Two sons, two absences: the terror of mothers in Bukele’s El Salvador

Two sons, two absences, and a wait with no answers. Laura Inés Franco does not know why Gustavo Adolfo and José Moisés Méndez Franco were taken that morning in January 2023. “We only know they are alive because we bring packages,” she says, while supporting her family alone after the death of her husband.

Since then, uncertainty has been constant: she does not know if they are sick, if they are enduring, if they will return. Between precarious workdays and an ill mother who hopes to see her grandchildren, her only certainty is waiting. And within that wait, one hope: that El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, will “soften his heart” and allow her sons to return home.