The gangs that cost 16% of GDP

ON THE 15th day of each month a bus driver in San Salvador tucks a small package wrapped in a black plastic bag under his seat and sets out on his route. At a predetermined spot between the hillside slum where the route begins and the bustling urban street where it ends, two teenaged boys in baggy clothes board the bus, retrieve the package and hop off. They will deliver the bag—which contains $550 in cash—to the Mara Salvatrucha, one of El Salvador’s main gangs. Similar exchanges take place on most bus routes throughout the country.

Such extortion is an unavoidable feature of life in El Salvador. A vast, meticulously organised network touches every business, from kerbside tortilla-sellers to multinationals. Large stretches of country, including the centre of the capital city, are controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha gang and two factions of Barrio 18 (see map). Salvadorean authorities estimate that 60,000-70,000 people belong to gangs and that half a million more—relatives, business partners, corrupt politicians and police—are financially dependent on them.