A complicated situation of violence in El Salvador

When I was in Honduras - specifically Tegucigalpa - my mother wanted me to hurry on to El Salvador as quickly as I could.  Both she and I had read all of the terrible statistics that focus on Honduran crime and violence.  Before my trip, I was under the impression that Honduras was the most dangerous country in Central America.  After spending time in Honduras and El Salvador, I still feel that way.  However, I now realize that the situation is much more complicated than I originally thought.  

Violence is a normal part of everyday life in parts of Central America

El Salvador has some of the same problems as Honduras: gangs, violence, extreme poverty.  However, because I knew the Castanedas and met friendly travelers along the way, I was relieved of having the constant fears about potential violence that I had been racked with in Tegucigalpa.  However, when I talked with people who had spent the majority of their life in El Salvador, they told me various stories that were similar to the ones I had heard about Honduras.  Antonio told me about gangs levying taxes in San Salvador.  Andrea, a middle-aged and heavyset woman I met in Juayua, recounted the numerous violent communities and their affected citizens.

The United States has a primary and for many Americans embarrassing role in the violence that currently plagues El Salvador.  The main proprietors of violence and crime in El Salvador are members of gangs, or maras in colloquial Salvadoran Spanish.  The two main maras are Mara Salvatrucha and their rivals, Calle 18.  However, these are not simply El Salvadoran maras; both of these maras have American roots.  During the El Salvadoran Civil War of the 1980s, many El Salvadorans fled to America.  Many of the El Salvadorans were children of leftist guerrillas.  They often left behind destruction of their communities and parents killed or missing in combat.  Interestingly, the United States openly supported the Salvadoran Military Government who fought against the guerrillas.  Because they had no significant guidance or support otherwise, these children joined maras, principally in Los Angeles.  Many mara members were arrested in the United States and sent back to El Salvador, their country of birth. 

Two mara members and their child 

Mara members flashing their gang signs

After they had been deported, the mara members continued the lifestyle that they had known for most of their life.  Now there are about 25,000 gang members currently in El Salvador and about another 9,000 locked up.  Similar to Honduran newspapers, El Salvadorian newspapers seem to feature the high rate of homicides seemingly daily.  Around 2012, there was a gang truce between Mara Salvatrucha and Calle 18.  The monthly rate of homicides dropped dramatically, from 16 murders per day to about five.  However the recent murder rate has climbed back up to about 12 murders a day because of an apparent truce collapse.  In fact, in January of this year, around 300 people abandoned the village of San Luis La Herradura because of threats by a gang to raze it because they did not comply with extortion payments.  Although Honduras was first on the list of intentional homicides in 2012, El Salvador was not far behind at number four with 41.2 intentional homicides per 100,000 people.