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24 July 2007
U.S.-Central American Cooperation Focuses on Fighting Gangs
Stopping gang violence part of U.S. security plan for region
Washington -- Regional cooperation among Central America, Mexico and the United States is focusing on a new strategy to counter gang-related violence and develop programs that encourage young people not to join gangs.
Christy McCampbell, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, told USINFO July 23 that the anti-gang strategy is part of an overall security plan for Central America and Mexico being developed jointly by the United States and the countries involved in the region.
McCampbell said gangs and gang-related crime are considered a “significant security threat” by the U.S. and Central American governments.
“The problem is very serious,” she said, involving extortion and homicide in Central America and criminal activities in the United States.
McCampbell said a July 18 conference in Guatemala of the Central American Integration System (SICA) pointed out that gang-related violence poses social and economic threats and threatens the region’s interest in “preserving stable democracies with free and vibrant economies.” She added, however, that “there is a tendency of the media to sensationalize gang crime.”
She said several U.S. agencies -- the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the departments of Justice and Homeland Security -- all have programs that address different aspects of the anti-gang strategy, involving diplomacy, reintegration of former gang members into society, law enforcement, “enhancing the capacity of partner countries and preventing youth from joining gangs.”
Thomas Shannon, the State Department’s assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, announced the “Strategy to Combat Criminal Gangs from Central America and Mexico” during the SICA conference. SICA was established in 1991 to develop common policies and strategies for Central America.
The anti-gang strategy calls for regional cooperation to improve the process for returning deportees who have entered the United States illegally, including gang members, and where feasible, for helping returned gang members become productive members of their communities.
In addition, regional police and justice officials will collaborate to track down criminal gang members through a new Central American Fingerprinting Exploitation Initiative and through joint law enforcement efforts such as a new Transnational Anti-Gang Unit in El Salvador. The fingerprinting plan will help Central American nations acquire fingerprints of violent criminals who have eluded capture by slipping across international borders and put them into a computerized system searchable by law enforcement.
The Central America-wide effort follows on a U.S.-El Salvador joint plan, announced in February 2007, to help identify and prosecute the most dangerous Salvadoran gang members. At that time, President Bush also unveiled a $150 million initiative to help at-risk youth in the United States avoid gang influence and involvement. (See related article.)
As part of the U.S. interagency effort, USAID is providing for community policing, “reinsertion” of gang members into society and anti-gang prevention programs through SICA.
The State and Justice departments are collaborating on the pilot projects for fingerprinting and the Transnational Gangs Unit. These are part of a regional gangs program that will be implemented in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The State Department is supporting an innovative “model precinct” in a suburb of Guatemala City that has improved community policing and cut gang crime. Many gang members arrested under this project have been involved in street-level drug distribution.
USAID issued an April 2006 report warning that gang activity has “evolved into a transnational concern that demands a coordinated, multinational response to effectively combat increasingly sophisticated gang networks,” such as the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street (Barrio 18) gangs that now appear in communities throughout the United States, Mexico and Central America. (See related article.)
The State Department said in a July 18 fact sheet that accompanied a statement announcing the anti-gang strategy that criminal gangs pose a threat to the “security and stability of the communities in which they operate.” Gang members, the department said, “move with impunity across borders, and gang violence threatens fragile democracies.”
During his March visit to Central America and Mexico, President Bush said the gang problem had to be dealt with through a regional strategy.
Gangs “are able to move throughout Central America and up through Mexico into our own country, and therefore, we've got to think regionally and act regionally,” Bush said at a March 12 news conference in Guatemala City.
Sharing information and increasing communications among the countries involved, Bush added, is important to help track down gang members and develop effective ways to protect children from gangs. “There's a lot of work to be done, but it first starts with making a sincere commitment to addressing the problem,” he said.
For more information, see the State Department release and fact sheet on gangs and the Bush news conference.
More about SICA is available (in Spanish) on the group’s Web site.
Additional information about gangs in Central America and Mexico is available on the USAID Web site.
