We’re Helping Deport Kids to Die

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Elena was 11 years old when a gang member in her home country, Honduras, told her to be his girlfriend.

BY Nicholas Kristof | PUBLICATION The NY Times

[dropcap]TAPACHULA[/dropcap], Mexico — Elena was 11 years old when a gang member in her home country, Honduras, told her to be his girlfriend.

“I had to say yes,” Elena, now 14, explained. “If I had said no, they would have killed my entire family.”

Elena knew the risks because one of her friends, Jenesis, was also asked to be a gang member’s girlfriend, and declined. Elena happened to see the aftermath, as Jenesis staggered naked and bleeding away from gang members.

“She had been raped and shot in the stomach,” Elena recalled in the blank tone of a child who has seen far too much. She paused and then added: “We don’t know if she survived. Someone said she died at the hospital.” [mc4wp_form id=”6042″][/three_fourth]

South America Drug War, Mexico Drug War, El Salvador Drug War, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN

Boys lie on the floor among silhouettes representing people allegedly killed by soldiers during Mexico’s drug war during a protest organized by the National Regeneration Movement, MORENA, at the Zocalo central square in Mexico City, Sunday March 4, 2012. Mexico’s Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan conceded on Thursday, Feb. 9, the military has committed errors in the fight against organized crime and drug traffickers such as torture, homicide and drug-trafficking but said those responsible have been punished. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Pictures of victims of violence are hung on the facades and walls of houses in the neighborhood of Cerro Gordo in Ecatepec, outside Mexico City, on March 7, 2012. The Murrieta Foundation opened an exhibition called “Giving face to the victims in Ecatepec” with 15 giant photographs placed on houses as part a campaign against violence (rape of women, kidnappings, murders and robberies) in Ecatepec. (Reuters/Henry Romero)

A boy lies on the floor among silhouettes representing people allegedly killed by soldiers during Mexico’s drug war during a protest organized by the National Regeneration Movement, MORENA, at the Zocalo central square in Mexico City, Sunday March 4, 2012. Mexico’s Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan conceded on Thursday, Feb. 9, the military has committed errors in the fight against organized crime and drug traffickers such as torture, homicide and drug-trafficking but said those responsible have been punished. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

When a gang member in Honduras told Elena to be his girlfriend, even though she was only 11, she knew better than to reject him. Credit Nicole Salazar/Show of Force — Humanity on the Move

EL SALVADOR, WESTERN HEMISPHERE’S BLOODIEST NATION (2015)
LA PRENSA GRAFICA – Daily Newspaper, El Salvador (Grupo Dutriz)
El Salvador closed 2015 with the highest homicide rate in Central America, more than Honduras, a country that had been considered in recent years as the most insecure worldwide (not counting those who are at war). The rate of homicides registered in the country is so high that surpasses suffered by any country in the region at any time in the last 16 years. the seven countries of Central America, which together have a population of 46.7 million, added to the end in 2015 , approximately 18,800 homicides, for a homicide rate per 100,000 population of 40.2, which represents a slight increase over 2014, when it was 37.8.
More | La Prensa Grafica

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As for Elena, she said her duties as a gang member’s girlfriend entailed working as a drug courier and a lookout, as well as intimacies that she didn’t want to discuss. At this point in our conversation, her mother and younger sister began crying.

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