San Salvador (AFP) - Jose was 13
when he entered the violent, murky underworld of the "maras," the gangs
that have stained Central America's streets in blood.
Like the tens
of thousands of young people who have joined these brutal urban tribes,
the olive-skinned 26-year-old wears his fate tattooed on his skin --
though his are less visible than many members' full-body tattoos.
Jose, who uses a fake identity to protect himself, says his former gang, Mara Salvatrucha, was his "home."
"The
gang is like a family," he told AFP in San Salvador, where he is trying
to escape his past by studying and joining an evangelical church.
He used to sell drugs and extort money, and spent time in prison for murder.
"When
I was caught up in that, I didn't think about how I was going to leave
people's children, wives, mothers, fathers crying," he said.
Death is a way of life for these groups, which have become complex organized crime networks in Central America.
The region now holds four
of the top five spots on the list of countries with the highest homicide
rates, largely because of the gangs' culture of violence.
The
bloodiest gangs are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18, which are
organized hierarchically using "clicas" -- cells that ruthlessly control
blocks of territory with their own language, rules and moral code.
- Symbols -
Their
most distinctive traits are tattoos -- often from head to toe -- and
their graffiti tags: "Ver, oir y callar" (See, hear and shut up).
But they are using them less and less, to evade the authorities.
"They
have their own forms of symbolic communication: written, verbal and
kinetic, which are part of a sub-culture with clear traits of an
organized structure," said Jaime Martinez, director of El Salvador's
Public Safety Academy.
Experts try to decode what's behind these symbols.
An
"18," a "13" or an "MS" tattoo is a membership badge; black tears count
a killer's hits; crosses count the number of dead comrades; clowns tell
of joys and heartbreaks; skulls are a celebration of death.
"Three
dots anywhere on the body represent the gangster's life -- in the
hospital, in jail or in the cemetery. Graffiti marks a clica's
territory," said a Honduran anti-gang policeman, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
There are women
members, too. Used in extortion rackets and to transport cash, they
have to tattoo themselves with their boyfriend's name.
- Rituals -
"Joining
a gang is free. It's getting out that's the problem," says Jose. "When
you want to quit, they hunt you down and kill you. Not just you but your
family too."
The initiation rite is a 13- or 18-second beating, depending on the gang, or else killing an enemy.
"A gangster's not a gangster without a rival, if he's never had a beating and a gun to pull the trigger," said Carlos Menocal, a former interior minister in Guatemala.
The
gangsters' language is a window on their world, from the "ranfleros" or
"palabreros" (windbags) who give the orders, to the "banderas" (flags)
who stand sentry, to the "soldados" (soldiers) who collect extortion
money, to the cash itself -- "renta" (rent) or "impuestos de guerra"
(war taxes).
Every gang also has its own sign language, according to Menocal.
"The
top bosses in prison, the national ranfleros, still give the orders.
Someone outside tells them what's happening. The clica bosses have a
meeting every week to plan killings and extortions... everything.
Everyone's got a day-to-day mission," said Jose.
When
their shake-downs and shootouts scare the neighbors away, gang members
move into those homes or use them to run operations and torture enemies
-- they call them "destroyer houses" or "crazy houses."
"Every gangster gets money each week to buy food, clothes and bring around family members," said Jose.They used to wear baggy clothes but are increasingly keeping a low profile.
And they have guns of virtually every kind.
"They love nine-millimeter pistols, AK-47s, 12-gauge shotguns, which they can get quickly on the black market," said Menocal.
Fed by poverty, weak government and the break-up of the traditional family, Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 emerged in the 1980s in Los Angeles's Latino neighborhoods.
They arrived in Central America when the United States deported thousands of immigrants who had fled there to escape the civil wars that gripped the region in the late 20th century.
"We
went from a Cold War between the army and the guerrillas to the
post-war era and now another Cold War. But this time society's at war
with itself," said Jose.
The
"maras" -- short for "marabunta," an anthill that devours everything
around it -- have some 100,000 members in El Salvador, Honduras and
Guatemala, and are constantly recruiting.
"The gangster lives for the moment," says Jose, the only one of the 19 comrades in his clica who is still alive.
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