“Kill. Rape. Control.” This is the motto of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the notorious gang that wields an iron grip on communities across Central America. Known for their brutal violence, MS-13 and its rival, Barrio 18, has catapulted El Salvador’s murder rate to one of the world’s highest. After the state cracked down the gangs fought back, slaughtering 76 people in just four days in 2020. Living under the threat of violence, thousands of Salvadorans have fled their homes for parts unknown in Mexico or the United States, willing to risk it all for the chance of a safer life.
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“El Salvador has been grappling with gang violence for decades and its prisons are bursting at the seams,” says British photographer Tariq Zaidi, who traveled across the nation between 2018–2020 to create Sin Salida (Gost Books), a harrowing look at the impact of gang members, police, prisons, murder sites, funerals, and the government’s war against the gangs on Central American nation.
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The seeds of Sin Salida (Spanish for “no escape”) were first planted after Zaidi heard then-President Trump warn in a 2018 speech, “At this very moment, large well-organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an invasion. …These are tough people in many cases; a lot of young men, strong men and a lot of men that maybe we don’t want in our country. …This isn’t an innocent group of people. It’s a large number of people that are tough. They have injured, they have attacked.”
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As it turned out, the truth was just the opposite. The caravans were comprised of Central Americans fleeing poverty and gang violence in their homelands. Having lived in Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina for nearly four years, Zaidi recognized the harm such brutal propaganda would cause an already besieged group.
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