Armed and serious
Small-town mayor in El Salvador patrols the streets to keep gangs in check.
SAN JOS GUAYABAL: Mauricio Vilanova is no typical small-town mayor. The 60-year-old patrols the streets of El Salvador’s San Jose Guayabal in a 4x4 vehicle wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an automatic rifle.
Vilanova’s civilian patrols are one of the reasons this town is one of the few in El Salvador not haunted by the gangs which, in this country and elsewhere in Central America, are cited by migrants as a major reason for trying to flee to the United States.
“Carrying a weapon doesn’t make me feel more of a man. I do this out of love for my town,” says Vilanova, mayor for 18 years in the community of 13,000 people covering 45 square kilometres.
Trouble is never far away, though, as San Jose Guayabal lies alongside some tough suburbs of the capital San Salvador.
Here, to Vilanova’s great delight, youngsters play basketball when night falls.
“We feel free. The children can play,” Carmen Garcia, a 48-year-old grandmother said.
The mayor remains on red alert once the sun sets, ready at any moment to dash off to get his Beretta handgun and Galil SAR assault rifle, both of which are kept under lock and key in his office.
Then he heads off to see what’s happening, much to the chagrin of his wife and 21-year-old daughter.
Other than unexpected call-outs, Vilanova also performs a regular patrol alongside a chauffeur and bodyguard, both also armed.
The mayor has been targeted by gangs and despite never having been attacked, he is classified as an “endangered person” by the government.
Vilanova is undeterred, though. “It’s difficult to get out of it. I’d have to leave the country,” he says.
Things weren’t always calm in San Jose Guayabal and could re-escalate at any moment.
Gang members turn up in the town regularly and paint their symbols.
If the police pick them up, Vilanova treats the gang members to a sermon and then makes them paint over their graffiti.
Gang activity in the town began in 2006 when La Barrio 18 – one of the most dangerous criminal groups in the country alongside MS-13 –took over two neighbourhoods.
“It took us just two years to basically solve the gang problem.”
It didn’t last, though, and around 2012 “Guayabal flared up”. Both MS-13 and La Barrio 18 took advantage of a truce with the government to expand their territories.
Racketeering, kidnappings and murders were back.
Vilanova decided to revive his patrols, but as the law prevented civilians from doing so alongside security forces, he was joined on his rounds by town hall officials.
He proudly points out that the number of murders in his community has plummeted from 18 a year when he started patrolling to none in 2018.