Central America’s ‘maras’ spread to Spain and Italy

The maras, criminal structures created by Central American migrants from poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles and which, more than 30 years later, the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador have declared war on, have been spreading to Europe and South America for some time, according to various reports.

A few days ago, a user tweeted that he had seen MS (Mara Salvatrucha) graffiti in the train station of a town in the south of Rome.

Also, this criminal group has been present in Milan for several years, according to an investigation by the Salvadoran media outlet El Faro.

In addition, InSight Crime reports that the Barrio 18 and MS13 gangs – known as “maras” -have been present in Spain since 2005.

Reports show that these members had fled to Europe from the “iron fist” policies that the El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras governments implemented at the beginning of the millennium.

That plan the countries implemented more than two decades ago is not much different from the emergency regime that Nayib Bukele approved in March 2022 and that Xiomara Castro would later emulate in December.

An article published in 2003 by envío magazine, an initiative of the Society of Jesus in Central America, described the “Mano Dura” plan as a project of social apartheid in El Salvador, considering that it stigmatized a category of Salvadorans: the marginalized youth, those in the worst conditions.

Detainees were criminalized for their physical appearance, i.e., clothing, tattoos, or behavior.

This same accusation has been received by President Bukele from different organizations, among them Amnesty International, who said that the government is committing generalized and flagrant human rights violations and criminalizing people living in poverty.

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