The Salvadoran Gang Truce: How Gangs Reduced Homicide Levels with Sate Consent

• In Event: The Unusual Suspects: Agents, Activities, and Agendas of the State in Insecure Spaces

Abstract

In March 2012, the Salvadoran government brokered a ceasefire between the country’s two largest gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and the Barrio Dieciocho, embarking on a new security plan that cut homicide rates in half, potentially leading to a breakthrough in a protracted and seemingly endless gang conflict. My research explores the gang truce that was in effect in El Salvador from 2012 to 2014, during the Funes administration, by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with gang members in prison and on the street. This paper aims to answer two questions: why was the truce possible and how did it unfold? More specifically, what external political conditions allowed the gangs to assume the role of allies of the state in violence reduction, and what factors internal to the gangs allowed them to deliver—for a time—on the truce’s promises? This research ultimately explores how gangs evolved to become pivotal political actors in El Salvador.

Author

• Rafael Gude