Gang Bangers imposing strike in El Salvador

[Bala Perdida]

How's this for a labor dispute? In the small Central American country, the still freshly elected left-wing government has been advancing it's crackdown on crime and gang activity. This is despite a truce that was set with the two major gangs in the country, MS-13 and 18 Street, by the same government. Said truce was declared ineffective by the government, amidst consistent levels of gang violence and attacks on the Salvadoran people. Now with police pressure on them, the gangs decided to demonstrate their power by forcing bus drivers to go on strike and threatening to kill those who don't take part. The gangs are also said to have threatened to increase crime in the region. Their goal is to secure a new truce with the government. They've already made good on their promises and killed bus drivers. Today the military is escorting commuters and it's said that bus drivers are going on strike, but in demand for security and protection.

UPDATE: Looks like the gangs are also extorting drivers for operating in their turf.

What do ya'll think?

Also here's an article I found for you that like more scholarly descriptions.

El Salvador bus drivers go on strike as gang violence surges
SAN SALVADOR
El Salvador's bus drivers went on strike on Monday, demanding better security in the wake of escalating gang attacks and leaving thousands of commuters stranded on the streets of the Central American capital.

Five bus drivers and one other transport worker were found dead Monday morning, and two buses were torched over the weekend by suspected gang members seeking extortions. The director of the National Civil Police confirmed the deaths.

Murders in the country jumped 50 percent to 2,192 in the first five months of the year, compared with the same period last year, with crimes largely blamed on fighting between two rival groups, Mara Salvatrucha and the Barrio 18 gang.

From Monday morning, people on the streets of San Salvador desperately tried to hop on trucks or other alternatives to get to work or school, or trudged long distances by foot.

Gangs stepped up violence over the weekend to pressure the government of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren to negotiate with them to ease a crackdown on their operations and secure less harsh conditions for imprisoned members, officials said.

One suspect threw a grenade into the parking lot of one of San Salvador's top hotels on Saturday night, prosecutors said.

The government has so far rejected dialogue with the gangs, whose turf wars have helped make El Salvador one of the most violent countries in the Americas.

The surge in violence since 2014, after a 2012 truce between the two groups crumbled, has taken the lives of more than 30 police officers and 11 soldiers.

Seven soldiers were detained after staging a small demonstration to demand bonuses for the risky job of fighting the gangs, defense minister David Munguia said on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/28/us-el-salvador-gangs-idUSKCN0Q201720150728

QUESTION: Why is 'El Salvador' not a tag?

[Bala Perdida]

Here's some more background info. The government is responding rhetorically about not mediating with the gangs. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/07/31/driving-a-bus-is-a-death-sentence-in-el-salvadors-capital-city/

[John Nada]

A few things. One the FMLN is an anti-imperialist united front. It's factions are everything from various Marxist tendencies to liberals. President Sanchez Ceren is in the relatively right-wing faction, though to the left of ARENA, the rightist party. ARENA was supportive of the Junta government during the Civil War and even employed death squads. It been alleged that ARENA may be inciting the violence behind the scenes. Considering what the US and its puppets did in Honduras to President Zelaya, its not out of the question.

Something that caught my eye in one of the links in the article was:
Gonzalez, 50, has served the state since the civil war, when he was an army captain trained at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga. After two decades rising through the police ranks, as well as tutorials from the FBI and the Baton Rouge police, he knows crime-fighting theory. At his desk he flips through a 2002 study he wrote, explaining the virtues of a holistic strategy based on prevention, rehabilitation, finding a path for vulnerable youth back into the societal fold. He’s an affable man with varied interests, an amateur oil painter and evangelical pastor: He believes in second chances. Bold mine: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/el-salvador-is-on-pace-to-become-the-hemispheres-most-deadly-nation/2015/05/17/fc52e4b6-f74b-11e4-a47c-e56f4db884ed_story.html

If you don't know the School of the Americans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperat ion) has trained much of Latin America's murderous rightist comprador death squads and it's alumni are notorious for launching coups against progressive governements. Asking such people to fight crime is like asking the fox to guard the chicken coop. The police and military are not neutral actors like the media pretends. Statistics on police killings are not official kept. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if much of the murders were in fact done by the police and military. In much of Latin America the cops and gangs are one and the same anyway.

[Bala Perdida]

A few things. One the FMLN is an anti-imperialist united front. It's factions are everything from various Marxist tendencies to liberals. President Sanchez Ceren is in the relatively right-wing faction, though to the left of ARENA, the rightist party. ARENA was supportive of the Junta government during the Civil War and even employed death squads. It been alleged that ARENA may be inciting the violence behind the scenes. Considering what the US and its puppets did in Honduras to President Zelaya, its not out of the question.

Something that caught my eye in one of the links in the article was: Bold mine: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/el-salvador-is-on-pace-to-become-the-hemispheres-most-deadly-nation/2015/05/17/fc52e4b6-f74b-11e4-a47c-e56f4db884ed_story.html

If you don't know the School of the Americans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperat ion) has trained much of Latin America's murderous rightist comprador death squads and it's alumni are notorious for launching coups against progressive governements. Asking such people to fight crime is like asking the fox to guard the chicken coop. The police and military are not neutral actors like the media pretends. Statistics on police killings are not official kept. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if much of the murders were in fact done by the police and military. In much of Latin America the cops and gangs are one and the same anyway.
Thanks for the info on Gonzalez. Although I don't see what the problem is with the FMLN being left-wing. It fits the paradigm and proudly claims it. Most of the left isn't even revolutionary, it isn't surprising that the left would do this. Also, it's bleeding through the news that soldiers are deserting from fighting so it's obvious otherwise how corrupt the military is. It just seems that focusing on the government deviates from the gangs. A potent uncontrollable force that doesn't seek to damage the system, but instead work under it and occasionally suck from it.

Also for all you imperialism nerds, these gangs have their origins in US imperialism and ethnic cultural alienation. MS-13 and 18 Street were both founded in LA, by (mostly) Salvadoran and Central American refugee youths fleeing the US-inflated civil wars in the region. Despite the communist insurgencies/governments, the US didn't give the refugees any sort of refugee status. So instead of being placed and spread all over the country, they ended up having to sneak into California. To LA, were the gangs in control were Mexican-Xicano. Mexicans and Central Americans don't have the best relationship so they didn't accept the new kids on the block. So 18 Street was formed with membership open to all races/ethnicities, and MS-13 was formed with Salvadoran exclusive membership. The gang activity got them deported back to El Salvador. A lot of the refugees were from where the war was roughest, near the capital San Salvador. So soon enough the members found each-other, started hustling with much less regulation and pretty soon exploded into the biggest gangs in the world. As well as helping to make El Salvador one of the most violent nations in the hemisphere. Due a lot to it's small size too.