Free Republic

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Bishop Romulo Emiliani was angry, his tattooed flock shamefaced and silent. "Why," he demanded, "must you kill your brothers?" The bishop was near tears, but still no one answered. Four days earlier, Emiliani was in this same prison courtyard, singing and praying and asking God's forgiveness with the same 100 or so members of Mara Salvatrucha, a street gang formed by criminal deportees from Los Angeles. But now, during Easter week, they had killed again. This time, they didn't disembowel their victims. This time, all seven were found dead in their bunks. A needle and...

Sunday, November 16, 2003 Police Say Taos Ripe for Gang War By Kathryn HolzkaFor the Journal    TAOS— Nestled in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, Taos is known worldwide for its celebrities, art galleries, scenery and one of the world's best ski areas.     But violence and gang warfare have descended on this county of about 30,000, which once attracted peace-loving hippies.     A State Police officer's recent affidavit after a string of burglaries and a triple homicide says an "active gang war climate exists in Taos."     Law enforcement agencies from around the state have helped in the crackdown on...

<p>The MS-13 gang, a network of street thugs and paramilitary guerrillas from El Salvador, is one of the most dangerous Latino gangs in the United States, having killed three federal agents and shot several law enforcement officers in recent years, gang experts say.</p>

PUERTO CORTES, Honduras -- The head of a young girl, hacked off with an ax, was found in a burlap bag in October in this industrial port on the Caribbean. The bag also contained a note to President Ricardo Maduro from Mara 18, an ultra-violent street gang, saying that the killing was "in memory" of a gangster who had been killed by police. < SNIP > The gang violence is closely connected to the United States, which spent billions of dollars on Central America's wars during the 1980s. Thousands of Central American refugees fleeing the wars streamed into the United...