SAN SALVADOR, Mar 28 2008 (IPS) - Youth gangs in El Salvador are changing their recruitment methods, targeting ever younger potential members in the slum neighbourhoods of the capital, authorities report. The Trump administration is deporting tens of thousands of Salvadorans who have nothing to do with gangs – and refusing to admit thousands more who are victims of the maras’ predatory ways. It was here, in the early 1980s, where El Salvador’s two main gangs were formed: the Mara Salvatrucha (or MS-13) and Barrio 18. The “maras” (gangs) Salvatrucha and 18 have modified their strategy in order to survive police raids and maintain control over the neighbourhoods where they … Las maras en El Salvador In Maras y pandillas en Centroamérica, edited by I. ERIC, IDIES, IUDOP. Nowadays, the average member is around 25 years old, lives in either a house in a poor neighbourhood or an overcrowded jail, has never held a formal job and did not finish secondary education. La investigación concluye en que las "zonas de paz" suponen un camino peligroso donde las maras tienen el poder para negociar con el Estado. The Global City: One Setting for New Types of Gang Work and Political Culture. In June, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions slammed the door shut to still more Salvadorans fleeing life-or-death situations. The combination of quarantine and the "barrio decision" made by the maras led to a historic decrease in the number of fatalities recorded per day in El Salvador. It was founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants from El Salvador and later spread throughout the United States, Central America, and The U.S. can help by either allowing Salvadorans with Temporary Protected Status to stay in the U.S., or by assisting the Salvadoran government with reintegrating deportees through the creation of job opportunities and improvement of public services. But Salvadorans pay the renta and toe the gangs’ line for fear of retaliation – not out of loyalty or gratitude. The largest maras in El Salvador are MS-13 and the two factions of Barrio 18 (the 18th Street gang), the Revolutionaries and the Southerners. foto edh / ARCHIVO By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. El presente informe para la discusión contiene un análisis preliminar del problema de la violencia juvenil y la proliferación de las maras y pandillas en el norte de Centroamérica y, específicamente en El Salvador, analizando las respuestas del Estado y de la sociedad civil. One reason why gangs could sink such deep roots in El Salvador is that they provide a sense of pride and belonging to their members, many from poor, broken families. This may explain the effort by the mareros to recover their territories. “You can’t work anywhere without permission from the local gang”, says Alex, 46, who worked in construction but decided to leave El Salvador when jobs dried up in his hometown. Intensifying gang violence is one of the biggest factors pushing hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans to flee their homes. Ya no se limitan a las esquinas del barrio; ahora, sus operaciones tienen otras dimensiones: son dictadas con base en sus fuertes vínculos con organizaciones del narcotráfi co" 31 .Al analizar el caso de El Salvador, la investigadora Sonja Wolf destaca que las maras Salvatrucha y 18 muestran grandes diferencias con las pandillas tradicionales. Unos más, otros menos. In addition, the police commissioner told the Salvadoran media that two other factors were at play: on the one hand, gang members are seeing the economic suffocation of not being able to collect the extortions they regularly use for their livelihoods - plus the aggravation that their relatives are not being able to exercise the legal economic activities in which they usually work - so they may be afraid of losing power, and the increase in homicides is "a wake-up call to say that they are still there, with the same power and in control of their areas," reported El Faro. El Salvador’s government and its … Together, these three organisations count around 65,000 members, according to police records. Maras permiten hacer campaña territorial solo a Nuevas Ideas, dice investigadora. In 2017, 296,000 people were displaced. The Iran Nuclear Deal at Five: A Revival? The largest maras in El Salvador are MS-13 and the two factions of Barrio 18 (the 18th Street gang), the Revolutionaries and the Southerners. Había comenzado a estudiar Derecho y a trabajar para mantener a los niños fuera de las pandillas. It can promote more programs to rehabilitate jailed gang members and care for victims, especially the most vulnerable such as abused women. Maras like MS-13 were formed in the streets of Los Angeles 30 years ago by young men who had fled the 1980-1992 civil war. “The state has forsaken these territories and we have taken control of what it abandoned. The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, is perhaps the most notorious street gang in the Western Hemisphere. In many of these “red zones”, gangs are not just a standing danger to public safety but also a de facto authority that exerts tremendous control over residents’ daily lives. En octubre de 2008, sobre la autopista a Comalapa, autoridades salvadoreñas decomisaron a miembros de la MS-13, un cohete antitanque del tipo LAW y varios fusiles de alto calibre. In El Salvador, gangs found fertile ground for recruitment with the country roiled by post-war political upheaval and mired in economic stagnation. They have mounted massive joint military and police operations in the capital and other cities, arresting thousands. As more Salvadorans are expelled from the U.S., the situation will only get worse. The lead contributor was Sofía Martínez, International Crisis Group’s analyst for Central America’s Northern Triangle, with editing by Chris Toensing and design (print version) by Kjell Olsson. Todas las noticias sobre Maras publicadas en EL PAÍS. Over the last fifteen years, various Salvadoran governments have tried to crush gangs con mano dura – with an iron fist. pic.twitter.com/FdlTqLjsbg, — Osiris Luna Meza (@OsirisLunaMeza) April 27, 2020. Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s.Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area. Extortion at places of business is the bigger problem. Alma Guillermoprieto, antigua corresponsal, regresa al país tres décadas después para documentar este nuevo ciclo bárbaro. After Washington toughened immigration laws, it deported thousands of mareros to their home country in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Eric Lemus. It was that or submit to the gangs’ rule somewhere else in the country. — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 26, 2020, Estamos ejecutado la acción de mezclar y recluir en las mismas celdas a los diferentes grupos de las estructuras criminales que tanto daño están causando al país.En este Gobierno no habrá beneficios y privilegios para ningún miembro de estructura criminal. Noticias Maras en El Salvador | El director de prisiones niega negociaciones de Bukele con las pandillas Tras la publicación en el diario El … There are other steps that can be taken. But numerous others head north to seek asylum in Mexico or the U.S. On the road, they meet other Central Americans like Luisa, fleeing towns and cities in Guatemala and Honduras that are also plagued by the maras’ extortion and murder. But many more people – some 500,000 all told – depend on the gangs for their livelihood. And that’s why it’s been so difficult to combat the threat the gangs pose. “The maras are important when you have nothing, when you are born dead”, says the Salvadoran anthropologist Juan José Martinez D’Aubuisson. It can also ramp up projects to deter gang recruitment in poor neighbourhoods. But the truce collapsed, mainly due to lack of support from the ruling party, as well as the Salvadoran public, much of which favours iron fist approaches. At many of the roadblocks, the bandera is barely eight years old. No politician dares advocate for it in public. So it’s ironic that Salvadoran gangs are partly the byproduct of earlier U.S. immigration policies. Media reports about MS-13 and other maras depict the members bearing archetypal tattoos and speaking in trademark slang. The gang warned the rest of the family to depart. The last point on which the El Faro investigation sheds light is the one the official made known to them: the Salvadoran government has no plan to avoid the disputes inside the cells and they hope that they will organize some kind of amnesty in their confinement. Having suffered gang violence, Sessions said, will no longer be enough to claim asylum in the U.S. After sunset, many streets in San Salvador are deserted. This site uses cookies. Over time, the gang grew into a more traditional criminal organization. The same year, El Salvador’s Supreme Court labelled the MS-13 and the two factions of Barrio 18 as “terrorist” organisations. The mano dura operations have also caught numerous residents in the crossfire. Many Salvadorans stay away from public places and even avoid walking down the street. El dominio que tienen es real. Karim Lebhour, Head of North America Communications, coordinated the project. We can’t clean up everybody’s mess, he means. But many more people – some 500,000 all told – depend on the gangs for their livelihood. Five months into a historic ceasefire between El Salvador’s street gangs, El Faro profiles the complex history of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). A youth who lives in MS-13 territory but whose grandmother lives in Barrio 18-R territory will meet her only on ”neutral ground” or at a place where no one knows their names and faces. El accionar de estos grupos mantiene también alertas a las autoridades de Estados Unidos. The president explicitly linked his gang crackdown to the coronavirus emergency. Información, novedades y última hora sobre Maras. The murder rate – an astonishing 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 – is still sky-high at 60 per 100,000 in 2017. Edgar Romero/DPA/PA Images,. Reina*, 30, left her small community in central El Salvador with her sister and three children after the gangs moved in. Over the last three years, gang violence has killed nearly 20,000 people in El Salvador, propelling tens of thousands northward in search of safety. Al pasar los años, las Maras de El Salvador consiguieron tener un control territorial real. If asked their age, for instance, they reply, “I’m 17 + 1”. The casas locas are hangouts where gang members smoke, drink and perform ritual initiation of new recruits. Alternatives to Traditional Criminology edited by J. Hagedorn. El Faro's investigation sheds the following light: the increase in the number of murders appears to be a unilateral decision by MS-13, as the spokesperson for the faction Sueños del Barrio 18 declared that MS had cut off communication with the other gangs and they did not know what the reason for this change in policy was. The government can enforce its Safe El Salvador plan, which focuses as much on crime prevention as on law enforcement. Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), international gang involved in drug and human smuggling, prostitution, murder, and extortion, among other illegal activities. The culprit in most of these murders is the maras, the country’s powerful, pervasive criminal gangs. The maras, in this analysis, are the primary and most urgent problem facing countries such as El Salvador. It could easily have happened to them or to their neighbours. We come from disintegrated families and extreme poverty”, an unnamed MS-13 spokesperson told the Salvadoran news site El Faro. Tal … Both the press agencies operating in El Salvador and the prison authorities themselves have released chilling images where dozens of half-naked men emerge lined up, sitting in narrow rows, each one's chest touching the other's back, and where - a novelty for the Salvadoran press - men with the letters MS and the number 18 tattooed on their bodies were gathered equally. Thousands of adolescents were roaming the streets with no jobs and little else to do. Las noticias de última hora de El Salvador y el mundo sobre deportes, política, economía, tecnología, opinión, editoriales, negocios, cultura, entretenimiento If a family refuses to leave, they threaten all its members. In private conversations, however, there are many voices among the authorities who are convinced that some form of dialogue is the only way to bring peace to the country. Anyone who doesn’t pay up might come to regret it later. The latter two scenarios can have serious medium- and long-term consequences for the country: gangs associating with each other can give rise to another force that is more difficult to control than those already plaguing El Salvador, and if there is an outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons, the gang members who survive it will be seen as heroes by the groups to which they belong. They may also take neighbourhood women and girls there to be sexually abused. The only exception to the iron fist policy was the “gang truce” – an experiment with negotiation from March 2012 through mid-2013. The gangs remain rooted in the streets but have now penetrated every layer of Salvadoran society. El uso de la fuerza letal está autorizado para defensa propia o para la defensa de la vida de los salvadoreños.Instamos a la oposición a que se pongan del lado de la gente honrada, y a las instituciones que controlan a dejar de proteger a quienes asesinan a nuestro pueblo. Their children could face the biggest danger, as it’s only a matter of time before the maras pick many of them out as targets. Jeannette Aguilar, investigadora de temas de violencia, señaló que esos grupos criminales restringen el … While it has its origins in the poor, refugee-laden neighborhoods of 1980s Los Angeles, the gang's reach now extends from Central American nations like El Salvador and through Mexico, the United States and Canada… The large majority of gang members are among the poorest people in Salvadoran society, living on less than $250 a month. Again, most shopkeepers pay. Their influence has grown so great that every major political party in El Salvador and Honduras has at some point paid gangs during elections. The borders of the competing gangs’ turf are invisible but well known and seldom crossed. Nearly 20,000 Salvadorans were killed from 2014 to 2017. But the politicians fear to sit down with the gangs because that becomes an excuse for another party to attack them”. Bukele contra las maras: cuáles son las principales pandillas de El Salvador y por qué es tan peligroso que las mezclen en las cárceles Roberto Valencia Especial para BBC Mundo, El Salvador 2007. Sencillamente, ellos mandan. Boys aged twelve and older are prime targets for recruitment. The night is for the maras, which do most of their killing then. Top officials in El Salvador are aware of the magnitude of the challenge. In a 2017 survey, 40 per cent of Salvadorans said they approved of torture as a crime-fighting technique and 34.6 per cent said the same of extrajudicial killing. MS13. Another had shot her brother, who was a former government soldier and thus an enemy in the gang’s eyes. Salvadorans living in “red zones” have to spend hard-earned money on private transport or after-school programs so that their kids don’t come into contact with gangs. Gangs routinely confiscate houses in locations they see as “strategic” and turn them into casas locas (literally, “crazy houses”). Review our privacy policy for more details. The hatred between rival gangs runs deep. Together, these three organisations count around 65,000 members, according to police records. Please tell us what you think about this story, Proper nutrition goes a long way to battling COVID-19 and other illnesses, Comcast RISE Investment Fund to offer $1 million grants to BIPOC-owned small businesses in Philly and Chester, Texas Rep. 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For details of Crisis Group’s analysts, their commentaries and reports countering the crisis of violent crime in Central America’s Northern Triangle and Mexico, please see https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/central-america. With U.S. help, the Salvadoran government should try to counter gangs with crime prevention as much as with law enforcement. The affluent generally stay inside gated compounds. Gangs also claim to be providing a “community service” by protecting locals from other criminals and corrupt police. Ironically, the crackdown helps gangs tighten their grip. At least once a week, older gang members, or mareros, come by every shop and vendor’s stall in the neighbourhood market to collect the renta, or protection money, from merchants who can’t afford their own security guards. Behind closed doors the authorities agree that they are “fighting a war they cannot win”. Though MS-13 and the two Barrio 18 factions are mortal enemies, they forged an informal ceasefire in order to target army and police officers, as well as their families, creating a cycle of revenge. To defy the gangs is to court death. Nevertheless, the government continues to rely almost solely on security crackdowns to tackle gangs. Gangs have mutated from youth groups defending neighbourhood turf in the 1980s to hierarchical organisations that coerce, threaten and kill. Police raids are often indiscriminate. Ein Fluchtgrund für El Salvadorianer ist die extreme Gewalt: In dem mittelamerikanischen Land beherrschen Jugendbanden, die Maras, die Armenviertel. Street gangs or maras, as they are known in the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), comprising El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, have mutated from youth groups defending their neighbourhoods’ turf in the 1980s to highly organised, hierarchical organisations that coerce, threaten and kill to produce a menial subsistence for their members in the 21st century. Many escape to stay with relatives elsewhere in the country. The climate of fear is such that thousands of families have abandoned their homes and headed north toward the U.S. border. Members of Mara Salvatrucha listen to a mass in Ciudad Barrios, San Salvador, El Salvador. El Diario NY. The Covid-19 Pandemic and Deadly Conflict, The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: A Visual Explainer, Turkey’s PKK Conflict: A Visual Explainer, Finding a Path to Peace in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, Myanmar’s Military Should Reverse Its Coup, Venezuela: What Lies Ahead after Election Clinches Maduro’s Clean Sweep, In Syria’s Idlib, Washington’s Chance to Reimagine Counter-terrorism. In the U.S., politicians invoke the spectre of MS-13’s criminal and social power to promote an anti-immigration agenda. WASHINGTON - Las pandillas, conocidas como maras en El Salvador, han mantenido a las autoridades de ese país entre los más violentos del mundo, llegando a tener por un tiempo la escalofriante cifra de 51 muertos por cada 100.000 habitantes. MS-13 members will not utter the number “18”. [6] These maras (sophisticated, third generation gangs) dominate local pandillas (smaller, less-sophisticated gangs) and challenge the state monopoly on force and political power. Every Salvadoran knows someone who was shot dead by gang members or someone who pulled the trigger. Also, to prevent them from using sign language, he has asked that they be held without access to sunlight. Nayib Bukele, de todo el Triángulo Mara Norte (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador), es el primer mandatario que vino a darle a las maras tratamiento de criminales.Sin medidas complacientes. The maras, including the infamous MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, are active in 94 per cent of El Salvador’s 262 municipalities. A mara (or marabunta) is a form of gang originating in the United States, which spread to Central American countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Training and support for police, prison guards and judges could help the Salvadoran authorities target the most violent criminals and ensure that lesser offenders get a second chance outside jail. Less than a month ago, the news came out of El Salvador that the various maras had made a "decisión de barrio" to enforce the quarantine imposed by the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. Not all gang members are so easily identifiable. It’s common for teenagers, especially boys, living in areas controlled by the maras to be harassed by security forces who consider them gang suspects. Having no jobs in El Salvador, and having been away for so long, the returnees are particularly exposed to rampant gang brutality. A partir de este día, El Diario de Hoy le presenta un amplio reportaje sobre el control que ejercen cuatro grupos de maras o pandillas. El Salvador Die gefürchteten Mara-Jugendbanden. Unfortunately, this trend changed after April 24, when the daily number of murders began to rise again. That’s more violent deaths than in several countries that were at war during those years, such as Libya, Somalia and Ukraine. Este análisis se basa en In any case, the cure may result in aggravating the disease without solving the country's underlying problems of poverty and inequality. Â, El Salvador's brutal condemnation of the maras taking advantage of the Covid-19. After the failure of the 2012-2013 truce, the idea of negotiating with gangs is taboo. Stay on top of El Salvador latest developments on the ground with Al Jazeera’s fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated maps. And it’s for the army and police, who wait until after dark to conduct their house-by-house searches for criminal suspects. Despite the mareros’ youth, their faces are scarred and their eyes hollowed by years of dealing out death and taking abuse, making them look much older. Bukele responded with two measures, both published via Twitter: authorising the public forces to use "lethal force" against the mareros and the decision to mix members of different maras in prison cells, in order to prevent communication between them. Todos los derechos reservados. President Bukele's hope in doing all this and then confining the men in the same cell, crowded and mixed, is that by having the members of different maras together, they cannot plan murders that would then be communicated to members outside the prisons. The story Luisa tells rings true for the Salvadorans who are listening. Porque es cierto. The gangs' decision was motivated by three concerns: first, the less the quarantine was enforced, the greater the presence of the army and police in the neighbourhoods; …