I have a teen age Nephew who lives in El Salvador with his Mother, a College student who is doing well and will succeed in a country with many challenges. So I follow the news in El Salvador, and "Like" the Facebook page of "Fuerza Armada De El Salvador", the El Salvadoran Navy. They post pics several times a day of their exploits, rounding up criminals, smugglers, otherwise keeping the peace in a country with little peace.

One of the worst aspects of life in El Salvador is the presence of gangs, who extort, rob and threaten citizens on a daily basis. Right now, El Salvador is waging war against gangs, rounding up anyone with a gang tattoo, searching them and finding all sorts of guns. Here's some pics of guns in El Salvador.

Fuerza Armada is armed mostly with well worn M-16 A1's, left over from the Civil War of 1979 to 1992. Rifles the U.S armed the Government of El Salvador with, and rifles Left Leaning countries like Vietnam sent to the rebels:



Some have been upgraded to round hand guards, most still have trinagular hand guards:



Whenever they round up a gang banger they take a "Trophy Pic", and display pics of the guns, drugs and money they find on them:



Some of the guns found:

How about a Ruger Standard .22 pistol? This one is either one of the rarer stainless steel ones or has all the finish worn off:



A CZ-75B that has seen better days, maybe was nickel plated at one time:



An IMI "Jericho", clone of a CZ-75:



A Smith & Wesson Model 39 that looks like it was hidden in a toilet tank or something:



A Browning Hi-Power, I hope this goes home with a Soldier as a souvenir and not destroyed:



A CZ-52 with three rounds of ammo, looks like there is an ammo shortage in El Salvador as well:



A Berretta 92, maybe this one started life in the U.S Arsenal:



Now for the really naughty, an AK-47. Getting caught with this in El Salvador is going to cost this guy a good chunk of his life in prison:



Same as this, a real deal M-16 A1:



I applaud the efforts of the Fuerza Naval in getting the bad guys put away for a while. The average citizen of El Salvador cannot afford a gun for protection, though they can own .22 rifles, .38 revolvers and shotguns. A Smith & Wesson snubby costs about $2000, and the permit process is lengthy.

Are oily rags non-existent in El Salvador? Those firearms are pretty rough looking. I hope your family is safe there.

Those are some snazzy custom grips on that Browning!

Meanwhile, here in the USA we continue debating about the length of our leashes and the color schemes of the bars on our cages.

I prefer not to wear a leash or live in a cage.

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Life of the party until 8:00PM

That has been one constant in my time on the forum—every firearm pictured that has gone south (and I don’t mean Louisiana) looks like it has been dragged behind a teen age boy’s first dirt bike on an old logging road. Then stored in a saltwater soaked rag.

Maybe they just get more/harder use in those hot and humid countries!

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Possum—The other white meat!

A few years ago I got several guns from the estate of a deceased Florida Fish and Game (or whatever they are called) officer. Most of his guns looked just like those in the above photos. With a few exceptions those guns were filthy. Most were lubed with graphite rather than grease or oil.

From the web:

"El Salvador, a small country of Central America, has a tropical climate, hot all year round along the coast and below 1,000 meters (3,300 feet), which are called tierras calientes, with little difference in the temperature (only a few degrees) over the seasons. The real difference is found in rainfall and humidity: there is a rainy season from late April to October which is also definitely muggy."

Seems like a hostile environment for gunmetal.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

It’s partly a cultural thing.
Properly maintaining anything mechanical is not part of the knowledge that is passed down from one generation to another.

I have never been to that part of the world, and do not plan to ever go. But I have worked with several aviation mechanics who have worked south of the border doing contract on military and civilian aircraft ( primarily helicopters ) and the consensus is that the locals generally just don’t give a rip, and can’t be made to do so.

The S&W is a 915.
The model 92 is a Taurus. Not a Beretta.

I don't think our guns in Vietnam where ever in those conditions.

Yes, thug owned guns are pretty much junk when they get hold of them.
I applaud those LE members efforts. It's like pissing into the wind.

I didn't know anyone was still in El Salvador.I though they all crossed our southern border by now.

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

Very interesting post, thank you

Also think it is a tribute to the M-16 A1, still going strong after 50 years

Slant cut mak90 with custom side folder...
Maybe they will cut him some slack for being semi auto.

Permits and taxes on guns should be removed in every country.

One of my employees is from El Salvador. Her father was a Captain in the army, her family fled here when he was murdered by his superiors.

I'm guessing there's a speedy trial for those gang bangers.

no doubt a lot of these were stolen from the states then trafficked over the border to mexico eventually ending up in south america

In the mid-80s I spent some time in Central America during a couple of the fracases there. Rifles that we came across at the time were the Belgian SLR (FAL), the German G3. They were in 7.62 NATO and were either property of the armies or the police forces or they were stolen from those organizations. The line units of the Honduran army used M16A1s and a heavy barrel M16 as their squad automatic rifle.

And yes, weapons maintenance was not a priority down there as far as I could tell.

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Keep your powder dry.

Recovering bad guy guns that only contained a few rounds of ammo was common back in my po-leesing days from 1976-2001. We even had a pawn shop in town that would sell you just a few rounds of ammo.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

The M-16 is really interesting. A2 grip and fore grip w/straight collar, no case deflector, fence around mag release, and....tear drop forward assist. I wonder if it still runs. I doubt it.

I saw quite a few very worn rifles in an Inuit village in '83. They were completely lacking any sort of lubrication, probably due to the fact that conditions north of the Arctic Circle can be a bit chilly at times.

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The triple smoker

When I was working selling agricultural equipment, mainly to the sugar industry I used to spend a lot of time in El Salvador. That was in the pre gang days mid 1970s to about 1990. It was a nice place to visit, friendly people, lots of very well to do clients. I made good friends, most were also hunters, of ducks and doves mainly, they kept their sporting and self defense arms in very good condition, nothing like the photos above. As happened in much of Central and South America things went rapidly downhill with the drug trafficking gangs controlling much of the law enforcement through bribes and violence. I hope things have improved, there are some very good folks down there but as all places lots of bad ones too.
Steve W

El Salvador is just south of Mexico, separated by Guatemala. The US gangs that most hate each other are Mexican vs Salvadorean.

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Front sight and squeeze

OK, today a gang banger got in a gunfight with El Salvadoran Navy, resulting in his serious injury, no casualties for the good guys, and seizure of his pistol, a Colt MKIV Series 70 1911!