empower latin america: background
Since the 1980s Central America has been plagued by civil war, atrocities, disappearances, politics between the USA and communist USSR, genocide, and in later times gross corruption, weather catastrophes, and of course extreme gang violence. This has culminated in many areas particularly within El Salvador and Honduras not being under the full control of their respective governments. These two countries, along with Guatemala make up a zone that is one of the world’s most violent regions. Nor does it help that they are transit points between South American drug cartels and North America.
Corruption is rife. As an example, in April 2022 the past president of Honduras was extradited from the capital, Tegucigalpa to the USA to stand trial for narco-trafficking on a massive scale.
The two main gangs in Central America are MS-13 and Barrio 18. MS-13 is said to be the largest transnational gang in the world and the world's most violent. Commonly these gangs extort shop owners and threaten to kill - willing and ready to carry it out - if they are not paid accordingly. They will use young people as lookouts and to count the number of people that go inside a shop during a certain time period so that the gang can calculate how much to extort a shop owner. Children are used to traffic drugs, carry guns and, even to murder. Normally it would appear that children (up until the age of 12) are left alone by the gangs. But then after that, they will be targeted by gangs for membership.
In many cases, the Central American gangs were formed in Los Angeles back in the 1980s at a time when many Salvadoran young men were fleeing civil war in their home country. They took their traumas and experiences with them and then while being bullied and harassed by various L.A based gangs, decided to form their own unions. Then, as they were expelled from the USA and sent back to El Salvador, they simply transferred their gangs there. This was not particularly difficult because large swathes of El Salvador were still relatively uncontrolled by the new and weak government.
It is in this setting that Empower Asia Latin America has decided to embark on this new ministry