Mara Salvatrucha MS-13

In the early 1980s a civil war erupted in El Salvador killing as estimated 100,000 people. In addition, it is estimated between one and two million people have immigrated to the United States as a result of the unstable environment in El Salvador.

The first large population of El Salvadorian refuges settled in the Rampart area of Los Angeles. This influx of immigrants looking for low cost housing and employment was not readily welcomed by the Mexican-American population who were already residing in that area. The area was already plagued with gangs and crime.

These immigrant Salvadorian youth and young adults were soon were victimized by local gangs. A group of Salvadorian immigrants created a new gang calling themselves Mara Salvatrucha also known as MS-13. It is believed they got their name from combining the name of “La Mara”, a violent street gang in El Salvador with Salvatruchas, a term used to denote members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. This was a group of Salvadorian peasants trained as guerilla fighters. The “13” was added to pay homage to the California prison gang, the Mexican Mafia.

Members of this newly formed gang soon engaged in violent criminal acts. They quickly became known as one of the most violent gangs in the area because many of their founding members had experience or training in guerilla warfare, thus gaining a level of sophistication that superseded their rivals.

Various members of the newly formed MS-13 were soon arrested and deported back to El Salvador. All deportees were first housed in the Guezaltepeque Prison, in Northern El Salvador. Quickly and unexpectedly, Mara Salvatrucha flourished in the prison system and recruitment began on the streets in El Salvador, while the gang continued to grow in the United States as well.

With little direction and opportunities, many Central American youth admired the Mara Salvatrucha deportees and wanted to learn more about their gang. One deportee reported that upon returning to his hometown, there were only he and two other MS-13 gang members. His said that the interest in MS-13 was so big, that over 40 kids asked to be initiated (which consists of a beating for 13 seconds) into the gang on one day alone.

The gang soon became the largest gang in El Salvador and soon spread to the Honduras and Guatemala. Their rivals, although much smaller in number, are known as 18th Street or MS-18, another American born gang.

Mara Salvatrucha has become Central America’s greatest problem. In addition to violent acts committed by the gang against citizens and gang rivalries, the gang has even engaged in organized violent acts against the government. In 1997 the son of Honduras President Ricardo Maduro was kidnapped and murdered by MS-13 members. MS-13 members have continued to taunt Central American government officials. Members also left a dismembered corpse with a note for the Honduras president that “more people will die… the next victims will be police and journalists.” In 2004, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger received a similar messages attached to the body of a dismembered man from MS-13 members.

In 2002 in the city of Tegucigalpa in the Honduras, MS-13 members boarded a public bus and immediately executed 28 people including 7 small children. Again, they left a message written on the front of the bus taunting government officials.

Honduras was the first Central American country to adopt strict anti-gang laws. As a result of MS-13, government officials enacted a law that makes it illegal to be an associate of a crime, in other words, if someone looked like a gang member, they were subject to arrest. El Salvador adopted a similar law calling it Mano Dura or Firm Hand. In 2004, El Salvador implemented Super Mano Dura, to strengthen elements of their existing laws. A suspect in violation of these laws could find themselves facing a 12-year prison sentence even if no crime had been committed.

Having a gang tattoo was evidence enough.

Of the new laws, former Honduran police commissioner, Maria Luisa Borjas, said, “They grab three or four young people wandering around and present them as suspects… blaming them for every single crime without justification.”

After an increase in crime, Mexico began a campaign in 2004 to eradicate MS-13 when they arrested 300 members calling them a “threat to National security.”

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