Powerful images capture tattooed gangsters of El Salvador’s M-18 street gang in one of world’s deadliest regions
On the streets or in overcrowded jails, they run extortion rackets, sell drugs, kidnap and kill
ARMED to the teeth and resigned to dying a violent death, these are some of the toughest gangsters in the world.
Extraordinary pictures taken by photojournalist Jan Sochor starkly evoke brutalised lives in one of the most deadliest places in the world that is not at war.
During the last two decades, the impoverished central American country of El Salvador has become the deadliest region in the world that is not at war.
According to the UN statistics, more people per capita were killed here than in war-torn Iraq, in recent years.
Due to the criminal activities of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street Gang (M-18), the two major street gangs in El Salvador, the country has fallen into the spiral of fear, violence and death.
Thousands of Mara gang members, both on the streets or in the overcrowded prisons, organise and run extortion rackets, deal drugs and kidnap for ransom.
Tattooed armed young men, mainly from the poorest neighbourhoods, fight unmerciful turf battles with their coevals from the rival gang, balancing between life and death every day.
Twenty years after the devastating civil war, a social war has paralysed the nation of El Salvador.
The Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in the Pico-Union neighbourhood of Los Angeles in the 1980s during the devastating crack epidemic that plagued US cities during the period.
Initially, it is claimed the gang aimed to safeguard Salvadoran immigrants from more established LA gangs.
But the outfit became the worst criminal clique of all.
Many members were deported back to El Salvador after being arrested in LA.
Yet the gang has a presence all over the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America.
There are conflicting versions of how the Mara Salvatrucha got their name.
A common explanation is that “Mara” means “gang” in Spanish, “Salva” for El Salvador and “trucha” is slang for “staying alert”.
The 18th Street gang came from the Rampart district of LA.
But these days it has grown into an international criminal organisation with hundreds of autonomous gangs.
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