Consolidate State control in “The Mara Salvatrucha (Salvatrucha gang)” territory: Lessons from community work in high-risk communities

Abstract

This article presents the second part of a more extensive investigation of the San Jose del Pino and the San Rafael community of the Municipality of Santa Tecla, a high risk area that for several years was under the control of Mara Salvatrucha. The establishment in 2012 of a community police office in the community laid the basis for a peace process. This combined with several additional benefits in terms of security, public services and development and reintegration programs for the local population, which included youth in risk and gang members. The State has been able to regain social and territorial control in the area. However, changes in public security strategies and dynamics among the different actors in the territory, during the context of the presidential elections in 2014 and municipality elections in 2015, generated other impacts on the state’s recovery efforts. There are indications of new expressions of gang violence and, despite the permanent presence of the Police in the community, it has been observed that the gang still maintains its own system of territorial control. Deficits in public security, in public services and in the legitimacy of the State, also favor the social control of this structure in the area.