Back when I was in college, El Salvador was the leading news story on TV every single night.

The crackling sound of gunfire began at mid-afternoon in this slum neighborhood just outside El Salvador's capital.

Government troops had swarmed over the area, searching anyone who looked suspicious.

The soldiers said rebel guerrillas were firing at them from a ravine 100 yards away.

It was the early 1980s and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a guerrilla group, also known as the FMLN, led an insurrection against the corrupt and repressive Salvadoran government.

The result, a decade-long civil war in the country.

This is typical of what's happening throughout El Salvador today, with the army moving in

on positions that the guerrillas captured during their offensive.

When the war ended in 1992, more than 75,000 people had been killed, many of them civilians,

and mostly at the hands of the Salvadoran government.

The army here waits for no excuses from people out after the curfew falls. They shoot first.

And here's the thing, dear listener. The United States played a big role in all of this. Yes, the United States supported the repressive Salvadoran government's fight against the FMLN

with millions of dollars in funding and in weapons.

More helicopters start to lift off out of the bush, mounted on the side of the craft,

their U.S. supply M60 machine guns

with which the army launches its surprise aerial bombardments.

Eventually, the UN brokered a peace deal and the FMLN went from a guerrilla group to a political party.

And since then, the liberal FMLN party and the Conservative Arena Party

had actually alternated holding power in El Salvador,

until 2019.

That's when a young anti-establishment presidential candidate won the election.

In these moments, we can announce with full certain that we've gained the presidency of the

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