Last weekend 62, or 67, or who knows who many, people were randomly executed on the streets of El Salvador… by 2 gangs founded in Los Angeles. MS-13 and 18th Street - or Barrio 18 as it sometimes known both arose in this general area, the Pico-Union neighborhood just a mile or so west of downtown LA…this is the Ramparts police division of the LAPD which you may remember from the huge corruption scandal in the 90’s.
This is a very old, and still very poor, area of the city, the first stopping point for many immigrants from south of the border, but generally NOT from Mexico. Once upon a time in El Barrio, the original gangs of LA, the Mexican gangs, would not allow Central Americans to join and preyed upon the new immigrants. So MS-13 street was formed for Salvadorans and Guatamalens- to protect themselves from the Mexican gangs. 18th Street was initially formed by Mexicans that wanted to start their own clique from an old gang in this area but were rejected. Eventually they started recruiting central Americans, and even some whites and blacks. Today 18th street is so large there are more of them than all the Bloods combined. All through the 90’s so many 18th street and MS-13’s were deported from Los Angeles back to Central America that Guatemala and El Salvador have seen those to LA street gangs become powerful political forces in those 2 small countries, both decimated by American political decisions.
If you think politics in America is all about money, its on a whole next level south of the Border. In my upcoming documentary “Cocaine Condor” I talk about the nexus of politics and American Corporate interests in Central and South America being the primary force that led to the age of cheap cocaine and crack on the streets of the United States, and El Salvador, home of the Contras- and home to the Danilo Blandon, the man who fed Freeway Rick Ross his cocaine, was an epicenter of this process.
So El Salvador’s government, which is run by a 40 year old with near autocratic powers that is the guy that made the country’s official currency Bitcoin and is selling government bonds based on mining bitcoin using energy from a Volcano-- more on that interesting story later… is cracking down hard.
6,000 arrests have been, filling up the already totally overloaded prison system, which is rife with violence. In fact, the prisons in El Salvador are primarily segregated with MS-13 only being in some prisons and Barrio 18 in others. Though back in April 2020, as coronavirus swept through the country, President Bukele imposed a 24/7 lockdown for imprisoned gang members after more than 50 people were killed in three days, and argued that many of the murders were ordered from behind bars and said prisoners belonging to rival gangs would be made to share cells in a bid to break up lines of communication. I don’t think this actually happened as the bloodshed from that tactic would have likely made the global news.
