Topic: La Mara Salvatrucha Street Gang
All Content
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Latin America Monitor
El Salvador sees drop in murders but rise in disappearances
An 8 percent rise in disappearances could undermine the achievements of a gang truce, which has seen murders in El Salvador drop by nearly 60 percent since March, writes a guest blogger.
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Cover Story
US prison inmates returning to society: How will they be received?
States, eager to save money and adopt alternatives to incarceration, release inmates in record numbers. Is society ready for the surge?
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Latin America Monitor
Building on success: How El Salvador is trying to keep gang violence down
El Salvador has proposed a program to train tens of thousands of former gang members for the workforce. But some are questioning why criminals should get special help, writes a guest blogger.
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Latin America Monitor
Indicted: US soldiers offer to serve as hired guns for Mexican gangs
Four former and current members of the US military offered training, supplies, and assassinations-for-hire to DEA agents posing as Zetas, writes guest blogger Geoffrey Ramsey.
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Latin America Monitor
Is El Salvador negotiating with criminal street gangs?
A deal with El Salvador's two biggest street gangs may signal a less militaristic security strategy, writes guest blogger Geoffrey Ramsey.
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Latin America Monitor
Exporting Nicaragua's citizen security model
Nicaragua could be a citizen security model for other Central American countries to imitate, but some elements are harder to transfer than others, writes guest blogger Hannah Stone.
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Latin America Monitor
El Salvador gets 'tough' amid worsening crime
President Mauricio Funes has appointed career military personnel to head the police and national security. Many fear a return to failed policies of the past, writes guest blogger Hanna Stone.
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Latin America Monitor
Are El Salvador’s gangs plotting to 'take down the system'?
The Salvadoran National Civil Police say gangs are planning attacks on security forces, but others believe the remark has more to do with politics.
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Latin America Monitor
Honduras: home to the most violent city in the hemisphere?
Amid rising crime, the Peace Corps pulled out of in Honduras this week.
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ACLU: FBI guilty of 'industrial scale' racial profiling
The ACLU says the FBI is guilty of racial profiling when investigating criminal threats. The FBI says it is taking into account the reality of the post-9/11 world.
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Latin America Monitor
How Nicaragua has been spared Central America's crime wave – so far
Nicaragua has one of the region's lowest murder rates, in part because its gangs are small-time and transnational cartels haven't moved in. But that may be changing as the Zetas are expand south.
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Latin America Monitor
Mexico nabs Zetas gang's No. 3 leader, but will it stop the cartel?
The arrest of Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar follows a series of recent drug-war gains by Mexico's government.
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Latin America Monitor
Central American drug war, crime top agenda at regional summit
US Secretary of State Clinton and presidents from around Central America are convening in Guatemala City to determine ways to boost security and contain the sway of regional mafias.
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Gang arrests a blow to Mexican cartels' reach north of the border
Project Southern Tempest netted 678 gang members connected to international drug syndicates. It's a sign that the US is trying to help in the war against Mexican cartels.
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Guatemala gangs to bus drivers: pay a fee, or risk death
Guatemala gangs have for years extorted bus drivers for protection money. In 2009 alone, 146 drivers and 60 drivers' assistants were murdered.
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Guatemala slowly confronts widespread rape of women
In Guatemala, drug trafficking, gang violence, and a climate of impunity lead to widespread rape of women. At least 10,000 women were victims of sexual violence last year.
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