A new study from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) reveals growing alarm at the spread of the Salvadoran "Mara Salvatrucha" gang, which now has at least 200 cells active in seven different states. According to the study, the gang is present in Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Tamaulipas and the state of Mexico. The PGR is treating the Mara Salvatrucha, known to commit extreme acts of violence, as a growing organized crime phenomenon.
The Mara Salvatrucha were formed in southern California in the late 1980s by refugees from a violent civil war in El Salvador that lasted for 12 years, killing approximately 100,000 people. Some of the refugees had ties with a Salvadoran street gang known as La Mara, while others were connected with a paramilitary group that fought in the civil war, giving them a degree of combat training and knowledge in the use of explosives.
They are unusual among U.S. street gangs in that they have maintained close ties with their mother countries. The United States deported some "Maras" back to El Salvador in the late 1990s. Many of those deportees helped create an organized crime network that spans across the region and is now active in Mexico as well as other Central American countries like Honduras.
The gang has caused such public order problems in El Salvador that on Friday the Salvadorian Congress passed an "Anti-Maras Law" imposing severe punishments on Maras.
Authorities in the Mexico City metropolitan area the federal district and the surrounding urban sprawl in the state of Mexico have developed a coordinated strategy for combating the Mara Salvatrucha. The strategy requires municipal, state and federal domestic security agencies to work together in collecting intelligence to create a register of gang members and to follow their movements.
It also requires that undocumented migrants with the Mara Salvatrucha's distinctive tattoos or dress be handed over to the PGR and deported even if they have committed no crime.
Mara Salvatrucha members often have extensive tattooing, covering the torsos, backs, arms and faces.
Due to the relative cheapness of assault weapons in El Salvador compared to the United States, the Mara Salvatrucha are heavily involved in fire-arms trafficking. They are also involved in other traditional areas of organized crime such as drug-dealing, murder and prostitution, and they are said export stolen U.S. cars to South America.
