In the early 1980’s a civil war in the Central American country of El Salvador displaced thousands of its citizens. To find a better life and escape their war-torn country, these El Salvadorian immigrants found their way onto the streets of Los Angeles. The citizens of El Salvador that made it into the United States had no money, they were unable to communicate, they were undocumented, and they fell victim to the street gangs that were in control of Los Angeles. The immigrants fought back against their oppressors by forming their own gang. The Mara Salvatrucha gang or MS-13 had been created. The MS-13 gang of the 1980’s was vastly different than the transnational gang and threat to national security that they are today. MS-13 became a national hot topic when President Donald Trump brought them to the forefront of his national immigration strategy. The political debate is ongoing between the Republican president claiming that the MS-13 problem in the United States is of tremendous proportions and his Democratic opponents claiming that MS-13 is only as bad as any other street gang. However, both sides of the political spectrum have acknowledged that MS-13 has an extreme propensity for violence that is without a doubt shocking to the conscience. Mara Salvatrucha has created a unique challenge to law enforcement. MS-13 has become an emerging transnational threat through unique abilities to enter in and out of the United States. They’ve become distinctive in the crimes they commit and the violent methods they use to achieve those crimes, their recruitment strategies are continuously growing their ranks, and their presence in several countries are some of the frightening advantages they possess. These qualities have forced the United States to take a unique approach to help combat the MS-13 problem in the United States and in Central American Northern Triangle that consists of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The motto of MS-13 is kill, rape, control and if the Maras remain unchecked they will continue to grow into a more sophisticated and formidable threat to national security.
The United States is somewhat to blame for the threat that Mara Salvatrucha poses to the United States and throughout Central America. After the infamous L.A. riots in 1992, Prosecutors began charging young Latino gang members as adults for felonies that would put them in prison for sentences longer than a year (Farah D. 2012). Through these new statutes that prosecutors began charging gang members with, hundreds of these men were eventually deported back to their home country of El Salvador. Those who were deported back to El Salvador felt disconnected from their native country. They had grown accustomed to the standards of the United States and in some cases, they were unable to speak the native language. This resulted in MS-13 members banning together and bringing their Los Angles style to Central America. They were able to bring with them the knowledge that allowed them to survive the vicious streets in California. Coincidentally as these MS-13 members arrived back home the civil war in El Salvador had ended. As a part of the Peace Accords in El Salvador thousands of members in the El Salvadorian army, police force, and other guerilla combatants were demobilized and required to give up their weapons (Lineberger, 2011). These displaced fighters became prime targets for the Maras who promised them a better life if they would translate their war-fighting skills to gang life. The war-torn countries of Central America along with their fragile new governments were unable to handle the sophistication of MS-13. The inclination for extreme violence displayed by Mara Salvatrucha showed their superiority and allowed them to successfully recruit new members that possessed guerilla tactics, commit a surplus of crimes, spread and control various new territories throughout the Northern Triangle.
The Maras are unique in the sense that there is no centralized hierarchy of leadership. However, MS-13 is extremely coordinated in the division of their leadership and who calls the shots for each individual clique. Farah (2012) breaks down the organizational structure of MS-13 in his journal titled Central American Gangs: Changing Nature and New Partners. “In the Mara Salvatrucha structure, clicas (cliques) are local neighborhood groups under the command of a Palabrero who is responsible for around twenty to thirty clicas. A Ranflero is over multiple Palabreros and is chosen by the geographic area he is located. Ranfleros are typically in prison, however, their word is the supreme law. The Jefes Nacionales are above the Ranfleros. The Jefes are a small group of leaders who have the ultimate authority on issues that affect everyone within MS-13. However, each individual clique allows their own leader to decide what types of crimes they engage in” (Farah 2012). According to Wolf (2012), there is a large number of MS-13’s senior leadership that is incarcerated. These numbers are even more condensed in Central America where strict laws are responsible for prisons that are run by MS-13 due to their heavy concentration inside of them (Wolf 2012). MS-13 usually recruits young children to be in their gang. Often, these children are either alone as an immigrant in the United States or they are forced into gang life in Central American countries. In the journal titled The Evolution of MS-13 in El Salvador and Honduras Farah (2017) writes that “90% of the gangs are represented by males who are recruited as young as age eleven. The young males begin as lookouts that they call Banderines. Eventually, they are given the title of Postes or Paises and they are tasked with either providing security or protecting and distributing crack. After the young members, have proved themselves by performing their job and various violent acts, they’re given the title of Jommies and are considered a full member of MS-13” (Farah 2017). Before these young men become members, however, they are formally jumped into the gang for thirteen seconds while the rules and the codes of conduct are recited to them (Wolf 2012). Farah (2017) also states that young girls who join MS-13 are usually forced into gang life as sex slaves known to the gang as Jainas. Women are also utilized in MS-13 by smuggling contraband into prisons and misleading victims that the gang wishes to kidnap or kill (Wolf 2012). Mara Salvatrucha views prison as a badge of honor for their members. The absence of fear of being incarcerated and their unique ability to recruit the youth into their gang has allowed MS-13’s structure to flourish and maintain their way of life.
MS-13 lives by the moto kill, rape, control. Their sheer brutality has brought them into the spotlight as the most vicious gang in America. The top crimes that MS-13 commits are extortion, rape, murder, drug trafficking, and human smuggling. These crimes are not mutually exclusive. Typically, citizens that are subject to extortion by MS-13 that don’t cooperate are murdered. Inside the United States, Mara Salvatrucha targets undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants inside of the United States have a fear of being deported for their immigration status and usually have a distrust of the police. This has made them easy targets for MS-13 to prey upon because the likelihood of being caught is low. In an article written for The Economist titled A Horrible MS; Gangs and Immigration it is noted that MS-13 will extort immigrants inside the United States by threatening their family in Central American countries. Extortion has become a primary source of income for MS-13. Narcotics trafficking has become a major source of revenue for MS-13 as well. It has been reported that MS-13 smuggles cocaine for Columbian cartels in exchange for a portion of their product (Farah 2012). Additionally, human smuggling is a major component for revenue in MS-13 because of their inflated prices. The Maras have become a major force in the human smuggling field because of their willingness to kill and maim immigrants and workers who do not use their services (Arana 2005).
All of the crimes committed by Mara Salvatrucha are exceptionally heinous. However, it is their use of violence and the phenomena known as the revolving door that has caught national attention as threats to the homeland. President Donald Trump declared that the members of MS-13 are animals. MS-13 is notorious for mutilating their victims by machete attacks and dismembering their victims to get their point across. On May 21, 2018 on Whitehouse.gov an article was put out titled What You Need To Know About The Violent Animals Of MS-13 the article stated several vicious attacks by MS-13 including the following “In Maryland, MS-13’s animals are accused of stabbing a man more than 100 times and then decapitating him, dismembering him, and ripping his heart out of his body. Police believe MS-13 members in Maryland also savagely beat a 15-year-old human trafficking victim. The MS-13 animals used a bat and took turns beating her nearly 30 times in total.” (What You Need To Know 2018). This type of violence displayed by the group has been going on since their inception. As a matter of fact, in December of 2004 in order to protest anti-gang laws in El Salvador MS-13 members surrounded a bus and shot at it with AK-47’s leaving 28 people dead (Arana 2005). MS-13 is also suspected of being Satanists. Their extreme inclination for violence and use of the devil’s horns as their logo has caused some experts to draw parallels between the two. Regardless of their religious affiliation, Mara Salvatrucha instills fear in citizens through their violent displays that are shocking to the conscience. The phenomena known as the revolving door brought considerable amounts of attention to MS-13 from a defense standpoint. In a journal article written by Lineberger, it is stated that the MS-13 North-South revolving door problem happens when MS-13 members are caught and deported from the United States. They are deported back to El Salvador long enough for them to either commit a crime or to plot their return to the United States (Lineberger 2011). The possibility of MS-13 working in collusion with terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda to exploit narcotics smuggling routes in order to smuggle in terrorists to the United States has become a threat to national security (Franco, C. 2007). Although the FBI disregarded this rumored encounter, in 2004 it was reported that an Al Qaeda operative named Adnan El Shukrinjumah met with MS-13 leaders to discuss smuggling terrorist into the United States (Wolf 2012). Mara Salvatrucha’s ability to smuggle drugs, people, and themselves in and out of the United States has made their presence a formidable threat to national security.
The sophistication that Mara Salvatrucha has begun to display in Central America and the countries of the Northern Triangle has become alarming. It has been uncharacteristic of MS-13 in the past to identify and associate with politics however that appears to be changing in Central America. The Mara Salvatruchas’ leaders have learned that they can coerce the government by increasing the number of murders they commit. This happened in El Salvador when the government offered to pay MS-13 locals twenty-five million dollars to decrease the homicide rate (Farah 2017). They can influence political elections this way as well. It has been stated that MS-13 will only allow candidates they support to campaign in their territories and they will threaten to kill anyone who does not support their candidates (Farah 2017). Another disturbing sign of maturity from MS-13 has been their efforts to send members into the military, police, and universities to become lawyers, accountants, and MBA’s (Farah 2017). MS-13 has also stopped extorting local businesses that inhabit territories under their control. This new policy that MS-13 has adopted in Honduras has won over the local businesses. Farah (2017) states that because of the shift in operation locals cooperate with MS-13 to identify rival gangs, this allows MS-13 and the police to kick out other gangs and allow MS-13 to control the newly acquired territory. The local MS-13 cliques in Honduras have also begun recruiting police officers. Farah (2017) states that they’ve begun to do this because “the Honduran government dismissed over a thousand police officers that they suspected of corruption. MS-13 hires them for security and training and pays them twice what they would make as a police officer”. The Folton Locos Salvatruchas, an MS-13 clique, has started training in mobile camps with the Los Zetas Cartel (Farah 2012). The modifications that Mara Salvatrucha leadership are making are frightening. They show a new level of maturity, an ability to organize, and an increased tactical mindset that the gang has not yet displayed since its inception.
There have been several attempts by both Central American governments and the United States government to stop the spread of Maras Salvatrucha. The most popular way in Central America to deal with MS-13 has been to implement anti-gang laws. In 2001, the Honduran president Ricardo Maduro implemented anti-gang laws known as Mano Dura (Arana 2005). However, gang members protested these laws by increasing the number of violent homicides they committed. The most recent attempt in El Salvador to deal with the MS-13 problem occurred in 2010. The El Salvadoran president authorized the military to set up checkpoints and to conduct searches that would result in the arrest of anyone suspected of gang association (Lineberger 2011). The attempts to combat MS-13 in Central America have resulted in increased homicides and vastly overpopulated prisons. The United States has created several different task forces that exclusively operate in the United States as well as task forces that partner with local police in Central American countries. The majority of these initiatives launched by the United States to combat MS-13 were established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is also involved in combating MS-13 along with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Franco (2007) lists the following programs as initiatives that the United States uses to combat Mara Salvatrucha: The FBI MS-13 National Gang Task Force was established in December 2004 to coordinate investigative efforts and to speed up intelligence to identify MS-13 activities. The FBI Central American Fingerprint Exploitation is used to merge criminal records from Central American partners to an FBI database. The ATF is the primary agency for investigating laws regarding firearms which MS-13 deals with heavily. The Department of Homeland Security’s organization ICE initiated Operation Community Shield in 2005 to address the MS-13 threat. Customs and Border Protection, another agency within the Department of Homeland Security has been collecting intelligence on MS-13 since 2004 (Franco 2007). One of the most successful and well-known programs that has been launched was the 2007 Transnational Anti-Gang initiative started by the FBI. This program embeds two FBI agents in El Salvador and allows them to work with investigators and analysts in order to relay information between the United States and Central America (Lineberger 2011). Although we are unable to neutralize the threat that MS-13 poses, we are better able to monitor them through the laws in Central American territories and the numerous programs launched by the United States.
Currently, there are only about 10,000 active MS-13 members within the United States. However, there are around 60,000 members total that inhabit ten different countries including El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala as well as the United States (Lineberger 2011). The members of Mara Salvatrucha have become widely known amongst all the different territories they inhabit for their extreme brutality. Their victims are frequently cut with knives, dismembered, and murdered. The other victims of MS-13 are subject to extortion and rape. Mara Salvatrucha has gone beyond an ordinary street gang. They have ventured into the category of transnational organized crime. In 2007 an MS-13 leader by the name of Saul Antonio Turcios Angel ordered two members in Maryland to commit a homicide while he was incarcerated in El Salvador (Lineberger 2011). Their ability to communicate between countries, commit crimes between multiple countries, and even their mere presence within multiple countries solidifies the fact that they are transnational. The United States has played both a major role in creating MS-13 through the mass deportation of immigrants in the 90’s and the U.S. has even made it easier for the Maras to continue committing their crimes between Mexico and the United States. It has become easier for MS-13 to move people across the border between Mexico and America because Mexican officials are seemingly less cooperative over border wall disputes (Farrah 2017). MS-13 is displaying terrifying abilities to coordinate between countries, synchronize with rival gangs and the cartel, make political moves, control territories, and covertly operate between the border of North and Central America. MS-13 has proven their ability to infiltrate countries in Central America and to control virtually every aspect of those countries. The Maras are at our doorstep. They are big problems that require more attention than a simple political debate on immigration. The Mara Salvatrucha problem is a threat to national security that can no longer be ignored.