Srta

YOUTH GANGS IN CENTRAL AMERICA



Central American youth gangs have spread their reach and influence throughout the streets of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras posing a serious threat to peace and stability in these countries. Although youth gangs have always existed, the past fifteen years saw a dramatic increase in scope and depth of these gangs. They have grown enormously in the region,consistently recruiting impoverished children and teenagers whose only hope for financial security and well-being is to join these gangs. Making the situation even more precarious, evidence shows that youth gangs are currently involved in drug trafficking and other organized criminal syndicates changing the phenomenon from youth street gangs to a criminal drug related enterprise.

The two maingangs that control the region are the MaraSalvatrucha 13 gang and the Calle 18 gang. Both gangs have origins in California where large groups of migrant Central Americans were fleeing civil wars and settled in Los Angeles. In 1996 with the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, thousands of undocumented Central Americans were deported to their country oforigin, many of whom were in jail for criminal and gang-related activities (Seelke 2011,p.5). This act also coincided with the need to free jail space in already overcrowded Los Angeles prisons. During the first phases of mass deportation, the United States did not reveal any information on the deportees and thus, Central American governments were unaware of the new criminals that were being droppedinto the region. Although gangs existed in the region prior to the deportations, the group of deportees brought to the region a westernized and American style of gang behavior that rippled throughout Central America. Local gangs quickly identified themselves with either the Mara 13 or the Calle 18 and gang violence which occurred in the streets of Los Angeles was simply transferred to El Salvador,Honduras and Guatemala.

A host of political, economic and social factors contribute to the emergence and proliferation of Central American youth gangs. After the wreckage of the Central American civil wars, the region began to become more tolerant of violence as a means to settle disputes and thus violent youth gangs were for the most part tolerated and accepted. The civil wars left easy accessto weapons which these gangs took advantage of, to promote their own goals of rivaling for and controlling territories and carrying out violent crimes. Gangs found no problem in recruiting young men, as very often teenagers were left to care for themselves or were left with grandparents or other relatives who were unable to properly care for them while their parents left the region in search ofthe American dream. Gangs usually provide their members with a source of security and a feeling of belonging and family which members have never experienced.

The creation and explosion of these gangs do not have one primary reason but a host of interrelated factors contributing to their existence and success. Exacerbated by poverty, lack of economic opportunities, a corrupt government unable toprovide its citizens with social services, lack of jobs and education, a strong desire to achieve material objects without legitimate means of accessing them, severe inequality, social exclusion and injustices, Central America presented itself with a ripe situation for youth gangs to take control and wreak havoc. Using Honduras as an example, World Bank statistics indicate that 65% of thepopulation live on less than $2 per day and 30% of the population are young people between 15 and 24 years old (Michel, Utting and Moquin). Due to this daunting reality, young people see that there is no alternative to economic stability and security than joining a gang.

Living in a situation of poverty and hopelessness, young people, usually males, quickly and easily pledged allegiance to a gang...