El Salvador Making Gang Membership A Criminal Offence But At What Cost

[Bullfighter]

Gang strike paralyses El Salvador​

The army has been using trucks to help people get to work

Public transport in El Salvador has been severely disrupted for a third day by a strike enforced by street gangs, angry at a new law making gang membership a criminal offence.

The Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs told transport operators to observe the shutdown, or face the consequences.

Thousands of troops have been deployed to protect bus drivers and commuters.

The anti-gang law was introduced in July after gang members set fire to a bus, killing 17 people.

The BBC's Eric Lemus in the capital San Salvador says most bus companies there and across the country appear to have given in to the gangs' threats.

He said about 80% of public transport was suspended, although some private drivers in pick-up trucks had been carrying passengers for much higher fares.

Many businesses also shut down for fear of reprisals after the gangs circulated leaflets telling them to close or "face the consequences".

Police and soldiers have been escorting the vehicles that have been carrying passengers, and the army has also been using trucks to help people get to work.

Read more at:

BBC News - Gang strike paralyses El Salvador

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I remember reading a story that the people of El Salvador were so fed up with gangs that they formed vigilate groups and started killing anyone that even had a tattoo. Civil rights groups started claiming that the vigilantes were worse than the gangs they hunted. When will the US wake up and do something similar.

 

[waltky]

Treasury cracks down on MS-13...

US Imposes Penalties on MS-13 Gang
October 11, 2012: The U.S. government has stepped up its crackdown on Mara Salvatrucha, a violent gang with roots in El Salvador that has been increasing its presence in the United States.

The Treasury Department announced Thursday it had branded the group as a transnational criminal organization, a designation that allows the government to block any assets the gang has in the United States and prohibit U.S. citizens from conducting business with the group. Treasury officials say the gang, known as MS-13, has about 30,000 members, including 8,000 in the United States.

In addition to El Salvador, the group has a significant presence in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.In a statement, Treasury Under Secretary David Cohen said MS-13 has been linked to murders, racketeering, drug and human trafficking in the U.S., and that its violent attacks on rival gang members often injure innocent bystanders.

Marymount University criminal justice professor Cynthia O'Donnell has published research on MS-13. She tells VOA the group is intentionally violent. "One of the reasons that they are violent has to do with what they are trying to accomplish, and that is simply the reputation for that," said O'Donnell. "They want to be known as the biggest, the baddest, the meanest. And so they, of course, commit the acts that endorse that."

The Treasury Department says MS-13 now operates in more than 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. O'Donnell says one reason the group has been able to get such a strong foothold in the U.S. is that it is so mobile. "When the heat turns up in one area, so to speak, they move to another area," O'Donnell said. The U.S. has taken similar action against other violent groups, including the Yakuza, a Japanese organized crime group, and the Mexico-based Zetas drug cartel.

US Imposes Penalties on MS-13 Gang

 

[waltky]

Killings still dropping, but not as fast as 2012...

PACE OF DROP IN EL SALVADOR KILLINGS SLOWS
Dec 23,`13 -- Homicides in El Salvador decreased again this year, but not as deeply as they did in 2012 after warring street gangs signed a truce.

President Mauricio Funes says the Central American country has averaged 6.8 killings a day so far in 2013. That compares to 7.1 last year, which was a big drop from about 12 daily slayings in 2011, before the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs signed a truce.

The rate had reached as high as 14 a day just before the truce. The two gangs have long fought turf battles as well as carrying out extortion, drug sales and other illicit activities.

Funes said Monday that official figures show the nation of 6 million people had 2,426 killings in 2013, 2,543 in 2012 and 4,354 in 2011.

Source

 

[longknife]

The Hispanic community is fully aware of these gangs here in the USA and rightfully fear them. As has occurred in previous times, The threaten Salvadorian business owners with reprisals if they don't pay up and a lot of gang shootings are attributed to them. They have become a major source of drug trafficking.

And, while all this is going on, you see or hear or read almost nothing of it in the press!