Morataya 1

Marlon Morataya

Professor Shahrazad Encinias

CAS 115-15429

28 November 2022

Annotated Bibliography

Wolf, Sonja. Mano Dura: The Politics of Gang Control in El Salvador. University of Texas

Press, 2017, https://doi.org/10.7560/311219.

In this book based on facts towards El Salvador, throughout the book it mostly discusses El

Salavdors government and how they deal with gang violence in their country. They discuss how

gang violence in El Salvador was a big problem for them over the years around the 1900s

through the 2000s. Throughout the book it explains how the prison population in El Salvador

has increased over the years and the number of gang members have also increased over the years

as well. The book discusses many well researched facts involving the death rates throughout the

years in El Salvador and the different crimes that had happened.

Spencer, David E., et al. Adversarial System Analysis of the Salvadoran Gangs. William J.

Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University, 2020.

In this book discussing the gangs in El Salvador, it mostly analyzes and discusses the different

gangs in El Salvador. The book discusses how gangs in El Salvador were not as big until the year

of 1990. Many people around El Salvador would call them names, for example like “maras”. It

also includes the different aspects for gangs in El Salvador and what they bring to the country.
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The gangs bring a lot of violence and they try to kill many different gang members. To be a part

of gangs you have to kill but also some gang members do it for enjoyment.

Van der Borgh, Chris. “Government Responses to Gang Power: From Truce to War on Gangs in

El Salvador.” European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, vol. 107, no. 107,

2019, pp. 1–25, https://doi.org/10.32992/erlacs.10433.

Throughout this article it mostly talks about the El Salavdor government. It reflects towards the

government and what they have to deal with the gangs throughout El Salvador. The Government

wanted to make big changes because of gangs but those changes failed for them to weaken gang

dominance. Gangs started the “war on drugs” while the government couldn't really do anything

about it because the gangs in El Salvador were very hard to stop and they had a lot of control.

They include how after El Salavadors civil war the gangs just got bigger and bigger over the

years and how the country had a lot of different homicides throughout the years where they had

the most at one point throughout one year.

Farah, Douglas, and Kathryn Babineau. The Rapid Evolution of the MS 13 in El Salvador and

Honduras from Gang to Tier-One Threat to Central America and U.S. Security Interests. William

J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University, 2018.

Throughout this book it mostly talks about the most violent and dangerous gang in all of El

Salvador. The most dangerous gang is named the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13). They discuss how

the gang has a lot of levels of many different powers and cultures that can really affect the

country and can cause a lot of harm. They discuss how the gang can be arranged in many

different neighborhoods. They explain how there aren't just gangs in El Salvador but also in
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Guatemala as well and how there is a gang bigger than MS 13 which is called the Barrio 18 and

how Honduras also has some pretty violent and big gangs as well.

“A New Study Suggests That Street Gangs Inflict Broad Economic Harm.” The Economist, The

Economist Newspaper,

Throughout this article it mostly discusses what type of violence gangs in El Salvador bring to

the country. Throughout the article it shows the different territories that these different gangs

have throughout El Salvador. Gangs in El Salvador damage their economy and many of the

citizens throughout El Salvador live in fear. The areas where the gangs have taken over in El

Salvador, those areas/people have suffered. They discuss how these big gangs around El

Salavdor didn't normally start in Latin America and how one of the big names named the Barrio

18 that are very big rivals with other big gangs, started in the US in Los Angeles around the

1980’s.