| NEW TACTICS AGAINST GANG VIOLENCE |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Tuesday, February 28 2006 |
| |
| The streets of Central America continue to be stained with blood from gang violence. In the first weeks of 2006, the region saw record-breaking numbers of gang-related deaths. In El Salvador, there were 316 homicides reported, 60 percent of which are believed to have been gang-related. Now, the Salvadoran government is looking for ways to take its hard-line approach against gangs to a higher level.
The tiny country has created an elite police unit dedicated to combating gangs and organized crime. The 40 agents assigned to the special-
operations force keep their faces covered at all times to hide their identities. To some, this brings back nightmarish memories of the Sombra Negra, or Black Shadow -- the feared paramilitary group created after the civil war to eliminate gang members -- as well as the death squads that during El Salvador's armed conflict were dedicated to cleaning the streets of insurgents and their sympathizers.
In the meantime, neighboring Honduras has come up with a completely different approach to combating gangs. Until now, Honduras' tough anti-gang laws have done little to curb the violence. So now, the government of newly elected President Manuel Zelaya has opted to use a new weapon. In addition to adding more police officers, the Honduran government has agreed to a dialogue with leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18, two of the most violent and feared gangs in the world, which have an estimated 40,000-50,000 members in Honduras alone.
The strategies used by El Salvador and Honduras have their unique risks. In El Salvador, where the gang population is believed to be around 15,000, the strategy used against the maras has resulted in more violence. While the hard-line strategy is supposed to be accompanied by rehabilitation and prevention efforts, those programs have been dismal failures. They have resulted in rival gangs -- who previously were busy fighting each other -- joining forces to fight against a common enemy: the government.
Salvadoran President Tony Saca is asking for more help from the United States. He wants the U.S. to stop deporting gang members to El Salvador. Saca, a close ally of the Bush administration, will have a tough time persuading the U.S. to do that, since deportation is a prime component of the U.S. plan to fight gangs. More than 800 Salvadorans were deported in January of this year; more than 550 of them had a criminal record. The tactic is not only fueling a vicious circle of violence but could be counterproductive for the United States. In many cases, gang members who are returned to El Salvador quickly find themselves back in the U.S. committing more crimes.
For all its good intentions, the government of President Zelaya in Honduras might be biting off more than it can chew. Having a dialogue with gang leaders and allowing them to set the agenda is a dangerous proposition. Leaders of the maras in Honduras say they are willing to negotiate, but at the same time are threatening more violence if their demands are not met through negotiations.
The gang leaders are not exactly in the best negotiating position. They want the government to provide training, counseling and jobs, but at the same time they want to continue living as part of a gang. While government officials should open the way to rehabilitation for gang members, providing them with marketable skills to find jobs, at the same time gang members must once and for all renounce their violent way of life.
Simply locking up gang members doesn't seem to be the answer, either. Gangs continue killing each other inside prisons, and jailed gang leaders are able to run their international organizations from their prison cells with little difficulty. Neither El Salvador nor Honduras can control the growing gang problem with a weak and ineffective judicial system. Law enforcement must be given the proper tools to investigate gangs under a process committed to both justice and human rights.
There are no simple solutions to ending the gang epidemic. For now, Central America is paying a high price for its bloody history of civil war and political instability, as is the United States for its ill-conceived anti-gang policies. |
