The Saviora country with a population of less than 6 million inhabitants, registered an average of about 10 homicides a day. Behind most of these murders were gangs such as MS13 either 18th Quarter, gang groups that have become powerful criminal organizations with international structures, which have terrorized societies such as the Salvadoran, and which are considered a national security problem by countries like USA.
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukeledeclared in the country a Exception statusharshly criticized for the suppression of procedural guarantees that supposed, and has imprisoned thousands of men supposedly members of the gangs. He has taken very strong measures, such as the prohibition of gang symbols or the construction of a prison for 40,000 inmates, which have boosted his popularity and caused the homicide rate to drop below one per day.
international care
Bukele’s police pressure on the gangs is closely watched by the international community. After the first year of the state of emergency in El Salvador, the police forces have verified with concern that its harshness has caused a displacement effect of several of its members -including leaders- to nearby countries, such as Guatemala, belize, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica or even Chiliexplain to this newspaper sources from the General Information Commissioner (CGI) of the National Policewhich indicate that Spain has not yet received any members, although they stay alert for the precedents of these organizations in the country.
In Nou Barris, last February, the most serious attempt to establish roots of a gang in Spain was aborted, according to the national police
In addition, governments like the Honduran one, as affected as Bukele’s by the problem of the gangs, is adopting similar measures. A possible scenario, if more countries apply the same pressure, is that the phenomenon of these organizations affects Europe. Spain, which shares a language and cultural closeness, points out as an appealing destination. “We are very aware of any sign that points in that direction, although we are not yet worried,” reassure the same CGI sources.
The Maras
The main gangs are Barrio 18 and MS13 (or salvatrucha gang 13). both were born in The Angels (United States) and owe their name to the neighborhood or street where they were founded. Barrio 18 is more widespread in Honduras and MS13 in El Salvador. They are organized from ‘clics’ or tribes, the minimum implantation structure. In each of these two countries, the most affected, it is estimated that there are, or existed before Bukele, according to the information handled by the National Police, some 300 ‘clicks‘. Both societies have lived years terrified by the power they have achieved. That is why Bukele’s popularity, despite the abuses committed to defeat them, is so high.
The maras share with the Latin gangs that Catalonia discovered 20 years ago – parallel to the migration of South American and Central American citizens – a sectarian operationidentification with a certain symbology – tattoos, especially– and a structure, more or less nested, which is accessed through rites or tests, which can range from defending a territory, to committing a crime or, directly, a homicide. The maras, unlike youth gangs of Latino origin –whose activity is once again worrying the Madrid authorities but not the Catalan ones–, are organisms from which their members do not leave throughout their lives and behave like “a mafia“, stress police sources.
specialized information groups National Police and the Civil Guard are part of a international task force led by the FBI that meets periodically, both physically and virtually, to study the evolution of the gangs. They are part of this group, initiated as a Task Force approved by donald trump and renewed by Joe BidenIn addition to the Spanish police and the FBI, bodies from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Ecuador or Mexico. In these meetings, the police officers notify each other every time they detect that a member changes country or coordinate when they must carry out joint operations.
Spanish precedents
The ‘Safeguard’ operation that the National Police and the Urban Guard of Barcelona activated jointly in the district of new barris last february allowed cut off the most serious attempt at rooting of a mara in Spain, according to the CGI. arrested 16 men, most of them young, including a 37-year-old man who has lived in Barcelona for a long time but with connections with Barrio 18 in Honduras. As the CGI learned, thanks to the contacts provided in this international working group, he intended to set up a ‘clic’ or a ‘tribe’ in Spain.
Other police sources consulted about the “Safeguard” operation do not believe that the 16 arrested were acting as a “clic” of Barrio 18 because the judge investigating the case has not charged them with a crime of belonging to a criminal group and did not appear in the records of the gang’s own symbology. And they also underline that this gang behaved like a group of thieves, violent in some cases, most of whom were already arrested by the Mossos d’Esquadra months before the intervention of the state police.
Related news
Whether or not it was such a serious attempt to establish roots as the National Police maintains, it was indeed a hint more -as are the operation ‘croissant‘ of the Civil Guard released in 2014 in Alicante against a ‘click’ of the MS13 in which there were more than 30 arrests or the arrest in Madrid 2016 of a leader of the Barrio 18 known by the nickname of “the Mexican” by the National Police – that the antennas must be deployed to monitor how the “Bukele effect” on these organizations continues to evolve.