Vocapedia > Countries > El Salvador

Google map > El Salvador

Tecoluca, El Salvador

Police officers keep watch during the second arrival of inmates

belonging to the MS-13 and 18 gangs to the new prison,

a terrorist confinement centre

Photograph: El Salvador's Presidency Press Office

AFP/Getty Images

The week around the world in 20 pictures

The battle on the frontline near Soledar in Ukraine, protests in France,

an eruption from Mount Merapi in Indonesia, and Rihanna at the Oscars

– the most striking images this week

G

Fri 17 Mar 2023    18.41 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/mar/17/
the-week-around-the-world-in-20-pictures

Residents in a low-income settlement

(controlled by MS 13)

pass by a police patrol, San Martín, San Salvador.

Photograph: Tariq Zaidi

El Salvador: a nation held hostage – a photo essay

El Salvador is commonly considered

the deadliest place in the world that is not a war zone,

but it may as well be one.

The defence ministry estimates

that as many as 500,000 of the country’s

6.5 million people are involved in gangs

The Guardian

Fri 22 Nov 2019    07.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/
el-salvador-a-nation-held-hostage-a-photo-essay

The burial for Jose Luis, 11,

who was murdered by members of the La 18 gang.

Photograph: Tariq Zaidi

He would play with friends in the park

on the border of a demarcation line

between La 18 and rival gang MS 13.

He was threatened by gang members

but continued playing with friends

who were later kidnapped by La 18.

His two friends escaped,

but Jose Luis was beaten, tortured, stabbed and beheaded.

His body was left in a ditch and found a few days later

El Salvador: a nation held hostage – a photo essay

El Salvador is commonly considered

the deadliest place in the world that is not a war zone,

but it may as well be one.

The defence ministry estimates that as many as 500,000

of the country’s 6.5 million people are involved in gangs

by Tariq Zaidi

The Guardian

Fri 22 Nov 2019    07.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/
el-salvador-a-nation-held-hostage-a-photo-essay

podcasts > 2025

podcasts > before 2025

He Thought He Would Be Deported to Venezuela.

Instead, Trump Sent Him to CECOT.

ProPublica    18 July 2025

He Thought He Would Be Deported to Venezuela.

Instead, Trump Sent Him to CECOT.

video    ProPublica    18 July 2025

José Manuel Ramos Bastidas entered the U.S. with an appointment

with border officials made via the CBP One app,

which the Biden administration used to try to bring order

to the soaring numbers of migrants attempting to enter the country,

but he was immediately detained.

An immigration officer and a judge determined

he did not qualify for protection in the country.

For almost a year,

he waited in detention to be sent back home to Venezuela.

In February 2025,

when the Trump administration began a mass deportation campaign

and news of the first immigrants being sent to a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,

started trickling in to detention centers,

Ramos panicked and asked his wife, Roynerliz Rodríguez,

to record a message, “Just in case something happens to me,” he said.

A month later, he called again.

More upbeat,

he said U.S. authorities told him he would be sent back to Venezuela.

His family planned to bake him a cake and cook his favorite meal.

But Ramos never arrived.

Instead,

he ended up being one of the more than 230 Venezuelans

sent to the notorious prison in El Salvador known as CECOT on March 15.

In a first-of-its-kind, case-by-case investigation

into where each of the men were in the U.S. immigration system,

we found they were either in the middle of their cases,

which normally should have protected them from deportation,

or they had already been ordered deported

and should have first been given the option

to be sent back to a country they chose.

Tricia McLaughlin,

an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,

defended sending the Venezuelans to CECOT.

“They may not have criminal records in the U.S.,

beyond breaking our laws to enter the country illegally,” she said in a statement,

“but many of these illegal aliens are far from innocent.”

Ramos’ lawyers said in court records that U.S. authorities wrongly identified him

as a gang member based on his tattoos

and an “unsubstantiated” report from Panamanian officials.

Months later, his family questions whether he’s still alive.

They have not heard from him nor have they received official confirmation

that he was sent to the Salvadoran prison

beyond a list published by a news organization.

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHBmbQCOYzQ

El Salvador        UK / USA

https://www.npr.org/tags/136858131/
el-salvador

https://www.theguardian.com/world/
el-salvador

2025

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/26/
venezuela-el-salvador-prison

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/24/
trump-venezuelan-deportations-el-salvador-prison

https://projects.propublica.org/
venezuelan-immigrants-trump-deported-cecot/ - July 23, 2025

https://www.propublica.org/article/
venezuelan-deportees-trump-immigration-asylum-el-salvador - July 18, 2025

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/
g-s1-75775/abrego-garcia-el-salvador-prison-beaten-torture

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/04/
el-salvador-dutch-reporters-sentencing

https://www.propublica.org/article/
trump-el-salvador-deportees-criminal-convictions-cecot-venezuela - May 30, 2025

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/
nx-s1-5366662/afghanistan-tps-immigration-asylum-seekers

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/06/nx-s1-5388197/
el-salvador-president-bukele-bus-free-transport

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/
opinion/el-salvador-bukele-prisons.html

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/
g-s1-61534/bukele-propose-prisoner-swap-maduro

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/20/
venezuela-arturo-suarez-trejo-el-salvador-prison

https://www.gocomics.com/joe-heller/2025/04/17

https://www.gocomics.com/clayjones/2025/04/17

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2025/apr/16/
trumps-deportation-mistake-
the-man-trapped-in-a-prison-in-el-salvador

https://www.reuters.com/legal/
judge-finds-
trump-administration-disregarded-order-venezuelan-deportations-2025-04-16/

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/
us-senator-lands-el-salvador-
seeking-release-wrongly-deported-salvadoran-man-2025-04-16/

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/
trump-meet-with-el-salvadors-president-
amid-questions-over-deportations-2025-04-14/

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/
nx-s1-5364502/trump-bukele-el-salvador-deportation

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/
nx-s1-5361119/the-worlds-coolest-dictator-heads-to-the-white-house

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/
1240671744/the-triumph-of-a-doctrine-of-cruelty-in-el-salvador

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/
g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-prison-cecot

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/
g-s1-54154/alien-enemies-el-salvador-trump

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/
us-removes-hundreds-alleged-venezuelan-gang-members-
under-now-blocked-authority-2025-03-16/

https://www.reuters.com/pictures/
inside-el-salvadors-mega-prison-
where-us-criminals-could-be-held-2025-02-06/

2024

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2025/jan/28/
shetland-vikings-and-a-mega-prison-photos-of-the-day-
tuesday

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2024/may/10/
the-true-cost-of-el-salvadors-new-gold-rush-podcast

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/
world/americas/latin-america-prisons-gangs-violence.html

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/feb/09/
the-week-around-the-world-in-20-pictures

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2024/02/06/
1226991801/el-salvador-state-of-exception

2023

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/mar/17/
the-week-around-the-world-
in-20-pictures - Guardian picture gallery

2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/25/
el-salvador-house-of-horror-women-murders

2020

https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2020/apr/26/
alpine-art-and-lockdown-bingo-sundays-best-photos

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/25/
el-salvador-imposes-prisons-lockdown-after-22-murders-in-a-day

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/
migrants-fleeing-central-america-guatemala-honduras-el-salvador-family-taken-killed-
study

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/
804407503/troops-occupy-el-salvadors-legislature-to-back-president-s-crime-package

2019

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/
el-salvador-a-nation-held-hostage-a-photo-essay

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/16/
774176106/i-miss-them-always-a-witness-recounts-el-salvador-s-1989-jesuit-massacre

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/15/
779628824/remembering-the-1989-massacre-of-jesuits-in-el-salvador

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/
lens/images-of-an-el-salvador-town-transformed-by-migration.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/
opinion/contributors/in-el-salvador-
left-joins-right-in-asking-for-war-crimes-amnesty.html

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/7
10296555/in-what-you-have-heard-is-true-
a-poet-bears-witness-to-devastating-civil-war

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/
lens/finding-echoes-of-todays-headlines-in-central-americas-
proxy-wars-in-the-1980s.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/14/
el-salvador-massacre-el-mozote

2018

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/
central-america-migrants-us-foreign-policy

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/14/
el-salvador-oscar-romero-civil-war-saint-justice

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/12/
639561423/a-voice-for-the-voiceless-
sainthood-for-el-salvadors-archbishop-scar-romero

https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2018/jul/19/
the-only-way-out-is-through-jesus-
el-salvadors-brutal-gangs-and-salvation-video

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/02/
624231578/for-some-gang-members-in-el-salvador-
the-evangelical-church-offers-a-way-out

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/06/
el-salvador-devastating-epidemic-femicide

2016

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/nov/23/
central-america-gangs-migrants-sexual-exploitation-prostitution

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/02/
el-salvador-judge-reopens-case-of-1981-massacre-at-el-mozote

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/08/
spanish-trial-of-soldiers-behind-uca-atrocity-
raises-hopes-of-ending-impunity-in-el-salvador

2015

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/22/
el-salvador-worlds-most-homicidal-place

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/
hundreds-of-thousands-to-attend-oscar-romero-beatification-
in-el-salvador

1990

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/24/
obituaries/jose-napoleon-duarte-salvadoran-
leader-in-decade-of-war-and-anguish-
dies-at-64.html

1986

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/05/
movies/screen-salvador-by-stone.html

Salvadoran

https://www.propublica.org/article/
trump-el-salvador-deportees-criminal-convictions-cecot-venezuela - May 30, 2025

San Salvador        UK

https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2020/apr/26/
alpine-art-and-lockdown-bingo-sundays-best-photos

gangs        USA

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/
world/americas/latin-america-prisons-gangs-violence.html

Cecot

- El Salvador’s most notorious megaprison        UK

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/26/
venezuela-el-salvador-prison

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/24/
trump-venezuelan-deportations-el-salvador-prison

Related > Anglonautes >  History > 20th century >

Cold War - late 1940s-1980s

El Salvador’s civil war    1980s-1992

democracy, human rights, migration, politics,

society, religion, health, climate, resources >

international, world > regions, countries

politics, power > world >

oligarchy, autocracy, communism,

despotism, dictatorship,

totalitarianism, fascism

politics, power, empires > world >

foreign policy, diplomacy,

United Nations (U.N.)

Earth > geography,

animals, wildlife,

endangered and extinct species,

resources,

agriculture / farming, gardening,

population, waste, pollution,

global warming, climate change,

weather, extreme weather, disasters,

climate action, activists

religion / faith, abuse, violence, extremism,

secularism, atheism

genocide, war,

weapons, arms sales,

espionage, torture

war > civilians > migrants, refugees

immigration > USA

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Photography > Galleries, Photo essays

21st century > 2021

Coronavirus >

SARS-CoV-2 virus / covid-19 pandemic - Part 1

warning: graphic

21st century > 2020

Coronavirus >

SARS-CoV-2 virus / covid-19 pandemic - Part 2

warning: graphic

21st century > 2020

Coronavirus >

SARS-CoV-2 virus / covid-19 pandemic - Part 1

warning: graphic

Related

If It Were My Home

The headlines tell a lot about the crisis in Yemen:

internal strife,

evacuations of international aid workers,

Saudi Arabian airstrikes.

But you may have one very basic question

that you can't easily find an answer for:

How big is Yemen, anyway?

You can look at maps and check out Wikipedia

but wouldn't it be great

to just to slap an outline of Yemen

on top of a map of the United States

to get a sense of its size?

IfItWereMyHome.com

lets you do just that.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/04/10/
398767056/whats-bigger-yemen-or-virginia-theres-an-app-for-that

https://www.ifitweremyhome.com/  

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/04/10/
398767056/whats-bigger-yemen-or-virginia-
theres-an-app-for-that