Hand over your son or well shoot him: escaping Central Americas gang violence

The UN calls it a “silent emergency”: the flood of terrified youths targeted by gangs for “misdemeanours” as petty as looking at an enemy the wrong way.

By Tim Elliott 13 APRIL 2018

Eva got the call one day last April. “Come here now, and bring your son,” said the voice on the other end. “Or we will come to you and get him ourselves.” Eva lived with 10 members of her extended family in Usulután, a city in the south of El Salvador. As with much of this Central American country, Usulután has a heavy presence of Mara Salvatrucha, an ultra-violent criminal gang, also known as MS-13.

Eva knew the caller was MS-13, but she had no idea what he wanted with her or with her son, José, who was eight years old. “If you go to the police,” the man warned her, “we will make things worse for you.” Eva and José went to the gang house that afternoon. There were several men inside, one of whom approached Eva, pulled out a pistol and put it her head. She asked: “Why are you doing this?” The gunman explained that her ex-partner, José’s father, had fallen foul of the gang; now, by the convoluted logic of the underworld, Eva and José would have to pay. “We know it’s hard,” he shrugged. “But orders are orders.”

Eva pleaded with him. “At that moment, I felt death sitting on top of me,” she says. “I was so scared for my son.” Eva had a choice. The gunman could shoot José now, or Eva could hand José over to his father. That way the boy would be his responsibility, giving the gang leverage over him. Eva agreed, knowing that she had no intention of doing so.

For the next week, she fretted over her options. Then, one evening, the police called: they had received a tip-off that Eva was to be killed. “I remember coming home that night and seeing her, hiding in a closet, crying,” says her 54-year-old aunt, Ana, when we meet at a secret location in the Guatemalan countryside. Eva, 26, has long dark hair and a sweet smile. Ana, on the other hand, seems inconsolably sad. “My poor niece,” she says. “She was so afraid she could barely move.”

More:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/south-america/hand-over-your-son-or-we-ll-shoot-him-escaping-central-america-s-gang-violence-20180409-p4z8lw.html