The state war against the gangs is fought in El Salvador Nayib Bukele by land, sea and even video game. “Territorial Control Plan: Extraction”, promoted by the same autocratic government, has had thousands of telephone downloads. The application, developed by Restless Games Studio, allows the user to “join & rdquor; to combat against the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS13) gangs, the factions of Barrio 18 or the Mao-Mao, either as “a seasoned” elite police officer or, also, as an avatar of Bukele himself. What it is about is “kill criminals” and “put the population to safety”. Victory in the virtual world, as in the real one, supposes the prison or the flight of gang members from the country. Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras have begun to coordinate actions to prevent the insertion of “clicks”, as the cellular structures of these organizations are known. Chile has also been contemplating the danger for weeks. The defeat of those groups and the forced dispersal process of those who have not been captured by security or military forces can also reach Europe, especially Italy and Spain.
‘El Faro’, the main Salvadoran media outlet and, furthermore, a thorn in Bukele’s side, due to systematic denunciations that have earned him censorship and persecution, considers that the gangs that came to devastate that country “no longer exist” in the dimension that has terrified a society. The victory of which the president boasts has had an enormous cost. “Without gangs and without democracy,” said the publication in one of its editorials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDO9OsKSD1c
The gangs were originally a migratory problem and a derivative of the civil war that forced many Salvadorans to leave the country between 1980 and 1992. They settled in California. Later, thousands of them were deported by the United States. After the conflict ended, its structures prospered in El Salvador until they became ruthless youth armies dedicated to the extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking. When the State set its sights on the problem, it was already too late. = Now, remnants of gangs and other factions leave the country again due to internal conditions. For these gangs, or what’s left of them, it’s about evading border controls. It is not an easy task, they must hide the signs that give them away: andsea of tattoos on faces and bodies that once represented a broken loyalty.
Domino effect
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So far, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala are the most affected by what specialists call a “domino effect.” In the first of these countries, one of the top leaders of the MS13 was captured in mid-April, José Wilfredo Ayala Alcántara, alias “Hollywood Indian & rdquor ;.
For those who are interested in information beyond the official one. In 2020 “Indio” had contact with a gang member nicknamed “Raider” by Francis Locos who lived in Madrid, Spain. Indio’s contacts were transcontinental. IMAGE (note the EU and Spanish flag) pic.twitter.com/fMsF7b8G0r
— Carlos Garcia (@CarlosGnarra) April 24, 2023
The latest official statistics, from 2020, place Spain in seventh place chosen by Salvadoran migration (12,408 cases). The vast majority try to reach the United States. Migrants sometimes carry the weight of prejudices and stereotypes. In this context, those familiar with the gang problem in El Salvador took note months ago of the joint operation of the National Police and Urban Guard in Barcelona, when 16 people were arrested, allegedly related to a “clic” from Barrio 18. A isolated event, typical of precarious urban environments, or an indication of something more than an anomaly? The question remains for now in the air. Beyond waiting for a possible response, the InSight Crime Foundation, dedicated to investigating security in Latin America and the Caribbean, maintains that MS13 and Barrio 18 and MS13 have been in Spain since 2005. In this context, it was circulating days ago in social networks a photograph taken in Madrid in 2020 of an alleged mara related to the recently captured Indio de Hollywood. The flags of Spain and the EU can be seen in the background.