Free Republic

San Salvador, El Salvador - It's not every church service that includes homilies about Pablo Escobar and Al Capone. But at a church in El Salvador, the message of sin and redemption is tailored to a different kind of parishioner: reformed members of the notorious gangs in the Central American nation. All the men are former members of Barrio 18 or the 18th Street gang, which, along with MS-13, began in Los Angeles but is now responsible for much of El Salvador's widespread violence. The Trump administration announced last week that in 18 months it will revoke Temporary Protected Status...

Data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime shows the most up-to-date available homicide rates per 100,000 people for the most populous cities of 137 countries. The Americas overtook Africa as the region with the highest murder rate in 2012 – with eight of the world’s 10 deadliest cities found there 10: Kingston, Jamaica. (Murder rate: 50.3 per 100,000 people in 2011) The UNODC numbers capture intentional homicide, defined as 'unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person'. A total of 328 people were murdered in Kingston in 2011 – significantly down on previous years. Photograph: David...

SNIPPET: "SAN SALVADOR — Eleven people were killed and eight left wounded after suspected gang members set fire to a public bus on the outskirts of San Salvador, police officials said. Arsonists thought to be members of the Mara 18 gang set fire to the minibus, but "there are no clear motives" for the attack, Roberto Villalobos, a top commissioner with the national civil police, told AFP."

Note: The following text is a quote: North Carolina MS-13 Gang Member Convicted of Racketeering Charges Related to Murder; First MS-13 Member Sentenced to Death Defendant Shot and Killed Two Brothers in December 2007 in Guilford County, N.C. WASHINGTON—A 12-person federal jury in Charlotte, N.C., today voted unanimously to impose the death penalty against Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana, aka “Wizard,” 25. Umana was convicted by the same jury on April 19, 2010, for the murders of Ruben Garcia Salinas and his brother, Manuel Garcia Salinas, on Dec. 8, 2007, in Guilford County, N.C. The jury also found that Umana was...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Street riots, decapitations of police officers by drug gangs and the worst union conflict in years have raised tension in Mexico's presidential race with the government under fire for its handling of the violence. Thousands of police swarmed a town near Mexico City this week to free fellow officers taken hostage in riots that left a 14-year-old boy dead and led to scores of arrests. The violence, triggered by a dispute with police over unlicensed flower sellers, came two weeks after two steel workers were killed during running battles with police sent in to break a...

Code PinkoBy Jean PearceFrontPageMagazine.com | March 26, 2003 Like any other group, Communists come in a lot of shapes, sizes and colors. This time they’re wearing pink, they’re on the nightly news, and more than anything, they want the mothers and grandmothers of America to identify with them. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the leaders of the women’s anti-war group Code Pink got lost on their way to the carpool line. Since October, these hot pink-clad "marching moms" have been spinning the same tale to reporters from coast to coast, the one about how concern for their...

The new “Arafat’s Plaza” in San Salvador will be adjacent to the capital city’s “Jerusalem Plaza.” This despite the fact that El Salvador is one of only two countries in the world to maintain their embassy in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, rather than Tel Aviv. Israeli Ambassador to El Salvador Jonathan Peled officially protested the decision, condemning the honor accorded the PLO chief in several local newspapers and local TV channels. The Municipal Council of El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador, responded to Peled’s statements by harshly criticizing Israel for interfering in its local affairs. The body decided to write an official...