El Salvador is one of the deadliest places on earth
the tiny Central American country is in the grip of a war among rival gangs and
the police
Successive governments have attempted to control the gangs using force
cracking down in the streets and filling the prison's
Last year more than 10 people were murdered every day
Gangsters tattoo their allegiance on their skin
membership is for life
In El Salvador they say the only way to leave the gang is in a body bag
those who attempt to leave face social stigma
and the threat of execution
from other gang members or the police
Rehabilitation programs are practically non-existent
but in the capital city, San Salvador, a religious group is trying to help the
gangsters swap the gang for God
"If God could change someone like me ...
someone that has done so many wrong things, why not change all these other men"
When Wilfredo Gomez was growing up
El Salvador was in the midst of a bloody civil war
that left one in sixty Salvadorians dead and one in four displaced
In 1987 Gomez, like hundreds of thousands of others, fled to the United States
On the streets of Los Angeles he found a home with the gangs
"Once I got into the hood...
I decided to join the gang and I had to find a way to survive to make
money to eat, so I used to sell heroin"
Gomez joined 18th Street, named after the area
in LA where most of the gang members lived
They fought for territory with a
rival Salvadorian gang ms-13
"A lot of my friends that I grew up with and that...
joined the gang almost at the same time they were killed during that war"
It wasn't long before he had a run-in with the police and was put behind bars
" I got busted for selling narcotics to survive and using that at the same time"
In a bid to reduce gang violence the Clinton administration in 1996 passed the law
that meant immigrants convicted of crimes with a prison sentence of more
than a year would be deported
"I remember my mom mentioning, 'eh you need to be...
careful, they deporting people now...
be smart, stay away from trouble"
Thousands of gang members were sent back to El Salvador
including many members of ms-13 and 18th Street
who took their brutal battle for the streets with them
The number of deported soon rivaled the size of
El Salvador sixteen thousand strong police
After almost 20 years in the US
half of which was in prison Gomez saw deportation as his ticket to freedom
"The one thing I wanted the most was to be free...
"Three days later I was on the plane on my way back over here"
Just three months after he
arrived he was back in prison serving ten years for stealing a security guards
machine gun
"I remember going into prison and they'd just had a massacre...
...the smell of blood was still in there I'm talking about 150 persons in one cell...
...had sleep there, shower there, go to the bathroom there"
From his crowded prison cell
Gomez found an unlikely salvation
"The Christian people they asked to pray for me...
...so I told the guy, 'ok pray for me and then leave'...
...Something happened...
...It's like whine like a little kid"
The prayers had a profound effect on Gomez
"I had spent nearly 16 years of my life in prison and all along I knew that...
...I needed help but I didn't know who to run to...
...I had no family...
...the guy that was praying for me ask me if I wanted to receive Jesus...
...and I told him yes"
After joining the church Gomez began to convert other gangsters
to evangelical Christianity
In 2016 he helped persuade the prison director
to establish a separate area where religious inmates could live and pray in
peace away from other gang members
this was an attractive proposition and
hundreds of prisoners followed Gomez
Some were genuine converts others just
wanted better prison conditions
"I have never seen so many guys being impacted by the gospel...
... guys all tatted from their face, singing praises to the Lord...
...when I first joined the church it...
was about a hundred men in there and little by little that 100 was multiplying
...now it's over nine hundred It's something happening, I mean, gang members...
...don't change just like that"
In early 2017 Gomez was given parole in San Salvador
he feared that if he left prison he would fall back into the gang
On the outside there are few prospects for anyone linked to the gang to earn
money legitimately
"To my surprise there was someone waiting at the door...
... a Christian...
... and they had heard about me through a guy that had parole before me...
... and he had told them that I was one of the leaders in prison with
that Christian movement so they brought me here to this church
...they made food for me celebrating my freedom...
...that was big for me"
Since leaving prison Gomez has helped other newly released gang members find
refuge in a tiny Church in San Salvador
The inmates who convert inside prison
struggle to stay away from the gang once released
only seven former gangsters of
church members on the outside
the rest find their way back to the gang
Those who do join the church have a tough existence
They have no money no prospects
and no place in society
"Being an ex gang member here in El Salvador...
...and facing society's rejection is the biggest obstacle that I faced so far"
"yes I made wrong choices, I made my mistakes but you have made yours...
maybe my mistakes is that I put ink on me maybe your mistake was that you
cheated on your husband
maybe my mistake was that once upon a time I took a life
either way there are mistakes maybe mine are bigger than yours
but i'm still a human
These men once devoted to gangs now claim to be devoted to the church
In many ways the church is similar to the gang
both have strict rules, a hierarchy and demand obedience
Solving El Salvador's gang problem will take more than converting a handful of gangsters to Christianity
The question facing El Salvador in the long term isn't whether
an individual gang member can change but whether society will create the
conditions that mean they can leave the gang for good