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while we had with witnessed the violence
plagued streets of the capital we kept
hearing that the gangs were spreading
out all across El Salvador because of
the government's Crackdown so we headed
outside the city to see for ourselves
we're in a town called usul Lan and
yesterday there were seven murders here
in 12
hours usulutan 2 hours from s Salvador
is an area with a fierce reputation in
one day we got a taste of just how
chaotic things have become we were told
to check in with the local police as
soon as we got there
some of the areas we wanted to go to
weren't safe without taking cops with us
we've just arrived at the police station
New sulan we're actually just coming
here to meet the police cuz they were
going to escort us into a bario but it
seems they've arrested some gang members
and they're lining them up right
now El Salvador's police force is pretty
fond of showing off gang members
whenever they're captured to try to
convince the public that they're winning
the battle and this morning was no
different but then they
the men aren't shy about admitting which
gang they're in or that they're being
held on murder charges can you tell us
what you're being held
for are you in one of the gangs here
what's the situation here between the
two gangs in this town we've heard that
there's been a lot of murders here
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Rec it's not just gang members that are
being killed though we're just outside
medicine ilal right now which is the
Corner's office and we're waiting with
the families of the people who were
killed yesterday every day families
gather here and they wait to get the
bodies Florida Maria compos has just
lost her husband how did you hear about
what
happened you know we've heard a lot of
stories that that this town is very
dangerous what's it like living
[Applause]
here are you worried about staying here
I mean do you think about taking your
family and leaving
now this type of scene plays out
numerous times a day outside medicina
Lial inside the building there's a grim
Remer of just how many people like
Florida Maria compos have waited outside
for a body the staff call it the morto
Metro or death ometer can you explain to
us what we're looking at right
here so the gangs they're not just in
the cities they've sort of spread out
all over the
country
the murder rate is so high staff have
been stretched to their
limits who are these people here that
are being killed is it gang members is
it young men is it uh
women
outside as the family we spoke to
finally pick up their body for the
funeral later that day we hear reports
of another murder close by it isn't even
noon we just got a call if there just
been a murder on um so we're at the
scene right now oh yeah you can
see right down
here the Dead Man's mother-in-law is
still at the scene when we arrive can
you tell us a bit about what's happened
to
here what's it like here in this
neighborhood this type of thing happen a
lot
here is it because of the large presence
of the gangs
here despite her son-in-law being
murdered just an hour or so ago or maybe
because of it the woman won't even
acknowledge that the gangs exist
you know you don't really picture places
like this when you talk about hardcore
gang violence but it just goes to show
you um how far out the The Gangs have
spread and how much the violence is
increasing in rural areas like this I
mean we're standing right next to a farm
um and that's common in these
areas the gang problem in osil aan
though is very real and very large back
at the police station a senior officer
insists on giving us a presentation
about what exactly they're dealing
with
why is this area so important what it is
about this region that attracts so many
people from the
gangs
for
by the middle of September usulu tan had
already seen more murders than in all of
2014 and it's on target to double the
murder rate of Honduras which last year
was the highest in the world to put that
in perspective usulu tan with a
population of 300,000 Is On Target to
have twice the number of murders of New
York City with a population of 8.5
million as we were leaving the police
station the cops agreed to let us meet
some of the gang members being held
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mixto M
Ms one of the only ways out of a gang is
to become a born again Christian these
gang members say they retired and are
held separately when we meet David a
former member of MS-13 he's been reading
his Bible
for
but we know that the murder R here has
been out of control there were over 900
people killed in August I mean is there
any way to stop this cuz you might want
to change but it seems like a lot of
other people in The Gangs don't want to
[Laughter]
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change
like what is it that that we don't
understand about the gangs and why
people join them and what makes up a
gang
here but the active gang members in MS13
we meet next door like Marvin aren't
exactly looking to make amends for their
past what's going on right now in El
Salvador between the gangs and the
police what's the situation
here
Marvin kept trying to strike a
sympathetic note but having spent the
day talking to the relatives of their
victims it was a bit strange to hear
these guys complain of discrimination
and say they aren't the ones doing The
Killing
it's actually really interesting and all
the gang members we' spoken to uh
they're really proud of the gangs
they're in you know they throw up the
signs they have the tattoos but none of
them want to actually talk about you
know what the gangs are doing that's
contributing to this really high murder
rate in the country
uh they just want to talk about jobs and
opportunities and just say that you know
if they had those they wouldn't be in
the
game as the daily toll of victims keeps
getting higher and not just murders but
disappearances too it's easy to
understand where the anger and hatred
towards the gangs comes
from we've just arrived at the home of a
mother and daughter who have disappeared
in the past 2 weeks and it's believed
that they were taken by The Gangs um we
were supposed to spend some time with
the family and talk to everyone but um
you know the situation here everyone's
really really scared so we're going to
talk to one of the cousins uh he's the
only one that's agreed to talk to us and
he wants to make sure the rest of his
family are
protected the man's cousin and her
daughter had gone to pay a people
Smuggler but they never came home
then
famili do these cases just get forgotten
are the police just sort of um unable to
do anything about the
gangs and this sort of thing has
happened to a lot of families that you
know as
well
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you lived through the the Civil War here
how would you compare the situation back
then in the 80s to what's going on right
now
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how do you feel about the rest of your
family here right now do you want them
to
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leave
[Applause]
as we talked to him the man keeps saying
how he was trained by US Special Forces
and had killed people during the Civil
War which points to him being a member
of a right-wing par military Squad
and he says that it may only be a matter
of time before people like him start
fighting back against the
gangs on our way out of a suan we
happened on the funeral the man picked
up by the family we met at the coroner's
office it's a familiar site in the town
but this procession is bigger than
most we don't stay long we are warned
that the gangs are
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watching
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for