Eternal days in a women's prison in El Salvador

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My Eternal Days project deals with the world of female prisoners in Latin America. I started it in 2017 in my country, Venezuela, and in 2021 I extended it to El Salvador. In Salvadoran prisons, a large number of inmates come from broken homes and in their teens they joined gangs to fill that void.

In the image, inmates in sector D of the Ilopango prison (El Salvador), in March 2021. In this area of ​​the prison there are only inmates who have belonged to gangs. These women have not received visitors in three years and can only leave their cells for one hour a day. Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen

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Once they belong to the gang, they begin to exert violence. They go from victims to victimizers. They often end up in jail and when they leave they do so stigmatized and without an official or family support network, which is why they are prone to offending again.

Polaris (not her real name) hugs her children in a safe house in the Mara Salvatrucha, in San Salvador in February 2021. She has been a member of the gang since she was 13 years old. As a child, she said, her father beat her and a neighbor raped her. His missions for the gang consisted of delivering drugs or weapons on the border with Honduras. She was detained once by the police, but was not found guilty. Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen

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In Salvadoran prisons there are also women incarcerated for crimes related to the law that criminalizes abortion. Currently there are 16, according to the NGO Agrupación Ciudadana. The objective of my project, which I will develop in more Latin American countries, is to give visibility to incarcerated women so that their reality is better known within prison systems, which in this continent do not work the same for everyone.

In the center of the photo, Patricia Guadalupe Macía, 50, sentenced to 102 years in prison for extortion and murder. She demands that inmates in her sector be allowed to see their families and training programs. All the women in the photo are inmates in the Ilopango prison for crimes related to the Barrio 18 gang. Ana María Arévalo Gosen

4Ilopango Prison, sector B, where those who enter pretrial detention are located.

The image, from March of this year, was taken from the hole in the toilets of a cell;

in the background, the prey wash their dishes after eating.

Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen

5La Osa, 41, in a safe house in the Mara Salvatrucha, in San Salvador in February 2021. She joined the gang at age 15.

She has been detained twice for possession of weapons and illegal grouping.

Today, with two children, she is in charge of doing housework for her family and for other members of the gang.

Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen

6A mother ties her daughter a bow in the maternal sector of the Izalco prison.

It is the only sector of its kind in Salvadoran prisons.

This woman is sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of marijuana and her sentence is completed in 2029. Ana María Arévalo Gosen

7Taura (not her real name), 37, after a session in a rehabilitation and reintegration center of an NGO for people who were in prison.

She has been detained between 15 and 20 times, she said, charged with various crimes.

He was in prison until 2019 for drug possession and trafficking.

Use the program to learn barber shop.

"I want to work to recover the love and respect of my children," he said.

The image is from April 2021. Ana María Arévalo Gosen

8Izalco prison last March.

Estela picks tomatoes at the Penitentiary Farm.

She has been in prison since 2013. She was transferred to this center for good behavior.

Here are women who are close to serving their sentences and who in the opinion of the authorities have had a positive behavior.

They garden, raise animals and can go out to see their families.

Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen

9Cots freshly washed outside the maternity ward of the Izalco prison.

The law states that children must be separated from their imprisoned mothers when they turn six.

They are usually hosted by a family member or the state.

Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen