What else do you do for fun? They scuffed their shoes in the dirt, uncertain how to respond. So I told them what I did at their age: Played in my suburban neighborhood, or drove around town. Without your parents? Their parents only allowed them to leave the house for soccer or school.

They were followed by orders from Bukele to place members of gangs, including the notorious MS, in sealed, steel box-like cells and permission to use lethal force against gang members on the streets. Jose Miguel Vivanco, the executive director of Human Rights Watch for the Americas, said El Salvador risked sliding into autocracy without reprobation from global powers. Bukele has previously shrugged off criticism from human rights group and political opponents, saying it his duty to protect Salvadorans, and describing his predecessors as corrupt. He enjoys strong poll ratings in the country of 6. The government posted the photos showing rows and rows of prisoners sitting tightly packed, with their hands behind their backs, as police officers in riot gear looked on.

I felt afraid as a woman there more than in any other country in Latin America. I realized I had entered hostile territory while chatting with the taxi driver who picked me up at the airport, the first Salvadoran man I met. He told me he had a baby, a little darling called J.