Visit to El Salvador

H

Hallucinator

New member
I just spent five days in El Salvador. The city is armed to the teeth. The police carry Berettas and shotguns (lots of mossbergs and 870s with a preference for stainless steel) and the federal police carry M16s. The security guards are also heavily armed (same as above) and they are everywhere. Every store, school and hotel is guarded 24 hours. People are nervous about the Maras (MS13) whose home is in San Salvador. One guy said to me, "Down here, Mad Max is not a movie."

I was warned not to leave the hotel to go walking around without armed escort. There are police checkpoints everywhere.

There are also vigilantes just wandering around with shotguns. They are tolerated by the police. However the relationship between the police and the Maras is hinky. Huge amounts of drug money and police work in Latin America is, well, entrepreneurial.

With all the violence around, the people were really wonderful. 80% of the country is very poor, but everyone is courteous and respectful in a Latin way. There is little tourism because of the violence. The upside of that is that they don't have that anti-tourist attitude that some countries have. All in all, the trip was an education.
 
Holy crap, what were you doing down there? Are foreigners allowed to carry? Is the countryside safer than the city?

I'm aware of a "gang" that tracks MS-13, even in the U.S., with the intent of killing them. Where can I make a donation to them? :D

twb
 
TWB: I was down there for a conference. Freedoms down there depend upon one's relationship to the government. The vigilantes, for obvious reasons, are condoned by the government. This is a country still recovering from a nasty war that lasted 11 years and only ended in 1992.

The most important thing to remember is that most of the population, which is the case in most third world countries, are decent people just trying to survive the political insanity.
 
This thread will never see another word about firearms.

And it's not about civil liberties in this country (US). But it could be ... so I'm going to roll the dice here and move to L&P.
 
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