MS – 13: MARA SALVATRUCHA REVISITED
R. A. Schultz
Mara Salvatrucha, the name of a loosely-organized but widespread criminal gang originating in Los Angeles sometime during the mid-1980’s, has been specifically targeted by President Trump for elimination and deportation from the United States, the idiot progturds running “sanctuary cities” and even defending them notwithstanding.
It is likely that the gang’s name stems from a combination of “La Mara,” the name of a street gang still active in San Salvador, coupled with the name of the rebels who fought in the Salvadoran civil war, the Salvatrucha guerillas. “Mara” is Central American slang for “gang.” The “13” references the fact that aspirants to gang membership are savagely beaten by three other gang members for 13 seconds before being admitted. The beatings are administered to determine if an aspirant is “man enough” to become a member. A distinguishing feature of members is a proliferation of tattoos all over their bodies, including their faces. The tattoos are “earned” for committing various acts of depravity.
The motto of these thugs is “mata, viola, controla,” or, in English, “kill, rape, control.” These terrorist thugs are particularly vicious, and specialize in knife and machete attacks, kidnapping, executions with firearms, gang rapes, robbery, and drug and human trafficking. They are violent for the sake of violence. Simple extermination is indicated. It is strongly suspected that many MS-13 members currently in the United States also populate the DACA rolls, and are welfare recipients.
The early gang members were mostly Salvadorans, but today the “membership” consists of other Central Americans, Mexicans, and some South Americans. The gang is active throughout North and Central America, and to a lesser degree in parts of South America, and now has tentacles in Spain. Members have been known to carry out missions for at least two Mexican drug cartels. The gang is estimated to number about 10,000 nationwide in the US, and around 70,000 internationally.
MS-13’s drug and human trafficking activities appear to be centered in and around Houston, Texas, primarily as a stopover and transfer point. Gang members are active throughout the US, but primarily in metropolitan areas of California, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. New York’s Long Island has become something of an epicenter for MS-13 activity, several gang rapes and mutilation murders there being attributed to the gang, so much so that President Trump recently visited the area to inspect removal efforts by Immigration Customs Enforcement agents.
Allowed to grow virtually ignored and unchecked during the Obama administration, MS-13 and other Latino gangs, as well as those of other ethnicities, are only now, 16 into the Trump administration’s no-nonsense enforcement policies, beginning to feel the wrath of federal, state, and local law enforcement. Increasing numbers of them are being either arrested and criminally charged, or arrested and deported. Their prospects for future growth have become considerably narrowed, despite the apparent sympathy of the Democrat Party.
With continued Trump-inspired and backed law enforcement pressure, with gang-member deportations now in the thousands, MS-13 will likely seek greener pastures, south of the border or, more likely, in “sanctuary cities,” while they’re still tolerated. We may even encourage them to migrate to Canada in larger numbers.
