Max and I first went to Apopa in June 2022, just weeks into the state of exception. These were the early days of the liberation, and we wanted to see for ourselves.
Don’t trust, verify.
At first, our translator refused to join. She had already visited Ilopango and Soyapango with us, but Apopa was considered far too dangerous. At the last minute, however, she showed up. She told us, "If two gringos are willing to die for my country, then I am, too."
It sounds like hyperbole now, but that was the reality of the terror people lived under before Bukele.
We went as part of a cleanup effort under the bridge connecting colonias San Francisco and Los Angeles, shoveling through mountains of trash alongside locals who finally had hope - and a reason to reclaim their streets. Where previous governments and international NGOs had abandoned them to the ultraviolence that imprisoned them in their own homes, President Bukele delivered peace, dignity, and opportunity.
And now, also civic pride.
Four years later, we returned to Apopa - bringing knowledge, a hand-crafted bookshelf loaded with books, and a beautifully designed Bitcoin Zone to the stunning CUBO in Valle Verde.
If you can read the post below in which Gemini describes what Apopa was like before 2022 and still deny that President Bukele brought liberation, I have no interest in convincing you.
We are too busy building the new El Salvador, where strong men and women are creating good times.