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California Gangs Are an International Problem

Chismes de Mi Gallinero:

California Gangs Are an International Problem

By Julio C. Calderon

            Right about now this essay would focus on California’s special election, however, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already won. He made his opponents for nect year blow more than $150-million on this election. Union members are going to have to pony up a lot of their paychecks for next year’s elections. My thoughts were diverted after a recent trip through Pelican Bay State Prison. This is the most secure institution in the nation because it houses 3,500 of the state’s worst and meanest inmates. They are the upper echelon of the gangs like the Mexican Mafia and Nuestra Familia, as well as a few Mara Salvatrucha (MS13).

            Now, this may provide some fuel for those who want the military to close our borders, but, never-the-less, was need to pay attention to those stealing our youth.

            Prison gangs in California were born out of necessity of self-preservation. The Mexican Mafia (La EME) born in southern California prisons and La Nuestra Familia, born in northern California, were both formed to protect Mexican American inmates from African American and White inmates. The third, MaraSalvatrucha (MS13) was created in Los Angeles to protect immigrants from San Salvador from Mexican American street gangs, as more and more people left San Salvador after a civil war.  These groups, however, changed their original missions once they gained numbers and power.

            Although much has been written about the three gangs, there is a common thread that, at least esoterically, ties them together.  The binding force is their use of violence and the viciousness of the violence they leave in their wake. They have gone from self-preservation to crime syndicates, and their propensity for violence is their control over their growth and management of corporation-like structures that reach right down to the street gang level.

            The gangs’ reach to communities comes from the indoctrination of inmates as they are to be released on parole. Some these parolee gang members leave with instructions to kill, while others have been groomed for business organization. Still other, those with holds from immigration authorities; those who are to be deported, leave with contacts in the country of origin, like Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and El Salvador.

            The California Correctional system has been responsible for exporting gangs to Latin American countries. Once provided free transportation home by the federal government, these men go on to form their own gangs or join existing gangs with ties to the original three gangs in California. These gangs, like MS13, then send their soldiers back across the borders, illegally, to the United States, and more recently, to Canada.

The MS13, so not to compete with La Eme or La Familia, or existing gangs with statewide influence in states like Arizona or New Mexico, have sought out areas in the United States that do not have major gangs, and they establish themselves as the new rulers in those states.

Merely deporting inmates with immigration holds and leaving them for local authorities to deal with, more needs to be done in terms of international gang information systems to track these people better.

Hardcore gang members identify themselves through their tattoos. Some are quite obvious; they tattoo their gang logos on arm, neck, and even their faces. The MS13 members are the most decorated.  There are those, however, the ones groomed for business that are not so visible.  They are trained to blend into their communities and be able to conduct business in legitimate circles, here and abroad.

The latter are the ones the have established sophisticated and complex communications and banking systems.  The street drug vendor pays his/her dues to sell drugs in their area and some of their take ends up in prison bank accounts. That is how detailed the gang structures are developed. Prison gangs, like La Eme, have been documented as allied to the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia on the east coast; they honor each other’s codes and territories.

The impact of these gangs on local communities is devastating.  The cost is measured in human lives.  These are people killed by gang members, either other gang members or a child standing to close to a brother or father. The cost is in the spread of drug use, and the lives of young people recruited by these gangs.

The international issue becomes more complicated in that recruitment is easier in some of these poverty stricken countries.  There is a lure of money…big money.  There the new members are trained to sell and organize.  They are taught to establish trade routes, small scale in a city area, or internationally, learning routes to smuggle drugs and weapons into and out of the United States.

The exportation and illegal importation of gang members in an international issue that needs addressing by the federal governments of the most effected countries in the North American continent and Central America to break the recycling rings that move gang members throughout.

 Julio C. Calderon is a former television journalist and is an information officer for the State of California.  His “Chismes de mi Gallinero’ has contributed numerous essays to HispanicVista(www.hispanicvista.com).  He can be reached at latsac2000@earthlink.com, and welcomes your comments. Reprint at will, just let him know you do.