MARTÍN MUCHA
Friday, May 8, 2020 - 4:56 PM
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Wesly has his hatred tattooed on his eyes and skin. Rafael Antonio Ramos Peraza, his real name, was sentenced to 350 years in prison for 160 murders. And, due to a judicial absurdity - his appeal was not resolved in time - Ramos has been released. He is the leader of the Mara Salvatrucha ...
It should be remembered that one of the probable origins of the name of this gang is for the voracious ants that destroy everything in their path. The Marabunta. Like the ones in the photo ...
Today they give reason to their name. President Nayib Bukele accuses them of unleashing a real war in El Salvador: a hundred victims since Wesly has been on the street.
"The gangs are taking advantage of the fact that almost all of our public forces are controlling the pandemic," says Bukele. The presidential response has been the origin of a photograph that portrays the criminals crowding the courtyard of the Izalco prison.
There are hundreds of gang members intermingled, subdued by the police, before going to their cells. Enemies who were separated by gangs in each pavilion: the Salvatruchas, the 18-Sureños Gang and the 18-Revolutionary Barrio, now together.
Irreconcilable rivals who, by presidential order, would coexist in the confinement. Sleep with the enemy. Fearing a stab, a screwdriver going through the eyeball, or herd rapes.
The terror of these criminal organizations - classified as terrorists by Salvadoran justice - is such that the photographs are not usually signed. Doing so can be a death sentence.
The custom has been prevailing since they ended in 2009 with the Spanish-French photographer Christián Poveda, the portraitist of the maras. Author of the documentary released in San Sebastián La Vida Loca, he received four shots in the head.
His executioners justly serve their sentence in the prison where the photograph illustrating these pages has been taken. This is signed briefly as an exit from the Presidential Office of El Salvador ...
Bukele -38 years old, of Palestinian origin from the paternal branch- wants to make it clear that he is going to impose a heavy hand. He places them in an ant row, half-naked, in breeches, without distinction of class or rank -heads and subordinates-, with a mask covering their faces. The deaths have been ordered from prison.
Bukele accuses gang members of taking advantage of confinement by the coronavirus to massacre. In five days, 20 murders every 24 hours when - being one of the most violent countries in the world - it had reduced it, in March, to 2.1.
The president - criticized by Human Rights organizations - has given severe orders: "The gang cells, sealed ... You will no longer be able to see outside the cell." An authentic civil war between the Salvadoran Executive and the gangs. Bukele: "The use of lethal force is authorized."
His way of pointing out how he will treat his prisoners. Or that there won't be.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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