How the United States Destroyed El Salvador

 

If you live in Los Angeles, you are undoubtedly aware of both the plethora of wonderful Salvadoran restaurants… and the terrifying reputation of one particular Hispanic gang: MS-13. Many in this country use MS-13 as an exemplar of those “rapists, murderers criminals” illegally crossing our border, ensuring a constant flow of illicit drugs and deploying their exceptional reputation for ultra-violence (including executing not only their perceived enemies but the families and supporters of those deemed enemies). MS-13, like most urban gangs, leaves its graffiti, marking territory all over Los Angeles… and vast number of cities across the United States where MS-13 has spread. But MS-13 is an American gang that spread.

The BBC.com (4/19/17) gives Americans a little summary about who MS-13 really is: “The gang began in the barrios of Los Angeles in LA during the 1980s, formed by immigrants who had fled El Salvador's long and brutal civil war. Other members came from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

“The MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha, said to be a combination of Mara, meaning gang, Salva, for Salvador, and trucha, which translates roughly into street smarts. The 13 represents the position of M in the alphabet… MS-13 established a reputation for extreme violence and for killing with machetes. It took root in neighbourhoods dominated by Mexican gangs, and later expanded to other parts of the country… According to the FBI, the gang has spread to 46 states.

“In 2012, the US Treasury designated the gang a ‘transnational criminal organisation’. It was the first street gang to receive the dubious honour, placing it alongside much larger international cartels like the Mexican Zetas, Japanese Yakuza and Italian Camorra.

“MS-13 has been accused of recruiting poor and at-risk teenagers. Joining is said to require being ‘jumped in’ - subjected to a vicious 13-second beating - and ‘getting wet’ - carrying out a crime, often a murder, for the gang… Leaving is potentially even more dangerous. Large chest tattoos brand members for life, and some factions are said to murder members who attempt to leave.”

The Los Angeles MS-13 shot callers who formed the gang were born in the brutal streets of San Salvador during a seemingly interminable civil war where the United States became the main supplier of weapons and training to the government’s security forces. The main war began with the rise of a left-wing faction, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), and the explosive resulting oppression by the government (which US arms and money supported) began a civil war in 1979 that did not end until 1992. “Overall, the United Nations estimated that FMLN guerrillas were responsible for five percent of atrocities committed during the civil war, while 85 percent were committed by the Salvadoran security forces.” Wikipedia. US government aid money funded that 85%.

MS-13 may have been fueled by the brutality, murders and torture of this civil war, but as noted, the gang was founded in Los Angeles, California. While the legendary MS-13 machete was the weapon of terror control, MS-13 enjoyed the ease of obtaining guns in the United States, especially semiautomatic pistols and long guns. They also benefitted from the flow of money from Americans seeking illegal drugs… and formed their own drug cartels. Many returned to El Salvador and neighboring countries to recruit new members… and those who refused were often killed or were forced to watch their family members being killed. Ah, that machete. American guns flowed into that region, and MS-13, awash in cash, had little trouble buying their way into de facto political control of their home country.

If the original civil war in El Salvador had been brutal, this merging of the “legitimate” elected government with MS-13 extended that brutality into the daily lives of Salvadorans (and those in neighboring countries as well). Elected officials soon realized that they really no longer controlled their country. A confusing new de facto civil war erupted between the gangs and those aspects of regional governmental control that pretended to be in charge. The ensuing brutality has rendered El Salvador a “failed state.” So many of those pounding at our southern border are seeking asylum from the regional violence that was born in the United States, was armed by weapons easily obtained in the United States, was financed by drug sales to American buyers and was destabilized by US aid to the brutal government during that earlier civil war.

As much as we denounce the corruption in that Central American region, that local governments are not remotely trustworthy to distribute economic and medical aid from the United States, our interference in the region created the problem… and those asylum-seekers know that. The brutality that defines contemporary El Salvador has collapsed any semblance of governmental stability. Daily life there is squeezed between the brutality of the government and neighborhood violence from the local gangs.

The January 28th Associated Press illustrates this collapse: “Human Rights Watch says it has obtained a database leaked from El Salvador’s government that corroborates violations of due process, severe prison overcrowding and deaths in custody under the emergency powers put in place last March to confront a surge in gang violence… The global human rights organization said Friday [1/28] that the database from the Ministry of Public Safety lists details about some 50,000 people who were arrested between the implementation of the state of exception in late March and late August… A spokesperson for President Nayib Bukele said the office had not seen the report early Friday [1/28] and had no comment.

“El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved the suspension of some fundamental rights after an outburst of violence among the country’s powerful street gangs. People no longer have to be told why they are being arrested or what rights they have or be given access to a lawyer. The government also suspended the right of association.

“Many of the abuses have been previously reported by Human Rights Watch and local civil society organization Cristosal, but the government data added some detail, including the name, age and gender of those arrested; where they were arrested; the charges they face; and the prisons to which they were sent… Among those arrested during the period were more than 1,000 minors who were sent to pretrial detention… In March, the country’s Legislative Assembly lowered the age of criminal responsibility for gang-related crimes to 12 from 16.

“The database also pointed to staggering levels of overcrowding in El Salvador’s prisons. The government is building a massive new facility, but in the meantime, more detainees are stuffed into existing prisons while awaiting trial… As of August, the prison population had grown to more than 86,000; according to government information in February 2021, the facilities have a capacity of 30,000… The government reported in November that 90 people had died in custody since March… The most common charge is ‘unlawful association,’ accounting for some 39,000 of the new arrests. More than 8,000 face a charge of belonging to a terrorist organization.

“‘The use of these broadly defined crimes opens the door to arbitrary arrests of people with no relevant connection to gangs and does little to ensure justice for violent gang abuses, such as killings and rape,’ Human Rights Watch said in a statement.” But it was all born here in the United States.

I’m Peter Dekom, and for those who rail at that mass of humanity at our border with Mexico, so many asylum-seekers are from narco-states that owe their very intolerable levels of local violence to the United States… which disavows its direct responsibility for the problem.