History of El Salvador and Us Relations

El Salvador:

• Large population in poverty; big impact from remittances
• Civil War 1979-1992

• State military vs. guerrilla fighters
• Assassination of Oscar Romero
• Estimated 75,000 killed
• “Draining the sea” – kill prisoners
• Salvadorian army backed by US Funding

• US involvement in the war

• Carter, Reagan, and Bush Admin. Funded approx. $4.5 billion
• Masked anti-communism
• Funded propaganda, training, ammunition, weapons, etc.
• No funding went towards combatting extreme poverty

• Effects of War

• Peace Accords 1992
• Electoral Reform; less corruption
• Land Reform
• Over 1 millions people displaced, 93 given asylum
• Covered up by US media and government
• Lasting Political Division

• Formation of Gangs

• Salvadorians landed in South Central LA for the most part
• War on Drugs -> War on Gangs
• Anti-immigrant politics
• Disproportionate arresting of POC

• Gangs in El Salvador

• MS-13 and Barrio 18
• Categorized alongside Zetas and Yakuza
• Poor compared to other crime syndicates
• Territories mostly urban, moving rural
• Charge renta
• “Murder Capital of the world”

• Salvadorian Government & Gangs

• La Mano Dura: police could arrest anyone based on gang-related appearance

• Had adverse effect, jails became ran by gangs known as “colleges”

• Gangs targeting police
• Declaration of gangs as terrorist organizations

• Effects of Gangs

• Murder rates as high as civil war times
• Migration from urban to rural areas
• Immigration to US
• Paros de Buses
• Fear of speaking about the gangs
• Peace Corps Evacuations