Page 79 - History of War - Issue 29-16

HELL SALVADOR

your early teens and enduring an assault by
The Salvadoran National Guard other gang members. For MS-13, the beating “WHAT MANO DURA
was the rst line of defence
against leftist subversion lasts 13 seconds and the inductee is then ACHIEVED WAS TO TURN
welcomed by his new family.
leadership is decentralised but multi-faceted. THE SUBCULTURE OF GANGS
The gangs also have hierarchies and
The governors who make the important INTO A COUNTER-CULTURE, A
decisions are the Palabreros, the ones who
have the last word on any business. The VICIOUS ALTERNATIVE TO THE
un-incarcerated Palabreros watch over the
Within each cancha are the tribes, with their SOCIETAL DECAY PREVALENT
canchas (enclaves) throughout the country.
appointed leaders and each tribe is made up of IN ‘NORMAL’ EL SALVADOR”
smaller cliques.
Within the maras, symbolism is a matter of
life and death. Tattooing is strictly controlled El Salvador’s gang problem doesn’t appear
and to attain ink is a way of signalling rank, as to have a tangible end. When the former
well as accomplishment. Those whose faces FMLN guerrilla leader, Salvador Sánchez
are covered have proven their value to the Cerén, won the last presidential elections
gang and will kill in its name. It’s claimed the in 2014, his administration endorsed a
Barrio 18 cliques even have their own checks softer approach to the gang problem,
and balances: never be caught high or drunk emphasising social services and welfare. But
in public; girlfriends are to be respected; rape the homicides on the streets and alleys of El
is punishable by death; avenge the wrongs Salvador continue to rise.
committed against your brothers. Examining the carnage between the
Despite this, the attitudes of gang members Salvadoran government and the insidious
towards women are con icted at best. Although maras offers a horri c vision of a future
females can join the ranks, there are volumes where economic inequality leads to a
of evidence gathered by Salvadoran police brutish Hobbesian death culture. It’s when
chronicling rapes and femicides linked to social classes become so polarised that
gangs. One Christian social worker went as logic dictates the have-nots need to be
far as describing the sexual politics of the slaughtered; either by the elites using their
maras as ‘Neolithic’ (belonging to the Stone henchmen and soldiers, or by the plebes. Is
Age). Women are a possession to be used and this the lesson the world should take away
shared among cliques and discarded after. from El Salvador?
CULLING THE GANGS

AS GANG CULTURE SPREADS, HOMICIDE RATES IN EL SALVADOR SKY ROCKET
Ever since the so-called ‘gangland truce’ between MS- dozen homicides are committed every day of the year and
13 and Barrio 18 collapsed in 2013, El Salvador has the national murder rate is the world’s highest. The cycle
experienced an unprecedented crime wave. At least a of death is constant and rising.
MURDER RATE PER 100,000 POPULATION

0 20 40 60 80 100

EL SALVADOR

SOUTH AFRICA

BRAZIL

MEXICO

2015 2016 Images: Getty, FreeVectorMaps.com, Rex Features
According to government The government declares a UNITED STATES
statistics, 6,657 state of emergency in several
homicides were overcrowded prisons and
committed in 2015. There launches a $2 billion public
are currently an estimated works and education program JAPAN
60-70,000 gang members to help communities overcome
in Central America. the mara culture.

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