U.S. President Ronald Reagan secretly and illegally supported rebels fighting the government in Nicaragua. In El Salvador, he propped up the government in its battle with rebels. Same story in Guatemala. Honduras escaped the civil wars going on around it but, with U.S. help, the military and police quietly made government opponents disappear.
Central American War Refugees
During the 1970s and ‘80s more than a million people fled the turmoil of Central America. Huge numbers settled in the Los Angeles area. There, they formed gangs to protect themselves from the street mobs already in existence. One of the most vicious of these groups was composed of men from El Salvador; they called themselves Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. A documentary posted on YouTube describes the gang’s violent culture.
New gangs arriving in an area provoke existing groups into protecting their turf and violence is often the outcome. Some of the newcomers from Central America got into trouble with the law and were sent back to where they came from.
According to a Globe and Mail report (January 7, 2008), “Many of these kids and their parents were deported in the 1990s, returning to Central America, where gangs have been thriving since.”
Central America Bristling with Weapons
Former California police officer, Jared Lewis, writes about MS-13 on his website, knowgangs.com.
“All deportees were first housed in the Guezaltepeque Prison, in Northern El Salvador. Quickly and unexpectedly, Mara Salvatrucha flourished in the prison system and recruitment began on the streets in El Salvador, while the gang continued to grow in the United States as well.”
Though the country was now at peace it was still awash in weapons and idle young men who knew how to use them. Gang recruits were easy to find and train. Officer Lewis writes, “The gang soon became the largest gang in El Salvador and soon spread to the Honduras and Guatemala.”
Some Gang Members Move North to Canada
Police in Central America have become much more aggressive in dealing with Mara Salvatrucha and other gangs such as Mara 18. Officer Lewis says there are government death squads sent out to summarily execute suspected gang members.
This has prompted more than a few to head north.
In his January 7, 2008 article in The Globe and Mail, “Canada is Haven for Gang Members on the Run,” Gary Mason quotes Guatemalan prosecutor Robert Morales as saying he knows of gang members trying to get refugee status in Canada.
“We know that there are members of Mara 18 and MS-13 who are in Canada…I came across a gang member who was working in a call centre here. He’d just returned from a long stint in Ontario.”
On June 6, 2008, CBC News reported the arrest of 17 suspected MS-13 members in Toronto. The Canadian news organization added that, “Police in British Columbia are concerned about the presence in the province of what’s being called the most dangerous gang in North America.”
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