Comparing El Salvador's gangs to ISIS
Michael Busch has a very good response (Are El Salvador's Gangs "More Vicious than ISIS"?) to Chris Dickey's somewhat sensationalist comparison of Central American gangs to ISIS (The Street Gangs More Vicious Than ISIS).
I know some people don't believe this, but the US wants Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to be democratic, economically prosperous countries (if for no other reason that thousands of people do not flee the region north each month). The activities of these gangs just undermine every single institution strengthening / economic growth policy we are pursuing with our regional partners.
Are they more vicious than ISIS? I don't know and, like Michael, I agree that it probably doesn't really matter. You don't have to make up anything to convince me about the dangers posed by these North American gangs.
El Salvador’s gangs may be more “vicious” than ISIS, whatever that means, but the wars they wage in Central America are completely divorced in kind from what is playing out across Syria and northern Iraq. There, the Islamic State—as its name implies—appears to be intentionally pursuing a nation-building project, in which spectacular acts of violence serve to consolidate sovereign authority and control, and attract international attention.
In El Salvador, the alarming spike in violence is more difficult to explain. Dickey argues that “despite new waves of arrests, and the gangs’ hatred of each other, MS-13 and Barrio 18 are clearly out to show how powerless the central government really is.” Sure, but why? The gangs have exhibited no interest in, let alone capacity for, state rule. Indeed, to the extent that they have articulated reasons for the surge in murders, the gangs have suggested it’s a pressure tactic to compel the government to negotiate a new peace.I don't really know that much about ISIS, but you shouldn't need to compare North America's gangs to them to get people's attention. MS-13 and 18th Street gangs operate throughout Central America and the US - murders, prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking (see Hector Silva's disturbing look at The MS13's Prostitution Rings in the United States).
I know some people don't believe this, but the US wants Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to be democratic, economically prosperous countries (if for no other reason that thousands of people do not flee the region north each month). The activities of these gangs just undermine every single institution strengthening / economic growth policy we are pursuing with our regional partners.
Are they more vicious than ISIS? I don't know and, like Michael, I agree that it probably doesn't really matter. You don't have to make up anything to convince me about the dangers posed by these North American gangs.
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