 1: and Arlene Santana. Sacred Scandal was created by Melanie Bartley
Speaker 1: and Paula Vadros. For more podcasts, go to the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: app or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.