Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination, not a car in the world as you simply lean back.

And before you know it, you're there.

This is how travel should feel, and on our trains, it does.

Avanti West Coast, feel good travel.

Hello, and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

I'm your host, Orret Open B.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

On today's show, we're bringing you a single story.

It comes from a place where violence and the threat of it had paralyzed communities,

a place where if a gangster demanded protection money, civilians either paid up or braved a bullet.

It's a story of how the balance of fear in those communities has shifted.

Of how people can now walk around in relative safety, start businesses, socialise, and even stay out at night.

But it's also a story of what it's taken to achieve that change.

The dismantling of a country's democracy, as well as the undermining of the principles of justice on which democracy stands.

In early July, I visited Las Cañas in El Salvador.

It's the neighborhood northeast of the capital, San Salvador.

And I had Don Pedro, who's a well-known local figure and administrator in the school, show me around.

Buenos días.

Sarah Burke is the economist's bureau chief for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

We met in the school building.

It's a house at the entrance to the neighborhood that's been converted to a school.

It's decorated inside with murals, including one of Garfield the cat.

...