Download or read book This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha written by Samuel Logan and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like any American teenager, Brenda Paz spent much of her time with her friends. They would go to parties, listen to music, and show off their cars late into the night. But Brenda and her friends belonged to the Mara Salvatrucha--the MS-13--the most violent gang in America, and in addition to enjoying the things that all teenagers do, her friends were thieves, drug dealers, human traffickers, and murderers. A street gang that began in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the Mara Salvatrucha has spread across the United States and Central America with startling speed, boasting tens of thousands of members. They deal ruthlessly with competing gangs and any members who display disloyalty, often leaving a trail of dismembered corpses in their wake. They are poised to surpass the Mafia as the country's most organized criminal network. And by operating within the insular Central American immigrant communities, the Mara Salvatrucha has been able to easily elude law enforcement. All that changed when Brenda Paz turned informant for the FBI, exposing the incredible scope of the gang's operations. But Brenda's cooperation with the FBI was only the beginning. What followed is an extraordinary story of strength, intelligence, and incredible courage. This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha takes us into a dark and violent world that few people have seen, but is closer than you think.
Download or read book A Year Inside MS 13 written by Juan José Martínez d´Aubuisson and published by OR Books. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This short, intense book exposes life inside the largest, most violent gang in the world, Mara Salvatrucha 13, more commonly known as MS-13. Right in the heart of El Salvador’s capital San Salvador, anthropologist Juan José Martínez d´Aubuisson observes firsthand an escalating cycle of brutality between MS-13 and its sworn enemies from Barrio 18 as it becomes a war fought on a professional scale with grenades and machine guns. For the better part of a year, d´Aubuisson was embedded in one of the cells of MS-13, where he learned its moral codes, rules, legends, and contradictions. His journey into the heart of the gang is guided by an enigmatic character, Destino, a veteran leader of MS-13. After many conversations with Destino, a strange kind of friendship emerges between the two, and the anthropologist understands not only the origin of the gang and its war with Barrio 18 but the deep-seated reasons for the regional violence. The book culminates in one of the most violent acts ever in an area that has seen more than its share: a full-scale attack on a public bus with thirty-two passengers on board. Fourteen people were killed and twenty-eight wounded. Almost all the principal characters in this book end up dying: some are killed in the war, while others fall to the state security forces. Those that do escape the war are imprisoned, exiled or murdered by their own gang. This is a true testimony of life inside a wild gang, in a neighborhood governed by abandoned boys. Juan José Martínez d´Aubuisson is a Salvadoran socio-cultural anthropologist committed to understanding violence in Central America. His uncle was one of Latin America’s most notoriously brutal military officers during the 1980s.
Download or read book MS 13 written by Steven Dudley and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the year’s most important books, a gripping meticulously reported account of the rise of one of the world’s most notorious street gangs.” —Mitch Weiss, Pulitzer Prize winner Winner of the Lukas Prize An NPR Best Book of the Year The MS-13 was born from war. In the 1980s, Alex and his brother fled El Salvador for the US and formed the Mara Salvatrucha Stoners. Initially bound by a love of heavy metal music, the group soon took on a harder edge, selling drugs, stealing cars and killing rivals. Gang members like Alex were incarcerated and deported. But in the prison system, the group only grew stronger. Today, MS-13 is one of the most infamous street gangs on earth—and also largely misunderstood. Longtime organized crime investigator Steven Dudley brings readers inside the nefarious group to tell a broader story of flawed US and Central American policies and the exploitative, unequal systems that shape them. “A remarkable feat of reporting; the ways in which the United States is complicit in the creation and preservation of MS-13 might well keep you awake deep into the night, as it did me.” —Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises “By detailing the experiences of gang members and victims alike, he anatomizes the complex, fluid dynamics of this elusive transnational network. A startling book.” —Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times–bestselling author of Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks “The definitive account of MS-13 . . . An outstanding book for true crime readers.” —Library Journal (starred review)
Download or read book Operation Devil Horns written by Michael Santini and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Devil Horns delivers a high-impact, true insider account of one of the largest federal takedowns of a criminal gang in U.S. history. The story follows a four-year investigation that begins in San Francisco and grows to include criminal networks spanning three countries’ borders. Politicians, cops, and criminals meet at center stage.
Download or read book Sin Salida written by Tariq Zaidi and published by Gost Books. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sin Salida' ('No Way Out') by photographer Tariq Zaidi documents the impacts of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13) and its rival Barrio 18 gang members on El Salvador. By depicting the gang members, police, prisons, murder sites, funerals, and the government?s war against the gangs, Zaidi illustrates the control the gangs have over the wider Salvadoran society, the violence through which they operate and the grief and loss resulting from the violence.
Download or read book Maras written by Thomas Bruneau and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sensational headlines have publicized the drug trafficking, brutal violence, and other organized crime elements associated with Central America's mara gangs, but there have been few clear-eyed analyses of the history, hierarchies, and future of the mara phenomenon. The first book to look specifically at the Central American gang problem by drawing on the perspectives of researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds, Maras: Gang Violence and Security in Central America provides much-needed insight. These essays trace the development of the gangs, from Mara Salvatrucha to the 18th Street Gang, in Los Angeles and their spread to El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua as the result of members' deportation to Central America; there, they account for high homicide rates and threaten the democratic stability of the region. With expertise in areas ranging from political science to law enforcement and human rights, the contributors also explore the spread of mara violence in the United States. Their findings comprise a complete documentation that spans sexualized violence, case studies of individual gangs, economic factors, varied responses to gang violence, the use of intelligence gathering, the limits of state power, and the role of policy makers. Raising crucial questions for a wide readership, these essays are sure to spark productive international dialogues.
Download or read book Invasion Usa Border War written by William W. Johnstone and published by Pinnacle Books . This book was released on 2012-06-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a Mexican gang hijacks a school bus full of American school girls, a Vietnam vet takes matters into his own deadly hands in this border thriller. The gang of kidnappers is led by the ruthless crime lord Alphonso Guerrerro, whose daughter is on that bus. His ex-wife took his daughter back to the States, but Alphonso wants her back—and will stop at nothing to get her. Now he's got a devil's bounty of young women to be used as hostages, or sold into the horrors of slavery if his demands are not met. But Vietnam vet Tom Brannon has something to say about this. His niece is on that school bus, so he's recruiting a battle-tough squad of ex-soldiers made up from the families of the kidnapped girls. They're going to rescue the girls and destroy Guerrerro and his gang of border thugs once and for all.
Download or read book Space of Detention written by Elana Zilberg and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-07 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ethnographic analysis of the purported transnational gang crisis between the United States and El Salvador, based on extensive research in Los Angeles and San Salvador.
Download or read book Target Centric Network Modeling written by Robert M. Clark and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2015-03-12 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Target-Centric Network Modeling: Case Studies in Analyzing Complex Intelligence Issues, authors Robert Clark and William Mitchell take an entirely new approach to teaching intelligence analysis. Unlike any other book on the market, it offers case study scenarios using actual intelligence reporting format, along with a tested process that facilitates the production of a wide range of analytical products for civilian, military, and hybrid intelligence environments. Readers will learn how to perform the specific actions of problem definition modeling, target network modeling, and collaborative sharing in the process of creating a high-quality, actionable intelligence product. The case studies reflect the complexity of twenty-first century intelligence issues. Working through these cases, students will learn to manage and evaluate realistic intelligence accounts.
Download or read book Global Gangs written by Jennifer M. Hazen and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gangs, often associated with brutality and senseless destructive violence, have not always been viewed as inherently antagonistic. The first studies of gangs depicted them as alternative sources of order in urban slums where the state’s authority was lacking, and they have subsequently been shown to be important elements in some youth life cycles. Despite their proliferation there is little consensus regarding what constitutes a gang. Used to denote phenomena ranging from organized crime syndicates to groups of youths who gather spontaneously on street corners, even the term “gang” is ambiguous. Global Gangs offers a greater understanding of gangs through essays that investigate gangs spanning across nations, from Brazil to Indonesia, China to Kenya, and from El Salvador to Russia. Volume editors Jennifer M. Hazen and Dennis Rodgers bring together contributors who examine gangs from a comparative perspective, discussing such topics as the role the apartheid regime in South Africa played in the emergence of gangs, the politics behind child vigilante squads in India, the relationship between immigration and gangs in France and the United States, and the complex stigmatization of youths in Mexico caused by the arbitrary deployment of the word “gang.” Featuring an afterword by renowned U.S. gang researcher Sudhir Venkatesh, this volume provides a comprehensive look into the experience of gangs across the world and in doing so challenges conventional notions of identity. Contributors: Enrique Desmond Arias, George Mason U; José Miguel Cruz, Florida International U; Steffen Jensen, DIGNITY–Danish Institute Against Torture; Gareth A. Jones, London School of Economics and Political Science; Marwan Mohammed, École Normale Supérieure, Paris; Jacob Rasmussen, Roskilde U; Loren Ryter, U of Michigan; Rustem R. Safin, National Research Technological U, Russia; Alexander L. Salagaev, National Research Technological U, Russia; Atreyee Sen, U of Manchester; Mats Utas, Nordic Africa Institute; Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia U; James Diego Vigil, U of California, Irvine; Lening Zhang, Saint Francis U.
Download or read book No Boundaries written by Tom Diaz and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2011-01-25 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Tom Diaz has worn out some shoe leather, much like a good detective, in gathering facts, not myths or urban legends. As a result he has produced an accurate and comprehensive look at a grave and present danger to our society.” —From the Foreword by Chris Swecker, former Assistant Director of the FBI and former head of the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division No Boundaries is a disturbing account of what many consider the “next Mafia”—Latino crime gangs. Like the Mafia, these gangs operate an international network, consider violence a routine matter, and defy U.S. law enforcement at every level. Also, the gangs spawn kingpins such as the notorious Nelson Varela Martinez Comandari, who nearly became the first “Latin godfather” in the United States. Focusing on the Los Angeles–based Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang, and the Chicago-based Latin Kings, Tom Diaz describes how neighborhood gangs evolved into extremely brutal, sophisticated criminal enterprises and how local and federal authorities have struggled to suppress them. As he makes clear, the problem of transnational Latino gangs involves complex national and international issues, such as racial tensions, immigration policy, conflict in Latin America, and world economic pressures.
Download or read book Strategic Notes on Third Generation Gangs written by John P. Sullivan and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategic Notes on Third Generation Gangs builds upon the third generation street gang (3Gen Gang) theory first articulated in a series of papers by John P. Sullivan in 1997. From that foundation, Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Robert J. Bunker, editors of this volume, and others have expanded that core to articulate the threat that sophisticated gangs with transnational reach and political dimensions pose to community, national, and global security. This Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology provides empirical depth to their theoretical perspective, bringing together strategic notes and essays on third generation gangs and military-trained gang members with new content assessing the theoretical and policy ramifications of both theory and reality on the ground. – Dave Dilegge, SWJ Editor-in-Chief
Download or read book Gangs in Central America written by Clare Ribando Seelke and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Background on Violent Crime; (2) Scope of the Gang Problem: Defining Gangs; Transnational Gangs; Factors Exacerbating the Gang Problem; Poverty and a Lack of Educ. and Employ. Opport.; Societal Stigmas; Role of the Media; Anti-Gang Law Enforce. Efforts; Prisons in Need of Reform; U.S. Deportations; (3) Country Anti-Gang Efforts: Mano Dura (Heavy-Handed) Anti-Gang Policies; Effects of Mano Dura Policies?; Alternative Approaches; Prospects for Country Prevention and Rehab. Efforts; Regional and Multilateral Efforts; OAS; Multilateral Develop. Banks and Donor Agencies; (4) U.S. Policy: Congressional Interest; U.S. Internat. Anti-Gang Efforts; State Dept.; Justice Dept.; USAID; Policy Approaches and Concerns.
Download or read book Unforgetting written by Roberto Lovato and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An LA Times Best Book of the Year • A New York Times Editors' Pick • A Newsweek 25 Best Fall Books • A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year "Gripping and beautiful. With the artistry of a poet and the intensity of a revolutionary, Lovato untangles the tightly knit skein of love and terror that connects El Salvador and the United States." —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Natural Causes and Nickel and Dimed An urgent, no-holds-barred tale of gang life, guerrilla warfare, intergenerational trauma, and interconnected violence between the United States and El Salvador, Roberto Lovato’s memoir excavates family history and reveals the intimate stories beneath headlines about gang violence and mass Central American migration, one of the most important, yet least-understood humanitarian crises of our time—and one in which the perspectives of Central Americans in the United States have been silenced and forgotten. The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as MS-13 and other notorious Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. He eventually traded the violence of the streets for human rights advocacy in wartime El Salvador where he joined the guerilla movement against the U.S.-backed, fascist military government responsible for some of the most barbaric massacres and crimes against humanity in recent history. Roberto returned from war-torn El Salvador to find the United States on the verge of unprecedented crises of its own. There, he channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing his attention on how trauma affects individual lives and societies, and began the difficult journey of confronting the roots of his own trauma. As a child, Roberto endured a tumultuous relationship with his father Ramón. Raised in extreme poverty in the countryside of El Salvador during one of the most violent periods of its history, Ramón learned to survive by straddling intersecting underworlds of family secrets, traumatic silences, and dealing in black-market goods and guns. The repression of the violence in his life took its toll, however. Ramón was plagued with silences and fits of anger that had a profound impact on his youngest son, and which Roberto attributes as a source of constant reckoning with the violence and rebellion in his own life. In Unforgetting, Roberto interweaves his father’s complicated history and his own with first-hand reportage on gang life, state violence, and the heart of the immigration crisis in both El Salvador and the United States. In doing so he makes the political personal, revealing the cyclical ways violence operates in our homes and our societies, as well as the ways hope and tenderness can rise up out of the darkness if we are courageous enough to unforget.
Download or read book The Construction of the Maras written by Antonia Does and published by Graduate Institute Publications. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: High levels of crime and violence in Central America’s northern triangle are a major preoccupation of politicians, policy-makers and citizens. Public authorities in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have sought repressive measures to increase public safety and to contain such violence, for which youth gangs (maras) are principally held responsible. Substantiated by interviews with key stakeholders in Geneva, Switzerland, this desk review offers a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and the intended effects behind the suppressive strategies of the respective governments. Viewing the gang phenomenon through the lens of securitization theory allows for a new understanding of how the maras are dealt with. This paper also traces how the concerned states have shaped a certain construction of these gangs and reveals a blurred line between the political and the security sectors. The analysis finds that interests other than combatting a security threat, as well as the particular historical and societal contexts of the three countries, decisively influence how the maras issue is addressed.
Download or read book Gangsters Without Borders written by Thomas W. Ward and published by Issues of Globalization: Case. This book was released on 2013 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on author T.W. Ward's eight and a half years in Los Angeles conducting participant observation with MS-13, Gangsters Without Borders: An Ethnography of a Salvadoran Street Gang takes an inside look at gang life in the United States and in a global context. Taking us through their journey from their homeland in El Salvador to the mean streets of Los Angeles, Gangsters Without Borders offers a perspective from the point of view of the hard-core members who live this hard, fast, and dangerous life. A powerful and engaging overview of gang dynamics, Gangsters Without Borders contextualizes the sources and severity of the marginalization felt by Salvadoran immigrants and debunks myths about street gangs in the United States. This account of gangster's lives before, during, and after their involvement with the gang, delivers an intimate and analytical portrait unlike any other.
Download or read book Gangs in America s Communities written by James C. Howell and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2018-02-08 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Gangs in America′s Communities] is one of the most comprehensive treatments of gangs in the marketplace. . . . I highly recommend its adoption as you will not be disappointed and, most importantly, neither will your students." —Elvira White-Lewis, Texas A&M University-Commerce Gangs in America′s Communities, Third Edition blends theory with current research to help readers identify essential features associated with youth violence and gangs, as well as apply strategies for gang control and prevention. Authors Dr. James C. Howell and Dr. Elizabeth Griffiths introduce readers to theories of gang formation, illustrate various ways of defining and classifying gangs, and discuss national trends in gang presence and gang-related violence across American cities. They also offer evidence-based strategies for positioning communities to prevent, intervene, and address gang activity. New to the Third Edition: A series of new case studies document the evolution of numerous gangs in large cities, including the community aspect, evolutionary nature, and how cities influence levels of violence. New discussions highlighting the role of social media, insights into how gangs use it to recruit members, and the response from law enforcement. Current nationwide gang trends are discussed to encourage readers to analyze and interpret the most recent statistics for which representative data is available. Updated macro and micro gang theories enable readers to explore a recent encapsulation of leading developmental models. New discussions around female gang members offer readers potentially effective programs for discouraging females from joining gangs—along with highly regarded delinquency prevention and reduction programs that have the potency to be effective in reducing gang crimes among young women. A comprehensive gang prevention, intervention, and suppression program in Multnomah County, Oregon shows how theory was successfully applied to reduce gang activity in a local community. New research on "gang structures" and their rates of crime illustrate the connections between violent crimes and the amount of violent offenders within a gang. Additional discussion of distinguishing features (e.g., typologies) of major gangs, and numerous examples of gang symbols, tattoos, and graffiti has been added to help readers identify and differentiate various types of gangs.
