How El Salvador Destroyed Their Brutal Gangs Changes Everything!

okay they first came into power in 2019 and for nearly 2 years he's overseen a vast and brutal Crackdown on gangs human rights groups are dismayed as our relatives as more than 65,000 people have been arrested over the past year across the country more than 70,000 people have already been taken into custody proudly trumpeting a huge decline in the country's murder rate March 25th 202 2 87 people were murdered in El Salvador in retaliation for the government seizure of two bus routes in the capital which gangs extorted for Revenue the perpetrators were members of MS13 that ruthless criminal group we all know operating out of this country and across its borders for decades but amidst their formidable rain Salvadoran president Na bukel and his government obliterated this gang and its nefarious network with just one move one move that had changed the course of this nation's history forever Inception February 1980 Archbishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero wrote an open letter to then US President Jimmy Carter pleading with him to Halt military aid to the Salvadoran regime Romero expressed in this letter that the US was supplying Aid to the very people who were taking over El Salvador and oppressing its people at the time the Spaniards were in control of El Salvador's resources while ruling Salvadorans with an iron fist Romero sought peace for his people but tragically he paid with his life as he was assassinated just 3 weeks later and even though the peace Archbishop Romero desired was finally achieved by Salvadorans nearly 40 years later under President naib buele and his ruthless antiviolence policies more on that later those four decades to Redemption were filled with their own struggles conflicts and ultimately deaths March 31st 19 1880 250,000 Salvadorans gathered for Archbishop Romero's funeral but during the service government sponsored snipers attacked the crowd killing 42 people and wounding over 200 it was a complete Massac and although some men involved were apprehended these Salvadorans had no idea that the worst was yet to come December 2nd 1980 four female American missionaries were kidnapped by five Salvadoran National Guards they were driven to an isolated location where where they were beaten raped and murdered by these guards their bodies were found the next morning sparking outrage by both local and international bodies US President Jimmy Carter responded by temporarily cutting off Aid to El Salvador making way for a group of civilians to rise and form their own paramilitary group called The fundo Marti National Liberation Front aka the fmln these guys fought fire with fire retaliating every attack orchestrated by Salvadoran military groups when the fmln was finally on the verge of taking back its country a dramatic shift occurred with the election of new US President Ronald Reagan the Reagan Administration reallied with the Salvadoran Armed Forces increasing their financial aid to them for $10 million with 5 million going towards rifles ammunition grenades and helicopters and while other world leaders were perplexed by this move a few others had joined in the military government in Chile provided substantial training and tactical advice to the Salvadoran Armed Forces while the Argentine military dictatorship also supported the saf as part of their operation Charlie now listen closely cuz what I'm going to say next brings everything we've talked about so far together 1989 the fmln's attacks on the Salvadoran Armed Forces demonstrated that the conflict was at a stalemate neither side seemed capable of attaining a strategic Advantage at the same time world events were stripping away the foreign support that had sustained both parties the the collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the loss of crucial allies for the fmln on the other hand the end of the Cold War shifted US policy in that region as well there was no longer a compelling interest for the US to support the unsavory Salvadoran counterinsurgency this reality along with the Aftershock of the countless murders prompted the US to push for a peace settlement now while all this was going on approximately 880,000 soldiers and civilians in El Salvador had been killed as a result of this war nearly of the country's population had fled to the US settling mostly in LA and around California and although the Salvadoran war was finally brought to an end the violence in the country continued many individuals who had relocated to La as refugees during the war became involved in gang violence during this the US War on Drugs and anti-immigration policies had been popularized this resulted in the illegal immigration reform and immigrant responsibility Act of 1996 which called for the deportation of immigrants documented or undocumented with criminal records at the end of their jail sentences the big shock to this story is the fact that these gang members weren't experienced Killers or some kind of angry mob they were actually young Salvadoran teenagers now during the war several families got displaced forcing hundreds and hundreds of victims to navigate their path all alone at an early age some of the reasons these youths would join these gangs now were because of the sheer feeling of neglect and abandonment from family as well as normalization of violence in society so with these gangs they had found a sense of security a sense of hope maybe a sense of belonging all this would only cost their Free Will as it now belonged to those gangs notably the 18th and MS13 these two gangs are quite similar but their rivalry tells a different story the 18th Street gang also known as ma 18 or simply 18 is one of the largest transnational criminal gangs in LA with around 30 to 50,000 members between the US me Mexico and Central America they're also allied with the Mexican Mafia another us-based Syndicate and according to the FBI some factions of the 18th Street gang have developed a high level of sophistication and organization in carrying out their dealings members of 18th Street frequently identify themselves with their outfits bearing the number 18 or frequently sporting teams like the Duke Blue Devils or the LA Clippers among others in Guatemala City many bus drivers have been killed by 18th Street members for driving through their territ the bus drivers were often victims of robbery or extortion in one particular case a driver refused to pay the gang consequently his son was brutally killed a few moments later so where the violence level of 18th Street ends that of ms3 begins although they may be Rivals MS13 is significantly ahead when compared side by side also known as Mara Salva 13 MS13 members are direct descendants of the fmln Squad that fought in the Salvadoran War typically they're impoverished young men and teenagers often homeless and estranged from their families who would survive by engaging in minor drug dealings theft and extortion of Street vendors along with some other small-time crimes from a statistical point of view El Salvador has the third highest femicide rate in the world in 2016 one in 5,000 Salvadoran women were killed and only 5% of femicide cases resulted in convictions I mean if you do the math I'm sure you can tell that's a pretty low figure many M Salva members cover themselves in tattoos including their face some would ink the words Ms Salva the devil horns and the name of their click from head to toe however in the early 2000s the gang was moving away from face hats making it kind of easier to commit crimes without being noticed members of Ms like many American gangs would utilize hand signs for purposes of ID or communication one of the most commonly displayed is the devil's head which which forms an M when displayed upside down and if you happen to be into heavy metal this might also look familiar but here's the part that might actually interest you their level of Cruelty has resulted in some members being recruited by this caloa cartel battling against Lo zetus in the Mexican drug war their wide- ranging activities have drawn the attention of the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement who have jointly initiated widescale raids against known and suspected gang members arresting hundreds across the us but did any of that let stop him well no instead it only made him stronger in 2004 the FBI established the MS-13 National gang task force to enhance collaboration amongst local and state law enforcement agencies aiming to dismantle MS-13 their primary strategy would involve them deporting gang members to their home countries rather than incarcerating them in the US when that approach proved ineffective the FBI initiated Partnerships with law enforcement in El Salvador Honduras Guatemala and Mexico establishing their own offices in these regions to confront the gang at its source the strategy yielded significant success resulting in a series of arrests and crackdowns across the US and Central America involving over 6,000 police officers across five countries in the US 73 suspects were apprehended while more than 650 MS-13 gang members were taken into custody yet it just seemed the more they were arrested the more violent they became until one man came along na K Crackdown these images released by El Salvador's government shows the transfer of about 2,000 inmates and with their heads shaved to what's been dubbed the country's new Mega prism president BK's strategy to put an end to this gang violence was built upon pre-existing strategies by other Salvadoran presidents most notably Antonio Saka in June 2004 president Saka implemented a policy super manod Dura which granted the Salvadoran military the power to conduct patrols of gang controlled areas and execute random searches of suspected gang members along with the ability to arrest individuals on appearance alone as a result of this policy around 4,000 gang members were arrested leading to overcrowding in El Salvador's prisons and by 2012 these gangs sought for a truce in March 2012 the MS13 and 18th gangs established a truce in collaboration with with the Salvadoran government now this truce received criticism because it seemed as if the government was fortifying sovereignty to these gangs but even if that was the case it had a positive impact in early 2012 there were an average of 16 killings per day in El Salvador but in late March that number dropped to fewer than five per day and on April 14th 2012 for the first time in over 3 years there were no killings in the country overall there were about 411 recorded killings in the month of January 2012 but in March the number was only 188 that's like a 50% reduction showing that this truce was actually effective but sooner than later it fell apart and violence plagued the streets again by 2015 there were some 60,000 gang members in El Salvador and 70% of the country's businesses were being extorted leading to annual losses of$ billion according to estimates by the Salvadoran Central Reserve Bank the homicide rate was was at its peak even higher than it had been during the Civil War if you take the time and do your homework you can find out that violence originated from 18th century Salvadorian struggle over land ownership and then it escalated into political violence involving left and right-wing parties and eventually it gave rise to the MS13 and 18th street gangs who were in a racial hierarchy war in the US with African-American gangs but how exactly did Buel manage to Halt this Century old cycle of violence well understand that we need to First understand who naib Buel is and the violence that impacted his youth born on July 24th 1981 na bukele grew up in s Salvador as a privileged Outsider his father was a Muslim businessman of Palestinian descent who opened the country's first McDonald's franchise ran a textile company helped build four mosques and even owned a PR firm it was also a polygamist with six wives abuk who had three brothers and seven half siblings went to a lingual private school however his political apprenticeship began after he dropped out of college and was managing a nightclub in downtown San Salvador he ended up taking over his family's PR firm whose key client was the fmln and yeah that's the same fmln that engaged in the Salvadoran war against the country's armed forces the presidency and the assembly however were controlled by the Alianza republicana nista or Arena which was founded in the early 80s by a member of a right-wing death squad the party catered primarily to the business Elite but its members included ex-military men and religious conservatives in 2009 an accumulation of corruption scandals sank the arena allowing the fmlm to gain power which it held on to for the next decade being that it had been in business with him bukele through a couple of connections launched a self-funded bid to become the mayor of Nuevo k catlan a municipality in El Salvador he won the election and due to the huge impact he created created the fmln encouraged him to run for mayor of s Salvador which he did by this time the fmln were trying to soil his political future with their shady past at which point bukele was forced to cut him off and start a new party the party that led him to becoming the president June 1st 2019 naib buuk was elected as the 43rd president of El Salvador he became the youngest head of state in Latin America and embodied a new National beginning his first step to eradicating these gangs was to negotiate a peace treaty as reported by local newspaper Al but here's the thing less than a week after the story was published ukel announced that the government would investigate Al for moneya laundering I mean right it sounds weird but ever since then he's attacked the newspaper relentlessly sometimes calling out journalists by name a few of them were even forced into Exile many others have adopted the practice of just leaving the country after publishing a story and waiting to return until the threats have died down the newspaper has a large International following but inside El Salvador ell's campaign against it has succeeded many people have come to see alato as partisan and unreliable on top of that the Salvador National Assembly passed a questionable law to block news outlets from reporting on gang situations journalists could face up to 10 years if they try to reproduce or transmit information that might have come from gang sources or could otherwise Panic the public why did bukele make these laws you ask ask well it all boils down to the bigger plans he had to stop the gang violence March 2022 MS13 had slaughtered 87 people in 3 days we know the country has a history of violence but this nah now this was pretty unusual in its ruthlessness people with no ties to Crime were targeted a fruit seller a surf instructor a homemaker a cobbler anybody these gangsters went after everybody but their message was directed at one person naib buele who had promised to radically reduce crime and chain shell Salvador's image abroad these gang members left corpses and human remains on the road leading to Surf City a beach front real estate on the Pacific coast which buele had refurbished and renamed to attract to International tourists the story of this bloody massacre made headlines worldwide and it brought out Bull's dark side he began his Infamous Crackdown by declaring a state of emergency in the country he would create new policies allowing r gang populations to mix up in prison a practice that was never implemented in a bid to reduce prison violence but authorities arranged hundreds of barechested prisoners and their underwear pressed them tightly together in rows and took picks of them to send a warning to other gang members out there Elli would use extreme legal measures covered in the face of democracy by enacting new policies that really deprive Salvador and basic constitutional rights such as the right to Legal defense and freedom of movement while simultaneously relaxing rules on making arrests and authorizing the state to intercept civilian Communications includes that arrests can be made without a warrant and detainees no longer have a right to a lawyer private Communications of all citizens can also be accessed by the government under these Draconian laws security forces have launched a Swift and aggressive assault on gangs apprehending members and suspected Associates without warrants or solid evidence significantly speeding up the process compared to previous crackdowns by other presidents to put into context just how effective this Crackdown was El Salvador recorded 33,000 arrests in the first few months this is in addition to the fact that the state of emergency has suspended constitutional rights to Legal defense allowing authorities to detain individuals indefinitely on vague charges without the necessity of an arrest warrant or supporting evidence detainees are also denied the right to a court hearing within 72 hours of arrest and lawyers even civil Society organizations report being unable to communicate with those detained arrests are now often based on unverified intelligence rumors and info sourced from unusual places like social media profiles Additionally the bukel Administration has enacted new laws aiming at keeping gang members incarcerated for longer periods jail sentences have been heightened for gang affiliation and the option of house arrest for individuals associated with these gangs is no longer an option the initiative might be impressive but how effective was this Crackdown well according to multiple sources online areas neighborhoods in El Salvador that were plagued by these gangs for decades are now free from their strongholds few residents reported seeing remnants of the gangs in their neighborhoods while some mention the return of active gang members who were released from jail but they say these gangsters held far less power than before the state of emergency also before the state of emergency gang members extorted people working for small and mediumsized businesses including Street vendors shop owners bus operators and taxi drivers in communities under their control but now all that's in the past an owner of a bus company who previously paid around $6,000 in monthly extortion fees to two main gang factions said he stopped paying immediately after the Crackdown began the Salvadoran police also reported a 54% reduction in extortion complaints between the start of 2022 until September 2022 but ironically this method while deeply concerning has proven to be the most effective Crackdown in El Salvador's history the only question left to answer right now is can this bukel type of Crackdown be enacted by other countries plagued by gang violence around the world changes everything February 2023 na Buell ordered the transfer of 2,000 people accused of gang membership to a recently opened Mega prison in the country this Mega prison has the capacity to hold a staggering 40,000 in the complex is located about 74 km southeast of the capital S Salvador and is made up of eight buildings each with 32 cells that hold more than 100 people a piece the disturbing detail here is that each cell has only two sinks and one toilet the prison wardens hide up in ski masks to avoid becoming targets if these members actually do get out and speaking of getting out many critics believe subjecting these prisoners to such a level of Cruelty would have an impact on El Salvador's economy once they got out out but according to buchel they won't ever be getting out the Crackdown Mr bukel has led on organized crime has locked up roughly 75,000 people meaning at least one in 45 adults are in prison now other leaders in the neighborhood are taking notice and have debated adopting many of the same drastic measures to fight their own criminal violence but even if they wanted to make the same trade-off that Bull's government did making the streets safer with methods that are blatantly at odds with democracy they aren't likely to succeed the conditions that enabled Mr BK's success in political stardom are unique to El Salvador and can't be exported why you ask well let me break it down for you a bit the United States the European Union and the organization of American states have criticized bukel Zachs as president this guy's accused of threatening members of congress with troops and firing Supreme Court magistrates while replacing them with judges who have allowed bukel to run and win for a second term despite a constitutional ban the foreign criticism has also enabled bukel to unify Salvadorans against a common enemy and has put him and his country of six and a half million people on the map conversely this small nation is now run as a police state soldiers and officers whisk citizens off the streets and into prisons indefinitely without providing a reason or allowing them access to a lawyer there are credible reports that inmates have been tortured and in some gruesome cases killed in 2022 Madame President of the neighboring country on dudas Miss Jamara Castro declared a war against extortion following in BK's footsteps now in her case the homicide rates may have decreased but gangs still remain powerful if you go further south Ecuador is reeling in from its own explosion of gang violence some citizens say they want a man like Buel to wipe out the violence and come to set things right and even in Chile historically both a stronger democracy and a safer country than El Salvador citizens claim to want a man like buele but pukel copycats and those who believe his model can be replicated in other Latin American countries Overlook one key point the conditions that allowed buk to wipe out El Salvador's gangs are some that are only special to El salador you see their gangs were unique and far from the most formidable criminal organizations in the entire region for decades just a few gangs fought themselves for control of specific territories and when you put that in comparison to the powerful cartels in Mexico Colombia and Brazil you begin to realize ized that El Salvador's gangs weren't big players in the drug trade and were more focused on extortion compared to these other groups they were poorly financed and not as heavily armed another thing to make a note of here is that once Mr bukel arrested the major leaders The Gangs just crumbled I try to put that into another Syndicate around Latin America where criminal organizations are wealthier more internationally connected and much better armed than El Salvador's gangs once were take the cartels in Mexico for example the Mexican War on Drugs though didn't involve strict legal policies like that of bukel resulted in the arrests of hundreds of cartel drug lords yet because these cartels were so coordinated and well structured almost nothing changed instead they just fought back and in some cases new Criminal groups quickly filled in the void drawn in by the drug trade's huge profits if you go to Colombia Escobar's war on the state in the 80s and 90s tells a similar story no matter how hard the Colombian government hit this organization his backlash was Stronger El Salvador also had more formidable and Professional Security Forces committed to crushing these gangs when bukel called on him compared to some of its neighbors consider Honduras where gang sponsored corruption among Security Forces apparently runs deep this circumstance helped Doom president Castro's attempts to emulate like what bukel did from the start if we go back to Mexico criminal groups have reportedly succeeded in co-opting high-ranking members of the military and police similarly in Venezuela there have been reports of military officials running their own drug trafficking operations so even if the president sends soldiers and police to do bukel style Mass roundups security forces may not be prepared or just may have incentives to undermine the task at hand and finally ukel faces very little political opposition considering there aren't really any parties to oppose his government in many other Latin American countries there are more robust political parties or opposition forces in place that would help keep an overreaching executive in check to put it in simpler words most governments out there have never agreed to enforce the types of policies bukel enforced it just isn't that constitutional and here's something no one actually talks about while the crackdowns impact in El Salvador was transformative The Gangs aren't finished in fact the government's own data contradicts the bukel administration's narrative that the gangs have been completely defeated in October 2023 ell's Administration claimed to have arrest arrested 52541 members of MS13 13,683 members of bario 18 surenos and 10,741 members of the bario 18 revolucionarios but these figures were overhyped according to official Salvadoran police records more than half of these detainees under the state of emergency are not full-fledged gang members specifically there were about 32331 arrests of gang members 41,00 733 arrests of suspected collaborators and 3,435 of individuals under investigation while at least 36% of gang members and collaborators over 42,000 individuals remain free so can the buou strategy work for other countries well if other countries try to copy what he did they're more likely to replicate only the Dark Side of El Salvador's model and not its achievements governments could find themselves consumed in chaos as criminal groups multiply in numbers or fight back with ample Firepower in the process they could potentially shrink the space for civil society government transparency and pile a bunch of detain ease into already overcrowded prisons historically presidents in Latin America who have been less than fully committed to democracy have been eager to take some or all of these steps for political gain anyway so maybe crime fighting makes for the perfect excuse for all its success in lowering crime the Buel model comes at a stark cost so if these leaders and presidents are willing to bear that cost it might just truly change everything

Channel: Crime Dynasty

Views: 4,108,846

Keywords: Crime Dynasty, history, documentary, true story, historical document, educational video, educational purposes, informational video, real life, history documentary, true crime, pablo escobar, escobar

Id: rDlplfl6D7o

Length: 26min 47sec (1607 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2024