海角大神

Andy Romero remembers when a tattooed man showed up in his neighborhood with baggy pants, T-shirts with rock band logos, and sneakers like none he鈥檇 seen before.

鈥淗is clothes were totally different,鈥� Mr. Romero recalls of that time, in the late 1980s. 鈥淗e wore kerchiefs on his head. His hair was all shaved off.鈥�

He had a nickname 鈥� Scorpion 鈥� and had showed up after arriving on a flight of deportees from Southern California. Thousands of other聽gang members聽would follow Scorpion back to聽Central America,聽deported by US immigration authorities.

American politicians now are debating how the United States should respond to the arrival in Texas of tens of thousands of adolescents and children, many of them fleeing violent gangs that have come to virtually control many parts of聽El Salvador,聽Guatemala, and Honduras. What that debate generally has lacked is a recognition that US immigration policies played a major role in creating the gangs that now are driving young people to flee to the United States.

Those who study the history of Central America鈥檚 gangs say there鈥檚 plenty of blame to go around and that strategies those countries adopted to deal with the returned聽gang members聽backfired. But there鈥檚 little debate that the gangs originated in the United States among a huge refugee population, then were exported back to聽Central America聽鈥� often with little concern for the likely impact.

If one were to hunt for a beginning to the story of major gangs in聽Central America,聽it might involve the most mundane of settings: a convenience store parking lot on Westmoreland Avenue in Central聽Los Angeles聽where bored Salvadorans, offspring of refugees from this country鈥檚 civil war, gathered to pass the time.

鈥淚t started as what we refer to out here as a stoner gang: a bunch of kids hanging around and getting stoned all the time,鈥� says Wes McBride, the executive director of the California Gang Investigators Association.

Their parents had fled intense and violent social unrest that had simmered in聽El Salvador聽for years and flared into full civil war in 1980, then grew worse as the United States stepped up assistance to the government in order to match an increasingly effective guerrilla army. The 12-year civil war would claim some 75,000 lives in a country that was the smallest in聽Central America.

The Salvadorans who鈥檇 fled found refuge in Central Los Angeles, where they often worked double shifts to make ends meet, and the youngsters were trapped in a neighborhood nearly devoid of parks and activities.

The stoner group assimilated into gangs that already existed, particularly the 18th聽Street gang,聽which had emerged among Mexicans in Los Angeles in the 1960s. By the early 1980s, Salvadoran youth broke off from 18th Street to form their own gang. They called it Mara Salvatrucha. 鈥淢ara鈥� means gang, 鈥渟alva鈥� comes from the name of the country and 鈥渢rucha,鈥� which means 鈥渢rout,鈥� also signifies 鈥渧igilant.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 like 鈥榮mart Salvadorans鈥�; that鈥檚 a loose translation,鈥� says Jose Miguel Cruz, a political scientist at聽Florida International University聽who鈥檚 interviewed more than 1,000 Salvadoran聽gang members聽as part of his research.

Heavy metal filled their ears, particularly the English group Judas Priest, and they adopted the devil horns 鈥� extending index and little fingers while tucking in the middle and ring fingers with the thumb 鈥� as a signature gesture.

Constant travel between the Los Angeles area 鈥� a major hub of emigre Salvadorans 鈥� and聽Central America聽meant that 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, got a foothold in聽El Salvador聽in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That鈥檚 why Andy Romero saw a deported gang member and eventually joined the Mara Salvatrucha himself.

A watershed moment for gang development in聽El Salvador聽occurred in 1996. That was the year the聽US Congress聽passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, radically altering how deportations were handled. Before the act, immigrants could be deported only if they committed aggravated felonies that carried jail sentences of five years or more.

The new law allowed US law enforcement officers to deport migrants for crimes such as shoplifting, minor聽drug possession,聽or even speeding. What followed was a surge in deportations of聽gang members聽back to聽El Salvador,聽rising into the thousands annually for the rest of the 1990s.

The move rid Southern California of part of its gang problem. But it overwhelmed聽El Salvador,聽where the civil war had been settled only in 1992 and institutions of government were just beginning to be established, including a new聽police force聽to be cobbled together from equal numbers of former police officers, former guerrillas and a third group unconnected to the other two.

Many deported聽gang members,聽who鈥檇 arrived in the United States as young children, were unfamiliar with their country of origin. They barely spoke Spanish, and with gang tattoos on their arms, faces and necks, they found few聽job opportunities.聽They sought out other聽gang members.

鈥淭he culture of Los Angeles gangs fell on fertile soil here,鈥� says Edgardo Amaya, a lawyer who writes a blog on聽security issues.

If the gangs were supercharged by the influx of deported US members, some of them hardened criminals, a second watershed began in 2003, when Salvadoran leaders outlawed聽gang activity聽and swept thousands of members into prisons. The sweep had the unintended consequence of turning jails into hubs of gang coordination.

To understand what happened in the prison cellblocks, it鈥檚 useful to look first at gang hierarchies that are so loose one scholar calls them 鈥渄emocratic anarchies.鈥�

Neighborhood gang chapters in聽Central America聽are called cliques. They comprise several levels, ranging from 鈥渟oldiers鈥� or 鈥渓ookouts鈥� up to 鈥渕issionaries鈥� and higher up to 鈥渟hot callers,鈥� who run the cliques, which usually number 20 to 60 members.

Early last month, the Salvadoran government pegged the number of MS-13 cliques at 1,387 and those of 18th Street at 637. Meetings at the clique level are open discussions.

鈥淒ecisions are made in a collective way,鈥� says Romero, who observed the deported gang member decades ago, eventually jumping into the Mara Salvatrucha after losing his best friend to inter-gang violence.聽鈥淚t鈥檚 like an assembly, see. 鈥楾hose who are in favor raise their hand.鈥� 鈥�

Before the 2003 crackdown, and a subsequent crackdown a year later, many clique leaders didn鈥檛 know one another. With the crackdown, they met in prison and organized criminal activities.

鈥淭he authorities wanted to avoid greater violence in the prisons, so some of the prisons were set aside essentially for聽gang members,鈥� says Sonja Wolf, a German academic who wrote a doctoral dissertation on the crackdowns and their impact on gangs.

鈥淭he most capable, brightest gang leaders met each other in jail, and that鈥檚 when the jailed leaders started exercising control over the streets,鈥� says Wim Savenije, a Dutch academic expert on Salvadoran gangs.

Extortion had grown rampant by 2006, and the gangs began to support the family members of jailed gangsters, even entire neighborhoods, making it harder to distinguish who belonged openly to the gangs and who simply collaborated.

鈥淚f a gang member is jailed, he may ask his brother to collect the extortion payments. Or his mother. Are they聽gang members?鈥� Mr. Savenije asks.

By 2011, El Salvador鈥檚 National Civilian Police estimated that the nation had 28,130聽gang members,some 10,400 of whom were in prison. But the broader network of collaborators and family members is much larger.

Earlier this year, the聽Justice Ministry聽estimated that 600,000 Salvadorans 鈥� out of a population of 6.3 million 鈥� had some role in the gangs or received some benefit, says Mr. Amaya, the lawyer.

Other aspects of organized crime?

In 2012, the Obama administration declared Mara Salvatrucha an 鈥渋nternational criminal organization鈥� and claimed the group鈥檚 leaders were ordering crimes across international boundaries.

Facts bear out that MS-13 members carry military-grade weapons and use brutal tactics, even hacking apart rivals from the hated 18th聽Street gang聽with machetes and forcibly recruiting adolescents into their ranks.

Such violence is one factor in an unprecedented northward surge of unaccompanied children from聽Central America聽toward Texas. Since Oct. 1, more than 57,000 youths have crossed the border into Texas by themselves.

But little evidence has emerged that the Mara Salvatrucha has taken up other aspects of organized crime, such as turning into a major narcotics-trafficking ring.

Earlier this year, two聽gang members聽were caught returning with cocaine from Ecuador, in the Andean region, which is the source of the world鈥檚 cocaine. But never has MS-13 been known to coordinate and smuggle a large drug shipment, like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which operates hand in hand with transnational crime groups.

鈥淕ang members聽have been caught with between 7 and 10 kilos of cocaine, but no more,鈥� Amaya says.

What also is true is that MS-13 has a growing cadre of professionals offering services, including accountants, lawyers, and small businesses, even paying for the university education of some to ensure their service.

鈥淭hey say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to pay for your legal education, but you have to defend us once you graduate,鈥� 鈥� says Eduardo Amaya, the coordinator of a Roman Catholic program that seeks to reinsert聽gang members聽into civilian life in the crime-ridden Mejicanos district of聽San Salvador.

Mr. Amaya, who鈥檚 unrelated to the lawyer with the same surname, says the gangs had evolved toward greater violence. Wannabe leaders of autonomous cliques sometimes display brutality to seek respect and rise to leadership roles.

鈥淭here are some young people who want to be seen as strong, and they鈥檒l do anything, even kill. It was less intense before,鈥� Amaya says.

One of the features in the gangs that鈥檚 often overlooked is the intense solidarity between members, offering a sense of identity even as hierarchies are diffuse.

The gang is brutal to those outside its ranks, but members are treated with respect, 鈥渇rom the youngest to the oldest, from the most handsome to the most ugly,鈥� says Romero, now aged 40, who spent 14 years in Salvadoran prisons.

鈥淭he media are trying to make the gangs as the cause of the problem,鈥� says Romero, who asked that his first name be given as the anagram Andy in this article to protect his safety. 鈥淭he reality is that it is a government that fails to carry out its functions.鈥�

Still,聽gang violence聽and control in the northern part of聽Central America聽keep getting worse, and Mr. Cruz, of聽Florida International University,聽says no government in the region had reversed the trend.

鈥淚t鈥檚 worse now than it was one, two, three years ago, and maybe it鈥檚 going to get even worse,鈥� he says.