In a quiet church courtyard in El Rosario, El Salvador, 16-year-old Sarita sits beside her grandmother. From her neck hangs a medallion, its golden face flashing against the starchy white fabric of her school uniform.
“It’s a chain of Saint Benedict,” she says. “I wear it every day. I never take it off.”
The pendant is a sign of protection for Catholics. But for her grandmother, 54-year-old Sara de Perez, it carries another meaning.
“My son used to wear one like this too,” she says mournfully, as she stares down through thick-rimmed glasses at the pendant.
De Perez gifted her granddaughter the necklace two years ago, when her son — the girl’s father — was arrested and imprisoned. They have been denied contact with him ever since.
He is one of the more than 90,000 Salvadorans who have been detained as part of El Salvador's ongoing state of emergency.
Friday marks the fourth anniversary of the emergency declaration, which was introduced on March 27, 2022, to rein in gang violence.
But as the state of emergency enters its fifth consecutive year, families and advocacy groups say the mass arrests are leading to an under-reported but troubling trend.
Children, they say, have been deprived of one or both of their parents, essentially being left orphaned by the state.
The advocacy group Movement for the Victims of the State of Exception (MOVIR) estimates that as many as 60,000 children have lost parental support. Other estimates put the number much higher, at about 100,000 or more.
Some children are lucky enough to have other relatives or friends to care for them. Others have no such support. But no matter the circumstance, such arrests can exact a steep psychological toll.
“Sometimes I just shut myself in my room,” said Sarita. “I just kneel down and start crying and crying, looking at photos of my father."
So far, her father has been convicted of no crime. But he remains in detention, accused of "illegal associations", though his family insists he is innocent.