MARA-SAVATRUCHA (MS13) The Civil War in the early 1980s in El Salvador cost the lives of about 100,000 people. Besides, two million people are reported to have immigrated to the United States, due to the uncertain political and social conditions there. A big chunk of the refugees arrived and settled in the Rampart area of Los Angeles. They needed low cost housing and employment. That area was already afflicted with gangs and crimes. For the local population of Mexican-Americans, this was the most unwelcome development. The combustible youth immigrants from Salvador took the problem of their survival in response to the victimization at the hands of local gangs, as a serious challenge and formed a new gang by name Mara Salvatrucha, popularly known as MS-13. “Las-Mara” is a notorious street gang that engages in violent crimes in El Salvador. Salvatruchas, refers to the members of the political entity, styled Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. This is a group of Peasants from Salvador, trained in guerilla warfare. The number 13 refers to the California prison gang, the Mexican Mafia. A youth facing the unemployment problem, not getting support from the government and the society, when he is constantly nagged, abused, condemned and ostracized by the society, turns into a viler and bitter individual. With no authority to show heartfelt care and concern, and an understanding approach to the problems of teeming millions of refugees, the frustrated immigrant youth formed a new gang and began to engage in violent criminal acts. The founding members of the gang were guerilla warfare experts. The training and sophistication they provided to the new recruits was more advanced as compared to their rivals. The new gang topped the list of gangs that have been engaging in violent criminal activities of all sorts. The initiation procedures into the gang are as violent and inhuman, as the activities of the gang are! They become part of the gang by being “jumped in.” “In one Washington DC event, witnessed by a reporter, the inductee was an 11-year old boy - he sought membership in MS-13 so they would protect him from bullies in his neighborhood. The rights of passage included placing the boy in a circle of gang members. The five strongest members stepped inside the circle with the 11-year old boy. As members began counting slowly to 13, the boy was beaten and kicked repeatedly until he reached the point of unconsciousness. If he had been a girl, the rights of passage would have included being gang-raped by six gang members.” (MS13 Gang….) In MS-13 cells the initiation rights are more stringent as compared to other gangs. One is expected to commit a violent act, be it beating, murder or a rape. Tell-tale body markings are another specialty of the MS-134 gang members. A number of body and facial tattoos with “MS”, “13” or “18” serve as indicators about the status of the member. Symbols like crossbones, dice and daggers are seen. These symbols highlight the area of specialization of the members. A member with a grenade at his back means, the member specializes in handling the explosives. Deportation, instead of solving the problem, has added new dimensions to the crime situation, and it has helped the MS-13 to grow from strength to strength. The problem of unemployment is acute in Central America. The youth therefore, holds the deportees in admiration and seeks guidance from them and craves to know more about the gang. The area of operation and influence of the MS-13 gang is big. One deportee reported that over 40 kids lined up for initiation, which began with beating for 13 seconds. When gang members were deported from USA, they were lodged in the Guezaltepeque Prison, in Northern El Salvador. The imprisonment, rather than discouraging crimes, soon became the focal point for the cause of further recruitment and it flourished on the streets in El Salvador. It continued to grow in the United States. It grew as the largest gang and spread to the Honduras and Guatemala. It is “one of the most violently dangerous gangs in the United States - and one of the most organized. The MS-13 gang has cliques, or factions, located throughout the United States and is unique in that it retains is ties to its El Salvador counterparts. With cliques in Washington DC, Oregon, Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and several other South American countries, the MS-13 gang is truly "international" and on the verge of becoming the first gang to be categorized as an "organized crime" entity.” (MS13 Gang….)The strength of the gang members is 36,000 in Honduras. The age of the members is normally between 11 to 40 years. Initially started as a defensive organization to protect El Salvadorian immigrants from the cruelty of LA gangs, the gang soon began targeting the members of the Salvadorian community as well. Criminality became a way of life for the M-13 gang members, with no holds barred. It soon turned out to be business of profiteering, and it expanded rapidly across the United States. By the 1990s, its network spread like the octopus growing in all directions, and its membership had reached the East Coast. Initially they were not well-organized. In the early 2000s, the organizational pattern had changed. The leadership of these newly organized units emanated from faraway places like California and El Salvador. Cells began to sprout all over the country. In Texas and the Rio Grande, MS-13 is actively involved in drug smuggling and human trafficking activities. There are 200 active cells in the Border States attached to Mexico. Each cell consists of 20 or more persons. The link between high-profile terrorist organizations and MS-13 for clandestine operations like crossing the borders is a distinct possibility. This political angle to the criminal activities is the cause for serious concern. Membership of MS-13 has grown substantially. In Charlotte, North Carolina, membership is about 200+. In northern Virginia and southern Maryland, around the Washington DC area, the membership is estimated between 5,000 and 6,000 - by far the largest gang in the area. The activities of MS-13 have no rhyme or reason. Kidnapping for ransom is one of the important activities of the gang. Violent acts are committed to settle scores with the rival gangs to enable MS-13 to establish monopoly of activities of crime in a particular area. “Their progressive increase in violent activities and careless disregard for the law (threats and attacks against law enforcement officials is common), has made them the most feared gang in the United States. MS-13 criminal activities include drug smuggling, gun running, people smuggling, hits for hire, theft, drug sales, arson, and of course, strong arming the locals. Their wide-ranging activities and elevated status has even caught the eye of the FBI who recently initiated wide-scale raids against known and suspected gang members netting hundreds of arrests across the country.” (MS13 Gang….) The reason for success of MS-13 is their capacity for mobility and flexibility. They are not afraid to exhibit their strength in new areas. They begin to establish their presence with tactics of intimidation. They will wear their colors in a flashy display so that the people come to know who they are. Once the authorities track their presence, they change the colors and hide the bandanas in their pockets. The markings are intelligently changed, 85 becomes 58, 76 becomes 67 and so on. The total works out to 13. Throwing light on the activities of the gang, Samuel Lagan writes, “Extortion was a daily activity for Brenda and her gang. They roamed the streets of Carrollton like a band of urban gypsies, looking for cash. They made regular stops with the owners of check-cashing stores, bars, and pool halls, prostitution joints, used car-lots, and other small businesses. The owners knew that if they didn’t pay up, they would lose everything.”(p,3-4) A couple of incidents narrated below would indicate the ruthless functioning of the MS-13 gangs. Javier is an innocent youth, who gives lift to his friend, at her request, not knowing that she is one of the important members of the MS-13 gang. What happens to him en-route when the car that he is driving is forcibly stopped in an isolated spot? Samuel Lagan writes, “It was a silent signal. Someone kicked Javier, forcing him to the ground. He immediately tried to defend himself, but kicks to his head, groin, stomach, and the back forced him into a tight ball. He instinctively used his arms to protect his head.”(p 8) MS-13 is Central America’s greatest law and order problem. Violent acts against the citizens are committed in the routine course. Incidents related to gang rivalry are commonplace. Violence has taken a serious turn and the attention of MS-13 has moved to confrontation with the government directly. “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. “(Mara Salvatrucha….) In the year 2002, the city of Tegucigalpa in the Honduras, MS-13 gang members slaughtered 28 people including 7 small children in a public bus and left a message of warning, full of taunts to the government officials. They are trained to be ruthless and cruel as compared to Bloods and Crips of Los Angeles. The Bloods and Crips are predominantly the gangs of African Americans, which are formed in the year 1969. Their historic background is different. These are clubs mainly to defend themselves from the attacks from the white gang members. Protection of their civil rights is another issue. A couple of black gangs are formed by 15 year old kids who steal automobile accessories and bicycles. The conflict between the white and black gangs mostly refers to the area of settlements. The whites continue to demand segregation and the blacks resist it, as the black localities are getting overcrowded. The black residents challenge the restrictive covenants through legal battles, and such moves result in violent clashes between whites and blacks. Once a member is part of the gang, he /she are in for life. Without the consent of the boss, they cannot act. They cannot kill without reason, cannot talk to the police, cannot skip gang meetings, nor can they leave the gang. The dropouts will not be tolerated by MS-13, under any circumstances. The structure of MS-13 is the most difficult problem which the law-enforcing authorities are unable to tackle appropriately. With the crackdown in USA and the eventual deportation of planeloads of its members, they created outposts in El Salvador and countries like Honduras and Guatemala. MS-13 members have outsmarted the investigating team by setting up geographically defined subgroups in remote places like Boise, Idaho, and Omaha, Neb. “In these new settings, gang culture often morphs.”Everything gets bastardized as it leaves the center," says Wes McBride, President of the California Gang Investigators Association. While machete attacks might occur on the East Coast, they're rare on the West Coast. While car thefts and drug trafficking might be big in North Carolina, gang-on-gang violence predominates in Virginia. It's that decentralized nature of MS-13—with no clear hierarchy or structure—that makes it so vexing to authorities. "Taking out the heart of the leadership is very hard if there is no definitive leadership," says one federal law-enforcement official. “(The Most)“ Machetes on Main Street America are the theme of Mara Salvatrucha MS-13 gangs now operating in dozens of US cities. We’re not talking Disneyland. ‘Mara’ means ‘posse’ and Salvatruchas means ‘street tough Salvadorans’. The number ‘13’ is a gang number associated with Southern California. “They kill cops, distribute drugs like candy machines, extort businesses and concoct drive-by killings as standard operating procedure. “We’re not dealing with Boy Scouts or bums,” Tony Saca said. “We’re dealing with true assassins and rapists.” (Wooldridge, 2005) The gang is highly organized and disciplined and follows the procedure of vertical commands. The methods pursued by the gangs to dissuade the members from leaving the gang are ruthless. The case of Edward Guzman who left Guatemala to free himself from the gang lifestyle, was threatened with death. He fled to USA and after two years, at the age of 16, on March 10, 2004 he was deported back to his home. On March 20, 2004, when he ventured out of his house for the first time, he was shot dead. Poverty and unemployment are the strong reasons for the youth to go astray. But that does not mean that they need to take to crimes and adopt the gang culture. Gang culture can never be allowed to become an alternative source for employment or for aggrandizement t of wealth. Honduras was the first Central American country to enact strict anti-gang laws. It is illegal to be an associate of crime. Having a gang tattoo is unlawful and may land one in prison for 12 years. In El Salvador, a vigilance group identified as Sombra Negra, or Black Shadow has been making serious efforts to tackle MS-13. Their aim is to remove undesirable elements from the society. Reformation and rehabilitation activities to dissuade the younger generation from the gang culture are also underway. Mano Amiga or Plan Friendly Hand is one such program. Treatment fort substance abuse and help to the individuals to assimilate into the mainstream of the society is provided. MS-13 has taken to other anti-social activities that have international ramifications. By maintaining ties with their former homeland, they have access to the art of modern weapons smuggling. Easy availability of guns and modern weapons also encourages crime-gangs. The situation is outrageous and for the sake of profiteering, the manufacturers make available the killing weapons without any sense of responsibility towards the welfare of the society. Tom Diaz writes, “ …how over the last two decades the gun industry has sought to reverse declining profits by dramatically increasing killing power, rolling out new and more dangerous products….and thereby contributing to a public health and safety disaster of epidemic proportions.”(Front Flap….)“According to Newsweek, March 28, 2005, over 10,000 MS-13 gang members illegally crossed our borders looking for a better life, too. Now operating in 33 states, ‘The Most Dangerous Gang in America’ illustrates how illegal aliens cross our borders looking for a better life while they make ours a living nightmare.”( Wooldridge, 2005) Wooldridge further observes, “Those gangs bring drugs, lawlessness and fear to our cities. They bring other consequences, too. Who are the victims of drugs? Our children! Who pays for the 29 percent of illegal alien criminals in our Federal and State prisons at an annual cost of $1.6 billion? What are the costs of rehab for drugs to American families? Who answers to the rape victims?”(2005) The answer will have to be found by all right thinking people, before the entire youth population of the country is engulfed by the gang culture.

References:
Diaz, Tom. Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America; New Press; 2nd Printing edition, January 1999.

Logan, Samuel. This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang; Hyperion; 1 edition, July 7, 2009.

Mara Salvatrucha Gang - MS-13
<www.knowgangs.com/gang_resources/profiles/ms13/ - Cached - Similar>Retrieved on April 24, 2010

MS13 Gang
<www.altereddimensions.net/crime/ms13gang.aspx - Cached> Retrieved on April 24, 2010

Rafael, Tony. The Mexican Mafia: Encounter Books, 2007. The Most Dangerous Gang in America - MS 13, Mara Salvatrucha www.streetgangs.com/topics/.../032805MSbad.html - United States - Cached - SimilarRetrieved on April 24, 2010

Wooldridge, Frosty -- MS-13 Gangs: Immigration's Third World Momentum, April 14,2005. www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty49.htm - Cached - Similar Retrieved on April 24, 2010.

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