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While El Salvador is turning around its reputation for crime, its economy still struggles

Apr 23, 2024
El Savador's President Nayib Bukele took on gang violence by introducing a state of emergency in 2022. The country is now safer, but its economy is struggling to grow.
Above, people buy vegetables in a market in in San Salvador, El Salvador, in October.
Aphotografia/Getty Images

Salvadoran janitors fight for better wages, supporting families here and abroad

Apr 22, 2024
Immigrants from El Salvador clustered in major cities often work demanding, low-paying jobs that are hard to fill — like janitors.
Nuria Gomez de Gonzalez from El Salvador marches in downtown Houston for better wages and hours for local janitors like her.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace

Has El Salvador’s bitcoin gamble paid off?

Nov 8, 2023
Two years after El Salvador approved bitcoin as legal tender, only 1% of remittances are in bitcoin and many people don’t use it.
Coffee shop owner Gabe Gutierrez said bitcoin accounts for 5% to 10% of his sales.
BBC

U.S. cuts aid to Central America over immigration; critics say that will backfire

Apr 1, 2019
In an effort to slow the flow of Central America migrants into the U.S., President Trump said he’s cutting direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The U.S. sends money to those countries to help them combat drug trafficking, gang violence and to promote economic growth. Click the audio player above to hear the full […]
Honduran migrants leave the Metropolitan Center of San Pedro Sula, 300 kms north of Tegucigalpa, to travel to the Guatemala border.
ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images

Violent crime in El Salvador has taken a damaging toll on the country's economy

Mar 5, 2018
Temporary Protected Status ended for El Salvador, but many Salvadorans are still eager to work in the U.S. as undocumented immigrants.
Train tracks in Ixtepec, Mexico. Marvin Villalobos traveled along this railroad with his three brothers in 2017 on their way to find jobs in the United States. The trip turned fatal for Villalobos when he fell off a train.
Levi Bridges/ for Marketplace

U.S. decision would hit families’ pocketbooks in El Salvador

Jan 10, 2018
The Trump administration is ending temporary protected status for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans.
 A mother and child, 3, from El Salvador await transport to a processing center for undocumented immigrants after they crossed the Rio Grande into the United States in Mission, Texas. 
John Moore/Getty Images

How a Salvadoran theater is giving women a second chance at life

Oct 20, 2017
At La Cachada Teatro, 5 single mothers from violent neighborhoods tell their stories.
Wendy Hernández, right, from La Cachada Teatro, with her daughter Gabi in San Salvador.
Deepa Fernandes

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Migrant families continue to risk the trek north to US

Jul 11, 2016
After a drop in 2015, more families and kids are illegally crossing the border.
Since Nemesis Aparicio does not speak English, volunteers at the bus station gave her a sign to ask people along her journey to help her make the right bus transfers.
Kimberly Adams/Marketplace

Sending 57,000 kids back to their home country costs

Jul 28, 2014
Esme Deprez says getting these kids home is a lot more complicated than it sounds.

Obama administration targets Latino street gang MS-13

Oct 11, 2012
The MS-13 gang that started as a local street gang in El Salvador will now be designated a transnational criminal organization. That means the U.S. Treasury Dept. can target its financial assets.