Over time, he came to feel that all young men in El Salvador, from teenagers to thirty-year-olds, ran the risk of persecution at the hands of the military. Having volunteered for the army, Rosales was an exception. It was much more common for the military to kidnap teenagers right off the streets, often outside movie theaters or eateries, and then to torture them on army bases until they agreed to serve. Anyone who didn’t was killed on the spot.
