On October 9, the Salvadoran legislature approved a controversial anti-gang law that has raised alarm among human rights and civil liberties advocates. The new anti-gang law was narrowly passed by the right-wing coalition led by the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party. The leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and other center-left parties firmly opposed the measure.
Under the new law, the punishment for belonging to a gang is two to five years in prison. Opponents of the law cite its disturbingly ambiguous language. It identifies gang members, for example, as those who: belong to a group that meets regularly, claim territory for their group, use signs or symbols to identify themselves or mark their bodies with scars or tattoos. An individual who meets any of those criteria is subject to arrest.
The new measure provides the legal support for the government’s anti-gang Mano Dura (Heavy Hand) Plan introduced by President Francisco Flores in a July 23 address to the nation. Mano Dura initiated a crackdown on gang-related activity by authorizing hundreds of members of the armed forces to work with the National Civilian Police to "free" communities being "held hostage" by gang violence. In his justification for the militarization, Flores blamed the scale of the gang problem on the dismantling of military security forces at the end of the civil war in 1992. In the same declaration, Flores expressed his intention to use "all necessary measures" to control the gang population and to not allow gang members, especially minors, to "shield themselves behind their rights."
Opposition parties criticize the use of dangerous and repressive measures to combat a social problem that demands a more comprehensive approach. Some legislators have compared it to declaring a "war on young people," and speculate that, without complementary measures to treat the root causes of gang violence, the plan will generate even more violence.
The law, approved as a temporary measure, will be in effect for six months, a period coinciding with the final days of the Flores administration. The crackdown is widely recognized as a strategy of the ruling ARENA party to garner support for the upcoming March 2004 presidential elections.
El Salvador is not alone in allowing heavily armed soldiers to police poor neighborhoods. Similar operations are being used in Honduras and Guatemala, as police representatives from across Central America work together on a coordinated campaign to use military force to combat the threat of gang violence.
In less than three months, the Mano Dura Plan has resulted in more than 3,000 arrests, the majority of which appear to be arbitrary roundups of youth with characteristics of gang affiliation. Of those arrested, approximately 80% have been released due to lack of evidence.
Many in the criminal justice system have asserted that the anti-gang law, as written, violates constitutional guarantees and cannot be upheld in court. Nonetheless, the law provides the police with sweeping powers of discretion to persecute and capture supposed gang members.
Conservative sectors of society argue in support of sacrificing the rights of "criminals and delinquents" in order to protect the rights of "upstanding, honorable citizens." Yet the president’s plan has drawn strong criticism from diverse groups for its failure to address the many social and economic factors that lead youth to join gangs.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelly Creedon is the Communications Coordinator for CRISPAZ, Christians for Peace in El Salvador. For more information about CRISPAZ, visit http://www.crispaz.org.
