Today we visit El Salvador.
I have to be honest, I don’t know much about El Salvador other than it’s got a reputation for civil war and gang violence. Oh, and it’s also the homeland of the Will and Grace character, Rosario Salazar.
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and is a smidgen bigger than Israel. El Salvador is the only Central American nation without a Caribbean coastline, however, it more than makes up for this with an abundance of over 20 volcanoes.
El Salvador had the highest murder rate anywhere in the world in 2012. Luckily this has sharply declined since then and is now reportedly at historically low levels. There has been a concerted government crackdown on violent crime alongside informal deals between gangs and the authorities.
The government has gone to extreme lengths to discourage violent gang-related crime including humiliating prisoners to discourage those on the outside from committing crimes. I think this rather shocking photo released by the El Salvadorian government speaks for itself:
Inmates lined up at Izalco prison in San Salvador, El Salvador
El Salvadors biggest biggest exports are clothing, coffee and sugar. T-shirts specifically account for 16% of its exports.
Whether the United States likes it or not, it has a particularly close relationship with El Salvador. El Salvador uses the US dollar as its currency. It’s also estimated that as many as three million Salvadorans live in the US. This pretty staggering when you consider the population of El Salvador is only 6 million.
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