Thursday, March 6, 2014
First Enrique Post
As I was reading through the book I kept on seeing a pattern that the main gang in the book that is talked about is called the Mara Salvatrucha. I was wondering why this gang was so dominant and why they were so feared among immigrants. On pages 82-83, after Enrique makes it past La Arrocera, Chiapas back onto his freight train, he mentions that the Mara Salvatrucha gang preys on many sleeping migrants on top of freight trains. He said that he befriended some MS members and then later when they got into a conflict they beat Enrique. Enrique said that migrants think they are friendly because they wear white rosaries but then later they rob the same migrants because they know the travelers are easy prey and they won't tell the cops.
According to gansorus.com the Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in Los Angeles when young Salvadorians crossed the border into the U.S. and they joined gangs that were already present in Los Angeles. The Salvadorians then broke off from the pre existing gangs and created the Mara Salvatrucha. Many M.S. members have been deported back to their home countries and most of them flee to southern Mexico to the state of Chiapas because the police don't have the money and power to deport them from Mexico. M.S. controls most of the southern border of Mexico for smuggling purposes and they patrol the tops all of the trains heading to the North, terrorizing migrants for money and sex. In the U.S., M.S. has invaded 33 states as well as six other countries including Mexico. M.S. is the most dangerous and deadly gang because they have strength in numbers and resources. The gang is estimated to have around 200,000 members in Central America alone. In Honduras, December, 2004 just two days before Christmas M.S. attacked a bus full of people and killed 28 passengers along with leaving a note to the government saying not to mess with M.S. and to leave them alone. They have populated Most of North and South America and they aren't looking to stop terrorizing migrants anytime soon.
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Antonio,
ReplyDeleteI found this topic really interesting as well. I especially was wondering about the unorganized bandits preying off of the migrants, and when I researched that I found more about the corrupt officials preying on the migrants they catch. According to the Washington Post, the police officers and migration agents in Mexico often shake down the migrants they catch for every last cent they have and if the migrants dont give them enough, they take them into custody, and if they give them enough they sometimes set them free. The migrants are too scared to do anything about this, and according to the Latin America Herald Tribune, they sometimes turn them over to organized gang members who, in turn, force them into slavery, or the women into sex slaves. The men are often forcibly recruited as hitmen for the gangs. I find it disgusting that the migrant officers would pair with the gangs, as their entire goal as a part of the mexican government is to stop these crimes, though the money offored by the gangs might have got them started, and then the fear that they would be killed if they stopped, and cant do anything about it because if they do they would be fingered as a part of a human trafficking organization would keep them going.