| WHO IS KILLING THE TATTOOED BOYS? |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, September 05 2005 |
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| This is the second column in a two-part series.
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- Juan has deep scars on his face. For security reasons, I can't reveal his real name -- and by the way, his scars are not the result of wounds, but rather the poor quality of the tattoo-removal machines he has been using. Like Juan, there are literally thousands of young Hondurans who cover their faces and wear long-sleeved shirts in blistering heat to hide the signs that identify them as gang members.
There was a time in their lives when they were proud of their tattoos. It was a brand of loyalty to their gang. In Juan's case, it was the Mara Salvatrucha, until death do us part.
However, nowadays a tattoo is enough to cause a man to be rejected by society, denied a job, treated as an undesirable and even landed in a Honduran jail, something like a living hell on Earth.
"There are mysterious people killing the tattooed boys, and no one seems to care who they are," Monsignor Romulo Emiliani, auxiliary bishop of San Pedro Sula, told me. It could be hit men hired by powerful impresarios, former police officers or even an elite force in the government doing social cleansing.
"Not that I know of," Honduran President Ricardo Maduro told me when I asked him if there are death squads in his country. "If there were, I would be more than happy to investigate them," he added.
Hondurans are a kind and hospitable people. They are used to tough times. They have been hit hard by history and by nature. And at this moment, Honduras is a country embroiled in bloody street wars. Gang members are killing each other. There are heinous crimes attributed to gang members, who themselves seem to be victims of abuse.
One of the most notorious cases is a massacre on Dec. 23, 2004, in which 28 people died when their bus was attacked by six men with automatic weapons. There were men, women and children ages 2 to 62 on the bus, headed to one of the poorest areas of the city. The investigation continues, but authorities blame members of the Mara Salvatrucha who intended to send a cryptic message to their rival gang.
Among other theories is possible revenge for a fire that, seven months earlier, caused the death of 107 members of MS in a prison ward. It is not clear how the fire started, and survivors say that it took almost an hour for firefighters to arrive when the fire station was 10 minutes away. I could not confirm that version when I visited the jail, mainly because the entire personnel had been replaced.
Honduras' internal war is not the only concern in the region. There is fear that the country has become fertile ground for organized crime. Several gang members admitted to me that they are being used by Mexican and Colombian drug cartels fighting for the lucrative Central American region, as well as by leftist rebels and paramilitary forces from Colombia involved in weapons and drug trafficking. The situation could pose a serious national-security threat to the U.S. and become a destabilizing factor in Central America.
However, as the MS membership continues to grow and expand from San Salvador to Washington, D.C., so does the conviction among some gang members, such as Juan, to leave behind a life of crime in which they constantly have to be watching their backs. They don't know who to fear more -- the authorities, the rival gang or their own gang.
Many of them have scars in their souls as deep as the ones they have on their faces or any other parts of their bodies where they have attempted to remove their tattoos. But they just can't find a way out. If they are willing to leave, governments should be willing to open one door to let them out of the gang, and another one to put them on the road to a new life.
Something has to be done soon to stop the bloodshed in barrios and to prevent future generations from throwing away their lives. If not, we could be on the verge of a new urban war right in our own backyard.
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