Days before we ran interviews with gang leaders describing their alleged ties to Nayib Bukele’s government, we left the country to avoid arrest. We fear our exile will never end
• This story, republished with permission, was originally run by El Faro English
We figured we would spend only a few days out of the country. We figured that within a week of publishing, some other matter would distract the Salvadoran government. We would weigh the risks of returning and would then go back. We left with carry-on bags: no one was carrying more than 10 pairs of underwear.
We had invented a routine for these situations, which had worked out fine so many times before: “preventive departure”. One of us, for the first time, mentioned that the government would make us pay dearly. But we kept repeating “preventive departure”. We kept repeating it a week later, two weeks later, a month after we could not return.
