Awash in blood

An article from the Los Angeles Times titled El Salvador Grapples with Rising Bloodshed brings home graphically the toll of murderous violence that continues to wrack El Salvador:
Whoever is doing the killing, youths are disproportionately affected. Half of homicides last year were committed by people 18 to 30, according to the National Civil Police, and 70% of victims were between the ages of 15 and 39.

Nearly two decades after El Salvador's civil war, a new generation is experiencing what [Father Antonio] Rodriguez calls a naturalization of death. He says he's seen the change in his own spiritual evolution since arriving here from Spain in 2000.

"Death has become natural to me. Ten years ago, this kind of thing was an inconceivable scandal to me. Now I live with death in a very natural way. If it happens to me, imagine those born into this culture.

"Death made natural."

Through the end of April, 1395 Salvadorans had been murdered in 2009, an average of 12 per day.

Comments

George Fulmore said…
With the age ranges of those murdered, I we thinking that Oakland, CA, might compare with the murder rate in El Salvador. But per my calculations, Oakland's murder rate is about half of that of El Salvador's. And Oakland, CA, of course, is viewed as a violent city with lots of murders. The numbers seem to speak for themselves.
Anonymous said…
Well, Well, well, what do we have here???
On December 2008 one Torontonian's newspaper was issued about this social issue in El Salvador, and what was the comments on that?

-That must be a conspiracy, a plot, a lie
-Why is it EL salvaador listed on that article? why isn't cuba, or irak on it!!!

the sad truth is we are not even in war anymore and we have alarming number of murders, whether like it or not, THIS IS THE TRUTH!
Anonymous said…
If El Sal can figure out what to do about youth violence by all means please let the US know.


The only thing the US has going for it is the amount of people which offsets the per capita for violent youth crime.
Jorge said…
I wonder if one of the ways to curb this violence would be through education? Maybe the ES Gov. needs to implement a strategy of education.

I mean I think the reason why there is so much murder is because people (youth) have nothing to do. They just loiter around the streets looking for something to do. If they are encouraged to engage with the community perphaps the people joining gangs would decrease?
Anonymous said…
A country awash in blood, what a grabbing headline. But wait a minute. In today's la Prensa Grafica, it says; "Desde el primero de enero hasta el 15 de mayo de este año, la PNC contabiliza 1,576 homicidios. El año pasado, el total de muertes violentas fue de 3,179. Entre el sábado y domingo recién pasados, otros 23 salvadoreños fueron asesinados, lo que eleva la cifra a 1,599."

For those that don't read Spanish, that means that the murder rate in one year has almost been cut in half. That may well be a country awash in blood compared to others, but if someone did some research and compared it to the year past, they might have had a different headline. I doubt it, but there's always hope. wally
Tim said…
Wally,

You misread the LPG article which is actually bad news, not good news. The total for all 12 months in 2008 was 3179 murders. Through 4 1/2 months of 2009, El Salvador has almost reached half of last year's total. In other words, the murder rate has increased by 32% during 2009.
Citizen said…
Hum, You are right Tim, I got the same message..For those who can read english but can't comprehend it. Tim is absolutely correct.
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Anonymous said…
George Fulmore said...
"With the age ranges of those murdered, I we thinking that Oakland, CA, might compare with the murder rate in El Salvador. But per my calculations, Oakland's murder rate is about half of that of El Salvador's. And Oakland, CA, of course, is viewed as a violent city with lots of murders. The numbers seem to speak for themselves."

Detroit Bloods Kick Oakland butt, no problem. El Salvador is Cinderella Blvd.