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SALVADOREAN IMMIGRANTS
RETURN TO HELL
By Jorge Yeshayahu Gonzales Lara, Sociologit MA, CASAC-T
El Salvador has become one of the countries of Central America to live harder. Life
Salvadorian citizens are in the crossfire between gangs and social violence.
The decade of violence has left a series sequels. Gangs have become social actors of
violence, and the state, government and public security forces citizens have lost the battle, to
the point of negotiating with criminal gangs.
The victims of violence are the citizens of El Salvador, small merchants, housewives, young
students. Deported immigrants have become victims of gangs. They are extorted to pay
quotas; their small businesses are destroyed by the gang.
Among the stories of life, tells an immigrant from El Salvador who was deported back to his
Country, we report the following story of life.
"I was deported for mistakes I made as a young man, go back to Salvador and work on
my craft of tailoring and with the help of my family open small a shop, after a few
months the Gang-13, imposed a fee to pay. After the threats against my life and the
destruction of my business, I returned to immigrate to the United States.
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Saul's story is repeated in many voices of immigrants who returned to his native country,became victims of gangs. We selected three articles describing life in El Salvador.
El Salvador Gang Truce Crumbling, 103 Murders In Last Week Alone,
El Salvador gang truce wobbles as violent murders mount, and
Curbing Gang Violence in Central America
El Salvador Gang Truce Crumbling, 103Murders In Last Week AloneReuters | Posted: 07/05/2013 10:33 pm EDT
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FOLLOW:
Voces de ContraPunto, El Salvador Crime, El Salvador Deaths, El Salvador Gang Truce, El Salvador Gang Violence, El
Salvador Gangs, El Salvador Homicides, El Salvador Murders, El Salvador Violence, Reuters, World News
SAN SALVADOR, July 5 (Reuters) - El Salvador has seen a burst of violence, with 103
homicides this week, the government said on Friday, as a year-long truce between the
country's violent gangs appeared to be crumbling.
The uptick in murders in the Central American nation echoes killing rates before the March
2012 truce between the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang and rival Barrio 18.
"We said last year that the truce was fragile and that it could fracture in any moment. Time
has proven us right," Miguel Fortin, Director of the Supreme Court's Institute of Legal
Medicine (IML) told local media.
The truce, which is backed by the Catholic Church and the Organization of American States
(OAS), aimed to reducing homicide rates of 66 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011, according
to the United Nations, making El Salvador the world's most violent nation.
The unprecedented truce helped bring murders down to an average of five per day from 12
before the agreement. But killings have been rising since late May, with murders averaging
16 per day in early July.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria, Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Philip Barbara)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvadorhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-crimehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-deathshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gang-trucehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gang-violencehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gangshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gangshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-homicideshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-murdershttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-violencehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/reutershttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/worldhttp://www.reuters.com/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/worldhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/reutershttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-violencehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-murdershttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-homicideshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gangshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gangshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gang-violencehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-gang-trucehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-deathshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador-crimehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/el-salvador7/28/2019 El Salvador Gang and Violence
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El Salvador gang truce wobbles
as violent murders mount
SAN SALVADOR | Sat Jul 6, 2013 3:39am BST
(Reuters) - El Salvador has seen a burst of violence, with 103homicides this week, the government said on Friday, as a year-longtruce between the country's violent gangs appeared to be crumbling.
The uptick in murders in the Central American nation echoes killing rates before the March 2012truce between the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang and rival Barrio 18.
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"We said last year that the truce was fragile and that it could fracture in any moment. Time hasproven us right," Miguel Fortin, Director of the Supreme Court's Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) toldlocal media.
The truce, which is backed by the Catholic Church and the Organization of American States (OAS),aimed to reducing homicide rates of 66 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011, according to the UnitedNations, making El Salvador the world's most violent nation.
The unprecedented truce helped bring murders down to an average of five per day from 12 beforethe agreement. But killings have been rising since late May, with murders averaging 16 per day inearly July.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria, Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Philip Barbara).
Globalist Perspective > Global SecurityCurbing Gang Violence inCentral AmericaBy Csar Chelala | Saturday, July 06, 2013Each July 4th weekend, the United States reflects on its proudest achievements.On such occasions, it is always important to remember one's shortcomings andto work to fix them. Csar Chelala highlights the U.S.'s "export" of gang violenceto Central America. Fortunately, there are solutions to curbing the problem if
Americans get serious about tackling it.
As July 4th passes, a day in which U.S. patriots show pride in their country, it
may be worth reflecting on where the United States and other governments mayhave fallen below their own standards of social justice.
The relevant question is to consider how they may rectifythe situation.
Exploring the issue of gang violence across the Americas
an increasingly serious social problem provides suchan opportunity.
Gang violence, fueled by the drug traffic in Latin America,
Central America and the Caribbean, is having a seriouseffect on people's lives. Most poignantly, it threatens toalter the social fabric of the countries in the region.
Central American gangs, also called maras are named after the voracious antsknown as marabuntas.
Many gangmembers livingin the U.S. havebeen deported,fueling serious
social problemsin their homecountries.
http://uk.reuters.com/subjects/united-nations?lc=int_mb_1001http://uk.reuters.com/subjects/united-nations?lc=int_mb_1001http://uk.reuters.com/subjects/united-nations?lc=int_mb_1001http://uk.reuters.com/subjects/united-nations?lc=int_mb_10017/28/2019 El Salvador Gang and Violence
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The gangs are involved in a wide range of criminal activities, such as arms and
drug trafficking, kidnapping, human trafficking, people smuggling and illegalimmigration.
One of the best-known Central American gangs,Mara Salvatruchaor MS-13,has an estimated 70,000 members that are active in urban and suburban areas
across North America.
It originated in Los Angeles in the 1960s and then spread
to other parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico and
Central America.
The gang's activities havecaught the attention of theFBIand the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,which have conducted raids and arrested hundreds ofgang members.
The FBI called MS-13 "America's most violent gang."
MS-13 has been particularly active in Los Angeles County, the San Francisco BayArea, Washington, D.C., Long Island, New York, and the Boston area.
Their code of conduct includes fierce revenge and cruel retributions. Members ofthis gang were originally recruited by the Sinaloa in their battle against the LosZetas Mexican cartel in their ongoing drug war south of the U.S. border.
Many gang members living in the United States have been deported back to ElSalvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
To Americans, that may look like a problem solved. In reality though, it onlyadds to the already serious social problems in those countries.
The returning gang members bring back with them crack cocaine. Predictably,drug-related crimes are soon on a steep increase.
Those gang members deported from the United States enlarge the local groups
and find easy recruits among the local disenfranchised youth. Today, most of the
members are in their twenties, while their leaders are inthe late 30s and 40s.
Offering jobtraining, loansand mentalhealth help toyoungsters maybe the bestcounter-measure.
Controlling gangviolence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_Salvatruchahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_Salvatruchahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_Salvatruchahttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs_ms13taskforcehttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs_ms13taskforcehttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs_ms13taskforcehttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs_ms13taskforcehttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs_ms13taskforcehttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs_ms13taskforcehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_Salvatrucha7/28/2019 El Salvador Gang and Violence
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The gangs' battles with the police for control of working-
class neighborhoods involve in each case heavy-handedtactics by the police.
They also prove unproductive, since they unleash morerandom violence and terror.
As an almost logical result of each government's efforts toeliminate them, many gang members have but one incentive return to theUnited States.
There, they continue their involvement in criminal activities. And so the viciouscycle begins anew.
Today, the gangs have expanded into southern Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Thisarouses calls for a more organized effort to combat them.
Because of the great loss of the lives violence causes, the Pan American Health
Organization and also the World Assembly of the World Health Organizationhavedefined violence as a "public health problem."
They proposed an epidemiological approach to address it that consists of
Defining the problem and gathering information
Identifying causes and risk factors,
Developing and trying out specific interventions Evaluating policies' effectiveness.
In the past, this approach was used successfully in Colombia. There, in the
1990s, an agreement was signed between government officials and the leaders
of gangs that had been operating in the city of Cali.
As a result, the gangs' leaders stopped their criminal activities and the
government officials made a commitment to provide loans and technical trainingto gang members so that they might become productive members of society.
A similar approach is now being used in El Salvador.
There, the government is trying to curb gang activitythrough an ambitious jobs program.
This is complemented by other social measures, such as
training and provision of jobs that could be followed bythe other countries in the region.
Successful approaches suggest that controlling gang violence demands long-termaction, even when it might not show immediate results.
Prevention activities must also be targeted at the youngest sectors of thepopulation, particularly those suffering from abusive conditions at home. Afterall, gang violence is often the direct result of poverty and no formal education.
demands long-term action, evenwhen it mightnot showimmediate
results.
Gang violencethreatens to alterthe social fabricof the countriesin the region.
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/introduction.pdfhttp://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/introduction.pdfhttp://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/introduction.pdfhttp://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/introduction.pdfhttp://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/introduction.pdf7/28/2019 El Salvador Gang and Violence
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Among these actions to be taken is providing job training and psychologicalassistance, as well as job opportunities and loans to those youngsters.
The use of a multifaceted approach may be the best guarantor against the social
scourge of gang violence in the Central American region.
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