18 June 2004 – 150 different gangs have been recorded as active in Davao City in the Philippines. A good proportion of their members are rural migrants who came to the city looking for a better life. Far from Davao City, in South Africa, there are black and mixed race gangs who owe their origins to the racial segregation of the Apartheid era. For its part, Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, is beset by confontations between different ethnic clans and urban groups.
Meanwhile in Europe, the British police have reported that gangs from Jamaica and from other Caribbean countries are growing “at an alarming rate” in the UK. In Germany, the majority of crimes committed in 2002 were attributed to female gangs.
María L. Santacruz Giralt, who conducts research into gangs at the Instituto de la Opinión Pública in San Salvador, explains that the feeling of marginalization “is a key element that brings gang members together, but the other side of the coin is that it can also lead to violence”. The psychologist adds that gangs are formed in countries such as the United States and Canada initially with “self-defence” in mind, since gang members come from minorities, are frequently illegal immigrants or suffer racial discrimination.
In the United States, gangs exploded into the national consciousness in the 1980’s. A significant number of gangs are to be found in Los Angeles, where authorities identified 400 in 2003, consisting mainly of Latin Americans. In Boston, female gangs such as the Bad Mother Fuckers or the Corbitt Street Girls, both founded in 1990, have had an enormous impact on their generation. In Canada, gangs operating in Toronto include the Versace Boys, as well as the Markham Crew, the Bay Mills Crips, the Latino Americano Boys and the True Portuguese Bloods.
South America is not exempt from the gang phenomenon. Groups with links to drug trafficking and guilty of homicides operate in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia. Gangs also operate in Central America, including Panama and Belize – often overlooked when discussing Central America’s gang problems.
The most infamous are the mara Salvatrucha (MS 13) and the mara 18, both of them with origins in the United States.
Made in the USA
“There are “homeboys” all over the world. To be a member you don’t have to be from El Salvador, you just need to be willing to fight for the MS symbol”, says “Largo”, a member of the MS in downtown San Salvador. He adds that the deportation of gang members from the United States to their countries of origin has led to the expansion of the MS through the region.
According to Pedro González, spokesperson for El Salvador’s National Police Force (PNC), there have been sightings by police forces of young men sporting MS tatoos as far afield as Ecuador and Uruguay. Local authorities explain that the gang members have been deported from the USA.
*Article published by Metzi Ameyal Martell in El Salvador’s La Prensa Gráfica, 6 June 2004.
