It's a good idea to recognize the privilege of covering the MS-13 story. A lot of journalists have the experience where one day we choose a story, and every other day the story chooses us.
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It all started with Steven Dudley's book, MS-13: the Making of America's Most Notorious Gang, when I learned about Alex Sanchez, one of the witnesses and members in the creation of the gang, and I asked him to be interviewed for How Crime Works at Business Insider.
It was my second interview there and it was a complex one, but it was finally published in the context of Nayib Bukele's presidency, the state of emergency implemented two years ago and extended until today, and his approach to public safety.
Eleven months later, I wake up at 1:00 a.m. and prepare to be picked up by the team from the Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia de El Salvador. Just 8 hours earlier, I wasn't sure if this was going to happen.
Since December, I had been in contact with a communications consultant that I had met some 16 years ago when I was working as a communications consultant for the municipality of Sucre in Caracas, Venezuela. It worked.
The real challenge was going alone, being the videographer, trying to manage the stamina, trying to keep a fresh mind while Simone was producing a story in Iraq, but the adrenaline took control and fed me what I needed.
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