I’ve been to El Salvador many times and not for vacation. I went with Orphan Helpers and Counteract International, into prisons and orphanages where kids as young as ten had already murdered eight people. I sat between young boys once hands scarred, eyes dead. You got to live freely in the streets until your 8th kill. So the gangs recruited the young to kill. It was real not just a story.
I went there to bring the word of Jesus to them. We prayed together me, them, in disgusting living conditions, they were treated worse then animal's in kennels. I held their hands and told them God still saw them.
Back then, you stepped off the plane and it was machine guns, guerrillas, gang members everywhere. You had to be met by bodyguards otherwise, you were done. Hotels? Barbed wire, armed men at every door. Everyone was had black masks. You didn’t leave without fear. Pure hell.
Now? I went back with my friend Mariano his family’s old San Salvador, the kind who helped build this place. He’s EO like me, runs Casa del Golfo out in La Unión an old fishing town on the Gulf, quiet, real. No crowds, just waves, fresh seafood, surfing at sunrise. I have taken several groups on retreat: no guards. No cages. Just peace.
San Salvador’s changed too new airport’s clean, modern, nothing like the war zone it used to be. Streets in the capital? Alive. Shakira singing, people dancing hope everywhere. Capital flowing in from all over the world. It is now the safest country in the hemisphere. Wow. Almost unbelievable.
The shift? Bukele. He’s Christian said straight-up he gave the country back to God. And for a lot of folks, that means grace finally beat darkness. Homicides near zero.
The reality on the ground is streets full of happy people, no fear, kids learning robotics and AI instead of killing. I was there. I saw it. That’s the truth.
(If you’re curious Mariano’s spot is at hotelcasadelgolfo.com. Go feel the difference.)
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