Country Profile:
El Salvador
El Salvador’s 12 year civil war was fought between government forces and a coalition of five Marxist-Leninist rebel groups called the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). Cold war politics were involved in the conflict, with the US backing the right wing military government and the USSR backing the rebel groups. More than 75,000 people were killed in the conflict.
Today, El Salvador faces very high crime rates and gang-related violence, particularly from the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and the 18th Street gangs. Estimates about the number of gang members in El Salvador vary — the PNC reports 10,500 members, whereas the CNSP reports 39,000 members (Sibaja et al., 2006: 5; Del Barco, 2007). El Salvador is “one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America” and has high rates of “homicides, intra-familiar violence, robbery, extortion, and kidnapping” (Sibaja et al., 2006: 4).
The government’s hard line approach to crime, called super mano dura or “super firm hand” has failed to bring the violence under control since it was adopted in 2004. Nevertheless, “El Salvador has made significant strides in its post-conflict transition to a stable democracy” (Sibaja et al., 2006: 4).
