Douglas Farah
minded groups operated. Like the FMLN, they built an extensive international support network with military dictatorships in Latin America and the wealthy exile communities of Nicaraguan, Cuban and Central American expatriates, mostly living in Miami.25 It is important to note that these international structures continue to be important to the criminal operations. This is particularly true for the remnants of the PC of the FMLN and its current and past ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-FARC). The FARC is now one of the largest producers of cocaine in the world and a primary exploiter of the Central American pipeline, as will be discussed below in detail.26 The factors that made El Salvador easy to penetrate in the past have not improved in the post-war era. A senior Salvadoran security official estimated that El Salvador had more than 300 unmonitored points of entry, and said that even those that are monitored provide virtually no screening of goods and people entering or leaving national territory. He noted that corruption at the borders remains endemic; there have been numerous investigations into immigration corruption at Comalapa International Airport, almost all involving the movement of cocaine and/ or suspected drug money, and seaports remain largely uncontrolled.27
The Rise of Gangs and the Changing Alliances When “First Generation�28 gangs began to appear in El Salvador in the early 1990s, they were largely made up of young men who had entered the United States illegally, often as children. After joining gangs and serving time in U.S. prisons, usually for felonies, they were deported to their country of origin, El Salvador, despite often having no family there, and having limited or non-existent Spanish language skills. These people turned to each other for survival and replicated the gang structures and cultures they had learned in the United States, primarily in the Los Angeles area. While there are many dozens of gangs that have tens of thousands of members, the largest two by far, responsible for the vast majority of the violence as well as ties to organized criminal organizations are the Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13) and the Calle 18 gangs. Their power derives in part | 112 |