It was an echo of the war years, but Salvadoran voters, who loved the president and despised the gangs, supported the policy by an overwhelming margin. Enforcement consisted of crackdowns in mostly poor neighborhoods, populated with people who were seen as having dudosa confiabilidad, or questionable trustworthiness. As one human rights advocate told me, “You hear people say, ‘Surely they must have been doing something if they’re being taken away.’ ” Prior to the state of exception, Bukele’s government, like its predecessors, had also secretly negotiated with imprisoned gang leaders. When the
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