I'm fed up with El Salvador!

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In the last 15 months I’ve met hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have asked me where I am from. None, except one 7 year old from South Africa in the beaches of Malawi, has been able to guess my country within 10 tries so that has lead me to explain a little bit about the little “pulgarcito de America.”

It feels so sad to say to people how dangerous my country is, many of them have heard about gangs and the high homicide rate. To be honest I have no desire of moving back home and I fear for my family!

I have walked the streets of Nairobi at night by myself and felt safe, I have walked the streets of Bosnia and Herzegovina and felt safe, I have taken night busses in Iran, Tanzania, and Turkey and felt safe but would I ever walk the streets of downtown San Salvador at night and feel safe? Nope.

Somehow in El Salvador driving on a crowded street in plain day light scares people because you never know when a robber will knock on your window, show you a gun and rob you. If you are lucky you give your phone and your purse and you are good but many people are unlucky, many people die on a daily basis in the hands of delinquents.

Innocent people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time get murdered, leaving behind their loves ones just because the government of El Salvador has not been able to contain the gangs and the violence in the country. It is not fair! It is not fair for my family, not fair for my friends, even less fair for those who are less fortunate and live in poverty and are scared to death of these gangs. Gangs have now taken over neighborhoods and call people one by one and ask them to pay “rent” in order to be “protected” (in other words “pay me rent so I don’t go and kill you just because I am a lazy bastard good for nothing!”) If a person refuses to pay rent their family could get murdered, their business burnt, their daughters raped, their parents killed… so sad! La renta is also charged in public markets where the vendors have to give some percentage of what they sell to gangs, if you cross gang lines you could get killed… it’s terrifying!

My best friend flew from L.A to El Salvador to see her grandpa in the hospital and she was shocked to see gang members full of tattoos laying on the beds next to her grandpa in the public hospital (some of them handcuffed to the beds!) The worst part was seeing “free” gang members come and ask for “rent” to the people IN THE HOSPITAL! Are you fucking kidding me?!?! These people have no respect! How is that even allowed in a national hospital?

How did my country in the last 25 years went from signing a peace act to being one of the most dangerous countries in the world?

To me the answer is really simple… Corruption! And having a government where the focus is not its people and helping those who actually need the help. The corrupt people in the government are selfish, the people in power are mostly uneducated old men with archaic beliefs who possibly got there by chance and by knowing somebody who knew somebody rather than based on their education and experience, people who are so focused on their own well being that they forget the bigger and better picture… the country!

I have followed the one political party all my life mostly because of my parents and what I thought was the best choice but in reality it was only “the better evil!” which I don’t even think it was the better one now looking back. But why have we only had the chance of choosing between the bad and even worst evil? Don’t Salvadorians deserve a good future? A good government? A government that will actually give water to those people who don’t have instead of pocketing the money for their own good? It is heart breaking to see the reality of my country, where presidents steal a $10million donation instead of helping those affected with the earthquake, where the last 3 presidents are either in jail, fled the country, or dead! Shame on them, shame on the politicians with broken promises for a better El Salvador, shame on those who got into a position of power and did nothing other than steal and get into the horrible vicious cycle of presidents stealing from their people. Really shame on them, as I said before! but I tend to be a believer of karma and the thinking of what goes around comes back around.

El Salvador is so corrupt… I have friends and family who have worked in NGOs and have found discrepancies in their finances, meaning that the people on top are stealing the money and when those up on top are confronted or asked for an audit guess what happens? The people below 1. get fired, and 2. are told that if they say anything their reputation will be destroyed and they won’t be able to get a job in El Salvador. The people on top are untouchable because the roots of corruptions are so deep that there is nothing the “regular” person can do. And what does the regular person does? Nothing! Because they know how corruption works, they know that the money the people in power have will actually be able to destroy them! Our social class and social ladder is almost impossible to climb! Most that matters in my country is what your last name is and who you know, and that will pretty much get you to where you want to be.

When we get a new president we also get all his family involved and all his friends. We not only have to deal with a restructure in the government but also a restructure to almost every single branch from the government. Workers get fired every five years depending on who won the election and then we are left with unqualified and untrained people to do the job. Police is involved in corruption, government and politicians are involved in corruption, big companies are involved in corruption! I ask myself: “when will this be over? when will we get El Salvador back? When will the government hand it back to its people?”

I pride myself on being honest, kind, and putting others first, trying to make this world a better place not for myself but the generations to come. I have dedicated my adult life in working with children because I truly believe that they are the future! If we invest in the youth we are investing in our future. If we plant a seed and take care of it, it will grow into a beautiful tree and that is something that my country hasn’t done yet. Teenagers join gangs on a daily basis, thirteen year olds have guns in their hands, fourteen year olds gang members have probably killed a couple of people at their young age. Our youth and our whole country in a way is being desensitized by this wave of violence and something needs to happen, something that gives us hope, something that brings peace back into our population.

When will this change? It is alarming and saddening seeing that one of the articles in the national newspaper is the “celebration” of “a day without a murder” in El Salvador. Really? How about we work together for an El Salvador without guns, gangs, rape, fear, and murders… like ever! Where did our society go wrong? When did we raise monsters? When did life in El Salvador lost its value? When did shooting a gun at an innocent person just because one person thinks he deserves your belongings became our daily life?

Three weeks ago I looked up at Facebook and read the status of my 3rd grade teacher that somebody had murdered her fiancé! I couldn’t help it but start crying, crying because of her pain, crying because of the pain of millions of El Salvadorians, crying because this is what has become of my beautiful country. I walked around Nairobi that day and just found myself sobbing at different times from the feeling of impotence in my heart, and maybe also because of a little bit of guilt of me not ever wanting to go back and live in that country, in that society, in that place that is home but at the same time that place that I resent so much because people are not free. So many mixed emotions… Sometimes I even day dream of the things I could do to help those in need in my country but then I forget about it, it seems like an impossible task. I am highly educated, I have traveled the world, I have seen how other people live, I have seen countries that have emerged from wars, from genocides into prosperous, safe, and beautiful countries and wished there was something I could do. I actually can imagine what El Salvador could become if we implemented better educational programs for children, if we focused on security, if we used tax payers money to do good!

In the last couple of years a young politician has emerged, he has done amazing things (in all fairness I have not been following closely enough) for the districts he has worked on. He is now the mayor of San Salvador and was kicked out of his political party a week or so ago. He has done good, he has worked for the people, he has worked on getting a better El Salvador but he goes against the traditional corrupt politicians of the country and his party didn’t like that. In El Salvador if you are not part of one of the two political parties you are no one and his expulsion to me is exactly what is wrong with our country! Old people in power who are uneducated and corrupt like to keep those kind of people in power. Bringing in good and smart people into politics is a threat to their lifestyle and especially their own pocket.

So how can we make El Salvador better? I do hope that Nayib (the mayor of El Salvador) brings a little bit of hope, that the country unites and rebels against what has been the norm of a 2 party political system and instead of voting based on tradition they vote with their brain and by looking at what actually has been done for the people by the candidates.

I haven’t worked in over a year but I know that my $50 donation towards his campaign might actually help to change El Salvador so I am willing to sacrifice $50 of my travels to put into the hope for a better El Salvador for my family, my friends, and the people who live in poverty and are scared for their life.

I have seen many Facebook posts from my friends against Nayib, his politics, and the way he conducts himself but… aren’t you guys ready for a change? I know I am! And by the looks of things he seems like the most qualified for the job and it makes me mad that people would rather stay with the horrible government we had because of… I don't know!

If you ask me I feel like I can identify with Nayib, he is a millennial, educated, and most important… hope for a better El Salvador!
It is important to note that he is no God, he won't change El Salvador in the blink of an eye but hopefully he will be the beginning of the change, he will start implementing programs that eventually will lead to change. He will get people who are educated and prepared for a position of power and that have the people's interest at heart. He might be the start of that engine that we need for a better El Salvador. Our post war crisis has lasted longer than the war and believe me that if he wins 5 years won't be enough, 5 years will only be the start... but we need the next 5 years to at least start something instead of seeing El Salvador fall deep down into this shit hole.

San Salvador was ready for a change and the people made it happen in 2015, I sure hope the whole El Salvador is ready for a change in 2019! And he needs our help (well… the help of El Salvadorians which might not even be able to read my blog! haha To donate: http://teamnayib.com/donacion.html))

I haver never watched news, or read newspapers because I think they show what they want you to see and portray the world as a bad place to be. So my opinions are purely based on what my friends, family, and clients live every day in El Salvador; from stories I hear from them, stories of murders that happen everyday. Stories of people who have fled El Salvador to the US illegally in hope for a better life after being raped by gang members and threatened to be killed along with their families. Stories from 8 year old who have illegally crossed the border to join their family. As a therapist in the Latino community in the Bay Area I got to listen to heart breaking stories of people from my beautiful country who put their lives on the line to cross the border illegally because losing their lives crossing was a better choice than staying at home and losing their lives in the hands of cruel gang members.

This post has been brewing inside of me, I just had to let it out, let my frustration and anger out. Maybe it is because I am approaching my arrival back home and have to deal with my frustration of not going back to the US! My frustration by the fact that even though I am highly educated I would only be able to get a shitty paying job back home that doesn’t really measure up to my abilities and what I should be getting paid. Frustrated by the fact that if I ever get pregnant my shitty employer will just fire me because now I will be asking for too many days off when the baby gets sick. Frustrated because there are ZERO laws that protect women in the work place, because getting fired for having a baby is just the norm in my country. Frustrated by the fact that women seem to be second class citizens. Frustrated by the fact that every time I step outside of my house there is a chance I won’t make it back.

I think it’s time for El Salvador to change, we need good people to fight for justice, we need to let the millennials in and help our people, we have to come together as one nation and fight for our El Salvador! We are a beautiful country full of beautiful people who deserve better… We really do! <3

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!