Mara Salvatrucha

In the spirit of being critical of Latin America—for only then can we understand the region’s complex problems—I am sharing a slide show I found on youtube presenting various pictures of the Mara Salvatrucha, a Los Angeles-based gang that was started by immigrants from Central America, particularly Salvadorians. Wikipedia claims that there are over 20,000 members in the US, and over 100,000 throughout the world. These figures do not surprise me, and are indeed worrisome. The MS-13, as it is often termed, is notoriously violent and its members roam free in the inner-city regions of many American cities. Their presence in Central America is, however, much more terrorizing, and many people are murdered throughout the region on a regular basis. One of the main reasons for the rise of this gang, as well as of others, is the considerable fragmentation of families that results from immigration. Children grow up without parents and naturally seek substitutes for stability that are sometimes of a sinister type. The MS-13 is a considerable problem for the US and Central America and one which must be tackled as the Hispanic populations continues to grow.