From US Funded Death Squads to L.A-Bred Maras
The Rise of Transnational Salvadoran Youth Gangs
By Kelly Richter, University of Chicago
~snip~
Context: US Intervention in El Salvador
The current Salvadoran-American gang phenomenon is, in part, traceable to the long and tainted history of US intervention in Central America. During the Cold War, Central America served as a nexus for the projection of American fears over the rise of the “Left,” especially after the Sandinistas rose to power in Nicaragua in 1979 and President Reagan, a zealous anti-communist, came into office in 1981. Prior to and during the 1980’s, the United States openly and covertly bankrolled and trained repressive anti-communist military regimes and insurgency movements in the region. While tales of the Iran Contra scandal in Nicaragua have become urban lore, much less is remembered about US intervention in El Salvador.
El Salvador, roughly the size of Massachusetts with a population of 6.5 million, was the largest hemispheric recipient of US military aide during the Cold War – including over four billion dollars during the 1980’s. With a legacy of stark socio-economic inequality, repressive right-wing rule and democratic struggle, El Salvador reached a breaking point in the late 1970’s. Government repression came to a violent apex in systemic efforts to eradicate leftists and alleged sympathizers. Official military efforts and paramilitary “death squad” operations claimed some 30,000 victims by the mid-1980’s. The violence fostered the coalescence of leftist groups and the military mobilization of the Marxist Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) guerilla insurgency, which led the country into a full-scale civil war.
During the official war, which lasted twelve years and claimed an estimated 100,000 lives, military human rights abuses were widespread, including torture, forced “disappearance,” and child soldiering. The FMLN also engaged in abuses, though to a significantly lesser degree. In light of the violations (including murders of US citizens), the Carter administration wavered on aid to the military junta but ultimately restored funding. When Reagan came to power, funding of the Salvadoran military dramatically increased, often against congressional opposition, and the US continued to extensively fund the Salvadoran military until the 1992 ceasefire.
The early 1980’s saw a massive influx of Salvadoran refugees and illegal immigrants entering the US to escape death squads, the military, the FMLN, economic desolation, and other trappings of guerilla war. However, the United States refused to acknowledge the extent and often, existence, of a humanitarian crisis. Salvadorans were categorically denied amnesty in favor of refugees from communist countries. While these policies were successfully challenged in the early 1990’s, the status of Salvadorans in the US has remained precarious.
(snip/...)
http://www.campusprogress.org/features/316/from-us-funded-death-squads-to-la-bred-maras/index.php
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