Gangs without borders - Violent Central American gangs

sfgate. ^ | Sunday, April 2, 2006 | Victor J. Blue

[dennisw]

In the aftermath of a prison riot in southern Guatemala, the eyes that peer out amid the tattoo of a skull covering half his face are contorted in pain as fellow inmates care for his bleeding shoulder. They are members of gangs, whose stories began in Los Angeles and then were exported to Central America. There the gangs grew, became more violent, and now they head back to the United States.

Known as maras, the gangs formed in the 1980s, when immigrants fleeing brutal civil war in El Salvador settled in Los Angeles.

To protect themselves from already established L.A. street gangs, these immigrants banded together and formed their own. They began flooding back to Central America in 1996, when the United States began to deport immigrants convicted of felonies here. Many returned to a country they hardly knew. But in the chaos and desperation of post-war El Salvador, gangs found fertile ground, and their ranks swelled.

From there the gangs spread, following the stream of immigrants northward into neighboring Honduras and Guatemala, and into southern Mexico.

Now they can also be found across the United States. In February 2005, a nationwide sweep by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies netted 103 Central American gang members in several states. Another sweep in August made hundreds of more arrests. Estimates put the number of Central American gang members in the United States at more than 25,000 in as many as 33 states.

And gangs are blamed for much of the violence that plagues Central America.

The existence of the gangs and their facile migration back and forth across the southern U.S. border is a seldom considered aspect of the current immigration debate going on in this country, but the gangs carry ramifications for whatever legislation is eventually approved by Congress.

[HiJinx]

MS-13 Ping!

[backhoe]

This old post of opposition research had some info regarding gangs, Laraza, MEChA, and other neer-do-wells:

-Bustamante Busted? MEChA ties, and more.--

Further, I believe we are already in the opening stages of WWIV-- one component is this:

-Islam, a Religion of Peace®? Some links...--

But there is another, related element:

-Thunder on the Border-- (Minuteman Project)--

[TexasRepublic]

Any such tattoo'd apparition lurking around my house will be shot. They look like something straight out of Hell.

[brytlea]

LOL yes, blame America for that too....
susie

[OKIEDOC]

My sentiments for sure.

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Support our Minutemen Patriots!

Be Ever Vigilant!

[brazzaville]

Good evening.
"Intimation, advertising the fact that they are cold blooded killers."

It also burns the thug's bridges. There is no mistaking what he is and there is no going back.

Michael Frazier

[SuperAmerican]

If there were more Americans that thought the way you do, I would be able to act on my desires to rid our communites of that scum. I come back from a war zone overseas to find another one in my front yard. I really want to do something about it, something that will let them know that they can't just do what ever they want here.