Murder, kids in underwear, and clowns

El Salvador has a great tradition of theater, and clowns are integral to this. They are seen everywhere, from directing traffic, performing on the street, and even drawn into gang tattoos as representative of "La Vida Loca". If you see someone with a clown tattoo in Central America, they are almost certainly in a gang. Anyway, this clown on stilts grabbed a baby and walked around with it, so I wouldn't exactly call this a "safety clown".

The clown in the second picture, balancing on his crutch (his legs don't work), is famous in San Salvador as "El Hombre Arana" (spiderman), and performs on the buses for money.

This is another group of local clowns, Oscar, Giovanni, Oscar, and "El Negro" Nilton, all photographers for local papers waiting for the vendors (again, all fucking day, in the blazing sun) to riot.

While we were conducting an interview with a police commander about how things were improving in Apopa, a particularly violent district, a murder was called in. At the same moment, these two old boozers accidentally staggered into the police station. Dentistry is very cheap and excellent in El Salvador, however, apparently not in Apopa.

Here is the murder that occurred, a gang member shot in front of a church. One of my favorite things is to see kids in their goddamn underwear at murder scenes.