El Salvador’s Crime Crackdown Could Push Gangs North Toward U.S., Expert Warns
Experts warn that El Salvador’s ongoing crackdown against violent criminals could see thousands of suspected members of gangs locked up in a mega-prison.
Officials transferred thousands of prisoner to El Salvador’s new maximum security prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (Tecoluca) late last month. Another 2,000 prisoners were released Wednesday. Locked In the new prison, up to 40,000.
Intriguing video footage captured lines of shirtless, heavily-tattooed prisoners wearing shaved heads as they were being moved to the new facility.
🇸🇻 | Nayib Bukele, con mano dura somete a miles de pandilleros y criminales que antes aterrorizaban a la población de El Salvador. ¿Estás de acuerdo con el trato que les da el Presidente Bukele a los delincuentes? pic.twitter.com/iJQWWr5akt
— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) February 26, 2023
“They are never going to return to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador,” declared El Salvador’s justice minister Gustavo Villatoro.
Although it is good for El Salvador to have more gang members in prison, the crackdown has driven the gangs north.
Some of the leaders of the MS-13 gang, which is notoriously violent, have fled to Mexico.
“We know that they are in Mexico, and that from there they are giving instructions in a cowardly manner,” the El Salvador justice minister .
Mexican authorities also reported an increase in El Salvador gang members over the past year. They include MS-13 and their rival the 18th Street Gang. Salvadoran gangs have terrorized and extorted at least three Mexican public transport drivers.
“If we don’t do anything we’re going to be a little (El) Salvador,” one of the Mexican drivers said.
Jessica Vaughan is the director of policy studies at The Center for Immigration Studies. She warns that El Salvador’s gang leaders and members are constantly trying to enter the U.S.
“They can make more money here and enjoy themselves more here, and there are many new places for them to set up shop for the gang, and many vulnerable youth to recruit,” Vaughan said so to The Daily Wire.
MS-13 had more than 10,000 members in the U.S in 2017.
If El Salvador’s war against gangs drives gangs to the southern U.S. frontier, they will be met at the border by the Biden administration’s overpowered border forces. They likely won’t have any trouble sneaking into the country.
“Right now it’s not difficult for them to get in,” Vaughan stated. “There is much less threat of border and interior enforcement than in prior years, especially if they have not been in the United States before.”
To avoid being deported again, gang members must keep a low profile in order to avoid being charged with criminality.
“It would be smarter for them to go to another country, but MS-13 members are not known for being smart,” Vaughan stated.
Since recent years, MS-13 operatives are involved in Human smuggling was used to protect the drug cartels. Their presence in Mexico may exacerbate an already dangerous climate.
“That is a tricky business, because they would have to have a relationship with a cartel, with all the risk and volatility that would bring, not to mention even more involvement in violence,” Vaughan stated. “Adding MS-13 to the organized crime mix in Mexico is likely to make the situation even more volatile, because they are usually aggressive and brazen in trying to carve out a niche to operate and audacious in competing with other crime organizations.”
El Salvador is home to nearly 2% incarcerated adults, making it one of the most crime-ridden nations in the world. The government crackdown on gangs — which Vaughan notes is a “regular cycle” in El Salvador — Begin a year ago when the government declared a state of emergency as the country battled a spike in murders.
Since then, about 65,000 people have been arrested as part of the operation as the state of emergency was repeatedly extended. Human rights advocates have expressed concerns that the government’s approach veers authoritarian — about 57,000 of those arrested are still waiting to be formally charged and face a trial.
Meanwhile, though, citizens have celebrated El Salvador’s streets becoming safer, and murders have plummeted by about half.
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