What to read to understand El Salvador and the Northern Triangle

THE THREE countries that make up the Northern Triangle—Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador—have around 30m people among them. Yet, especially in the United States, the region commands attention out of proportion to its modest size. Migrants seeking relief from poverty, violence and the effects of climate change in those countries are among the largest groups that cross America’s southern border without visas; from 2019 to 2023 a third of the 5.8m people intercepted by the border patrol came from the Northern Triangle and neighbouring Nicaragua. Much of the violence is caused by gangs born in Los Angeles, California, which relocated to El Salvador then spread to its neighbours. Politics in the Northern Triangle has tended to be corrupt and tumultuous.