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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
| SPECIAL
REPORTS |
Monday 18 April 2011 |
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EL
SALVADOR
Drivers
Risk
Extortion,
Murder
by Gangs
By
Edgardo
Ayala
SAN
SALVADOR
(IPS) -
Zigzagging
along
the
streets
of the
Salvadoran
capital
in his
bus,
José
Nuila is
much
more
worried
about
avoiding
an
attack
by youth
gang
members
than
about
making
his way
through
the
complicated
tangle
of
traffic.
In El
Salvador,
which
has one
of the
world's
highest
murder
rates,
violence
has
claimed
the
lives of
hundreds
of bus
drivers
over the
last few
years.
This
Central
American
country's
15,000
bus
drivers
are
frequent
targets
of
robberies
and
extortion
by the
two main
youth
gangs,
MS 13 or
Mara
Salvatrucha,
and M 18
or 18th
Street
gang,
which in
recent
years
have
evolved
into
full-fledged
organised
crime
groups.
In
addition,
allied
criminal
organisations
contract
gang
members
as hired
killers,
extortionists
and
small-time
drug
dealers.
Since
2006,
when
attacks
on bus
drivers
surged,
625 have
been
murdered,
according
to
statistics
kept by
the
industry
–
including
29 in
the
first
quarter
of this
year
alone.
"I have
gone to
crime
scenes
of the
murders
of
fellow
drivers.
Some of
them
have
been
killed
for one
dollar,
because
they had
the bad
luck
that
they had
no money
on them
at that
moment,"
Nuila
told IPS
as he
drove
along
the
streets
of San
Salvador.
Extortion
is the
gangs'
most
profitable
money-making
racket.
According
to
estimates
by the
transport
industry,
bus
drivers
and
owners
of
transit
companies
paid
some 18
million
dollars
in
"protection
payments"
in 2009.
El
Salvador
and
neighbouring
Honduras
and
Guatemala
have had
serious
problems
with
street
gangs
since
the
1980s.
The
gangs,
fuelled
by
extreme
poverty
and
social
marginalisation,
actually
originated
in
California
after
nearly
one
million
Salvadorans
fled to
the
United
States
during
this
country's
1980-1992
civil
war and
settled
largely
in poor
neighbourhoods
in Los
Angeles
where
gang
violence
was
rife.
After
the
armed
conflict,
U.S.
authorities
began to
deport
thousands
of gang
members
to El
Salvador,
where
the
escalation
of
violence
drove
the
murder
rates
above
those
seen
during
the war.
Around
70
percent
of young
people
in El
Salvador's
cities
have no
opportunity
to study
at the
university
and
leave
behind
the
cycle of
poverty
and
marginalisation
in which
they
have
been
raised,
according
to a
"Map of
Urban
Poverty
and
Social
Exclusion"
published
by the
United
Nations
Development
Programme
(UNDP)
in April
2010.
In El
Salvador,
an
estimated
40,000
young
people
belong
to
gangs,
which
are
known in
the
region
as "maras."
According
to
official
statistics,
the
poverty
rate in
this
country
of 5.7
million
people
is 37
percent.
The
UNDP's
Report
on Human
Development
in
Central
America
2009-2010
says the
region
has the
highest
rates of
non-political
crime in
the
world,
due to
the high
murder
rates in
El
Salvador
(52
homicides
per
100,000
population),
Honduras
(58 per
100,000)
and
Guatemala
(48 per
100,000).
Bus
drivers
are all
too
frequently
among
the
victims
of
extortion
and
murder.
"They
have
come on
my bus
and
forced
me to
drive,
at
gunpoint,"
Nuila
said.
"They
said
that if
I
stopped,
they
would
kill me.
So you
have to
give
them the
money,
sometimes
all of
it, and
sometimes
just
part of
it."
Extortion
rackets
also
commonly
target
small,
medium
and even
large
businesses,
which
are
forced
to make
protection
payments.
"The
fact
that
mass
transit
vehicles
carry
money is
a strong
attraction
for
anyone
interested
in
committing
crimes,"
Deputy
Minister
of
Transport
Nelson
García
told IPS.
He said
plans
are
being
devised
to
modernise
the
public
transport
system
so
passengers
will use
prepaid
cards
and no
cash
will be
kept on
board
buses,
with the
aim of
reducing
extortion
and
theft.
Delivery
truck
drivers
at risk
too
Drivers
of
trucks
delivering
food and
other
basic
products
from
town to
town
also
live in
fear of
being
robbed
or
killed
by gang
members.
Five
drivers
distributing
bottled
water
and one
driver
delivering
dairy
products
were
killed
in
February
– the
former
in
Tonacatepeque,
north of
San
Salvador,
and the
latter
in a
rural
area of
the
central
province
of
Libertad.
"Around
two
weeks
ago they
stopped
us in
Ilopango
(east of
San
Salvador),
trapped
us in
the
vehicle,
and
ordered
us to
hand
everything
over,"
Marcos,
who
preferred
not to
give his
last
name,
told IPS.
Industry
statistics
indicate
that
losses
due to
robbery
of
delivery
vehicles
amounted
to one
million
dollars
in 2006,
although
they
dropped
172,000
dollars
last
year.
There
are
neighbourhoods
where,
if the
distributors
do not
pay off
gang
leaders
in
advance,
drivers
are not
allowed
in to
deliver
merchandise.
Daily
protection
payments
range
from
five to
10
dollars,
and
there
are
weekly
or
monthly
payments
as well.
The
National
Civil
Police
assistant
chief of
investigations
Howard
Cotto
told IPS
that the
fight
against
extortion
has been
the most
successful
recent
offensive
by the
police,
as 90
percent
of
reported
cases
end in
conviction.
Cotto
said
that not
all
murders
of
drivers
are
caused
by
refusal
or
failure
to make
protection
payments.
But
drivers
and
transport
company
owners
say
extortion
by gangs
is the
main
motive
behind
the
killings.
After 16
passengers
were
killed
in June
2010 in
street
gang
attacks
on two
city
buses,
one of
which
was
sprayed
with
bullets
while
the
other
was
doused
with
gasoline
and set
on fire,
Congress
passed a
law in
September
making
membership
in gangs
a crime.
The
risks
faced by
bus and
delivery
truck
drivers
have
pushed
many to
quit
their
jobs.
"A lot
of young
guys
apply
for jobs
as bus
drivers,
but on
their
very
first
day on
the job
they are
robbed
or
extorted,
and they
don't
come
back the
next
day,
because
they see
that
they can
be
killed,"
Nuila
said.
Another
driver,
who
preferred
to
remain
anonymous,
said
that in
2006,
thieves
put a
pistol
to his
head and
robbed
him and
his
assistant.
After
that, he
started
suffering
from
health
problems
that
forced
him to
quit his
job, he
said.
"I got
sick
after
the
assault,
and I
had to
stop
working.
My wife
and my
kids
told me
that we
would
manage
to put
food on
the
table
somehow,"
he said.
Besides
facing
the risk
of being
robbed,
injured
or
killed,
the
right of
drivers
to hold
a decent
steady
job is
thus
undermined
as well. |
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