MS-13: From L.A. Stoners to "Foreign Terrorists"
The Mara Salvatrucha has a crazy bloody history. Is this its final chapter?
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When Alex Sánchez joined the Mara Salvatrucha Stoner gang in the early eighties it consisted of a gaggle of teenagers in Los Angeles, many of who had long hair, listened to heavy metal and hung out by the 7-11. They copied their hand symbol, making devil horns, from then Black Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio, who in turn got it from his Italian grandmother (it was in a stint when Ozzy Osbourne was out the band). The name “Mara” meant a swarm of ants, using a word that had been popularized by the Spanish translation of the Charlton Heston movie, “The Naked Jungle.”
The machete became their weapon of choice, Sánchez says, because they were too broke to buy guns. The blades were sold in Central American stores in their L.A. neighborhoods, like Pico-Union, with many original members coming as children from El Salvador to escape the civil war. The tool used to cut corn back home was effective in scaring off older L.A. gang bangers who tried to bully the skinny refugee kids.
“You would scare the fuck out of people,” says Sánchez, who went on to work in the L.A. youth group, Homies Unidos. “Imagine, Friday the 13th had just come out, Jason was going around killing people with machetes. To see an MS-13 guy, a guy with long hair looking like Eddie from Iron Maiden, chasing you with an axe or a machete…you could see the terrifying eyes in these guys.”
Four decades on, the MS-13 is a sprawling transnational mob, with cliques (or chapters) from Maryland to Madrid and from Mexico to El Salvador itself, where President Nayib Bukele has waged a scorched-earth crackdown on “maras.” There are about 10,000 MS-13 members in 40 U.S. states, according to the Justice Department (although gang numbers are notoriously hard to estimate). Along with its rival Barrio 18, the MS-13 helped push several Central American nations to the worst murder rates in the world and ravaged businesses with extortion, driving new refugees north. Yet they kept a street gang identity and never rose to become billionaire traffickers like their Mexican cartel counterparts or develop real paramilitary forces.
Still, the MS-13 sparked particular alarm by entrenching itself in areas less used to gangs like Virginia and Long Island. The machete was now a symbol of their bloodshed, used to hack up victims in woodlands close to quiet suburbs. Trump recognized popular fears and made the MS-13 a boogeyman in his first term, famously calling them “animals.”
With Trump’s return to power, he is hitting his foe harder than before. Following his executive order, the MS-13 was in February designated as a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO, (despite its L.A. origins) along with Mexican cartels. U.S. federal agents have launched a series of raids to nab alleged MS-13 members, including a 24-year old in the Washington suburbs they claim was one of the top three bosses in the country. The administration has also deported dozens of alleged MS-13 members to El Salvador, where they have been incarcerated in the feared Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT prison.
Attorney General Pam Bondi says the fight against MS-13 is urgent but claims it’s already bearing fruit. “America is safer today because of one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13, he is off the streets,” Bondi told a news conference after the arrest of the alleged leader last week. “MS-13, they are organized, they are violent…and we are going to fight until they are completely dismantled.”
The MS-13 boasts a long and bloody history, from the days of rocking Black Sabbath through wars, truces and deportations. But now it’s being targeted like never before in both El Salvador and the United States. Could this be its final chapter?
The U.S. crackdown strengthens the relationship between Trump and President Bukele, who Washington is paying to receive prisoners. Bukele has kept El Salvador in a state of emergency since March 2022 and detained 85,000 people, or 1.3 percent of the population, mostly on gang charges. Human rights groups slam him for abuses, including in the CECOT prison, but his campaign has been effective and popular, with his approval rating hitting over 90 percent.
Trump’s crackdown on gangs is popular with his base but also draws heat from human rights groups. As well as deporting Salvadorans to their homeland, the administration has packed flights with Venezuelans, alleged to be in the Tren de Aragua gang, which has also been designated as an FTO. The transfer of Venezuelans to the CECOT prison is legally very questionable as they are sent to a country that is not their own and are incarcerated for an undefined period (this was further complicated by Venezuela making it difficult to receive deportees).
Lawyers for Venezuelans claim they were targeted for just having tattoos, which they say were of football teams or local carnivals, not the Tren de Aragua, and decry a lack of due process. Judges have issued orders to block deportations leading to a showdown between Trump and the courts.
Whatever happens to the Venezuelans though, the government can find it easier to send Salvadorans to their own country. Yet, there are many members of the MS-13 who are born in the United States.
“Dreamer” is a Honduran who became boss of an MS-13 clique in Langley Park, Maryland, before he was arrested and deported. In an interview I conducted with him near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, he described how they recruited across the local schools from the children of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans and other Latinos.
In Central America, the MS-13 members are often ordered to commit murder just to get into the gang. But Dreamer said that would attract too much attention in the United States.
“We give people other missions, such as…
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