Girls in El Salvador are choosing suicide over a life of misery

Americas Now

El Salvador has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the region.

El Salvador has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the region. Being a young woman often means enduring abuse, neglect and the most severe anti-abortion law in Central America.

The combination of all these issues, plus the high levels of poverty and inequality, have turned this into a deadly situation.

CGTN Correspondent Nitza Soledad Perez went to El Salvador and brings us the story.

El Salvador, labeled as one of the most violent countries in Latin America, also has the highest rates of femicides in the region. With a third of its population living in extreme poverty, a high percentage of women do not have access to higher education. One out of three women are sexually abused, most of them at home.

Perhaps this explains why many young women in this country are choosing death, rather than continue living its grim realities.