Whether it is sustainable or not, the truce — which the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the Barrio 18 put into place March 2012 — has changed the conventional thinking about who the gangs are and what makes them work.
Investigation Chapters
Barrio 18 Leader ‘Viejo Lin’ on El Salvador Gang Truce
Barrio 18 leader Carlos Lechuga Mojica, alias “El Viejo Lin,” is one of the most prominent spokesmen for El Salvador’s gang truce. InSight Crime co-director Steven Dudley spoke with Mojica in Cojutepeque prison in October 2012 about how the maras view the controversial peace process, which has resulted in a dramatic drop in El Salvador’s…
A Look Inside El Salvador’s Prison Nightmare (Video)
El Salvador’s Cojutepeque jail is a perfect illustration of how prisons in this country have become the main breeding and training grounds for street gangs.
MS-13’s ‘El Barney’: A Trend or an Isolated Case?
In October 2012, the US Treasury Department designated the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as a transnational criminal organization (TCO). While this assertion seems unfounded, there is one case that illustrates just why the US government is worried about the future.
El Salvador’s Gang Truce: Positives and Negatives
La tregua entre las dos pandillas más grandes de El Salvador (la MS13 y Barrio 18) abre nuevas posibilidades sobre la forma de lidiar con el aparentemente insoluble problema de las pandillas callejeras. Pero también crea nuevos peligros.
