On my way back from buying vegetables today I ran into Francisco, a young man who lives in our neighborhood.  I asked did he have a cold, as he looked like many of us have in the past few weeks with “la gripe”.   No, he said, actually…my mother was killed this morning.   I was stupefied.   [...]

On Monday night, September 6, 2010, a series of events began that was later revealed as a gang-imposed halt (“paro”) of bus routes and businesses throughout El Salvador.  A microbus on route 29-F in Ilopango (colonia Felipe) was burned.  Threatening notes were left for business owners and buses to shut down or else pay the [...]