As Gang Violence Escalates, Central America Faces 'Looming Refugee Crisis' Beenish Ahmed - ThinkProgress
go to original April 15, 2016

A masked and armed policeman patrols a gang controlled neighborhood in San Salvador, El Salvador. (AP/Alex Peña)

Gun battles and murders between feuding gangs were everyday occurrences in Norma’s hometown in El Salvador. In late 2014, the four gang members dragged her to a cemetery where three of them raped her.

“They took their turns,” she told United Nations researchers who gave her a pseudonym to protect her and her family from further violence. “They tied me by the hands. They stuffed my mouth so I would not scream.”

When they were done with her, Norma said, “They threw me in the trash.”

Her husband, a police officer, vowed revenge and filed an official report about the incident. Norma feared for her life — and that of her children. She said she was targeted because of her connection to the country’s beleaguered police force and worried that it would not be able to protect her.

She fled to live with relatives in another part of the country, but the threats continued.

“Gangs don’t forgive,” Norma said. “If they didn’t harm me, they’d harm my children.”

Eventually, she made her way to Mexico with a “coyote”, or human smuggler. She tried to make her way to the United States but was detained by immigration officials.

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