When the MS-13 gang ruled the Las Margaritas area, one of their strongholds in El Salvador, there were rules that had to be followed to stay alive.

You couldn’t wear number eight because it was associated with a rival gang. You couldn’t wear the brand of sneakers that the gangsters wore. Under no circumstances should you call the police.

“People couldn’t complain to the police because of the gang. Now they were in power,” said former area resident Sandra Elizabeth Ingles.

El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, was once known as the “murder capital” because it has one of the highest homicide rates in the world outside of a war zone.

But in the year since the government declared a state of emergency to crack down on banditry and brought the military into the streets, the country has changed dramatically.

Now children play football until late at night on fields that were previously closed. They can still play in abandoned buildings where gang murders used to take place.

The number of murders dropped sharply, and gang members stopped extorting money from innocent residents. “Now you can walk freely,” Ingles said, noting that “so much has changed.”

El Faro, El Salvador’s leading news agency, conducted a study of the country and made a startling assessment: gangs have virtually disappeared.

But locals say the achievement has come at a price: mass arrests of even innocent people, the erosion of civil liberties and the creation of an authoritarian police force.

But it seems that most residents are ready to endure the new conditions until gangs reappear in their area.

This is confirmed by public opinion polls, as with an approval rating of about 90%, El Salvador’s president, 41-year-old Naguib Bukele, has become one of the most popular leaders in the world, gaining more and more followers.

However, despite its popularity, some residents and activists insist that they are imprisoned under what they see as an authoritarian regime.

In particular, human rights groups documented massive arbitrary arrests, as well as extreme prison overcrowding and reports of torture by prison guards.

For its part, the Salvadoran government has arrested more than 65,000 people over the past year, including children as young as 12, more than double the total number of prisoners. By the government’s own estimate, more than 5,000 non-gang people ended up behind bars and eventually released, while at least 90 people died in custody.

Source: New York Times.