La Mano Dura
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La Mano Dura ("Firm Hand" or "Iron Fist") is a set of tough-on-crime policies put in place by the Salvadoran government in response to the problem of gang violence. These policies were put in place in response to popular calls for the government to do something about the problem of rampant crime. La Mano Dura policies have come under criticism due to human rights concerns.
Policy
Gang violence became an increasingly difficult problem for El Salvador in the 1990s and early 2000s, in the wake of the country's civil war. During that war, hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans fled to the United States, many of them settling in Los Angeles. It was in southern California that the two largest Central American gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Calle 18, were formed. After the end of the Salvadoran Civil War, the United States began deporting thousands of arrested gang members. This brought street gangs to El Salvador; the two gangs quickly became the largest criminal organizations in the country.[1] The country's murder rate increased to 139 per 100,000 people in 1995, making El Salvador one of the most violent countries in the world.
In 2003, President
These policies were largely kept in place when the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) won the presidency in 2009. In 2010, President Mauricio Funes responded to a series of attacks on bus passengers by suspected gang members by criminalizing gang affiliation and deploying 2,800 soldiers to assist the national police in fighting the gangs. The Anti-Gang Law of 2010 made "any legal act performed as part of a gang's criminal activity by its members or others on its behalf unlawful" and established a series of stiff penalties for gang-related crimes and activities, ranging from three to twenty years imprisonment.[3] In addition to gang suppression, the Funes administration put in place a series of programs known as Mano Amiga ("Helping Hand"), which included "social prevention, law enforcement, rehabilitation, victim support, and institutional and legal reforms".[2] These programs were praised for their timely interventions in communities previously neglected by the government, though were critiqued for being underfunded.
Effects and controversy
One of the main effects of the Mano Dura policy was an increase in El Salvador's prison population. It is estimated that between 2004 and 2008, the number of incarcerated gang members doubled, increasing from 4,000 to 8,000. This has led to a major problem of
La Mano Dura met initial success in reducing the country's homicide rate, with a 14% drop in murders in 2004. That success was short-lived, however, as the murder rate increased to 64.7 per 100,000 people by 2006. Murder rates remained well above 2003 levels until 2012, when a truce was brokered between the MS-13 and Calle 18 gangs.[6]
La Mano Dura has come under criticism both for its perceived failure at reducing violent crime in the country and over human-rights concerns. State security forces have at times been accused of committing extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members.[4] The arbitrary nature of many arrests of gang members has also raised concerns. Furthermore, some critics have been unnerved by the use of the military in police operations, given the country's commitment to keep civilian and military affairs separate following its civil war.[1] Finally, in 2004 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child condemned Mano Dura. Despite these criticisms and the failure of La Mano Dura to reduce El Salvador's homicide rate, the policy remains very popular amongst the Salvadoran population.[1]
References
- ^ S2CID 144984287.
- ^ a b Wolf, Sonja. "Mano Dura: Gang Suppression in El Salvador". Sustainable Security. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ^ a b "El Salvador Gang Violence" (PDF). Law Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ^ a b "El Salvador 2013 Human Rights Report" (PDF). State Department. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ^ a b Dudley, Steven (22 November 2010). "How 'Mano Dura' Is Strengthening Gangs". InSight Crime. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ^ Allison, Mike. "Homicide Statistics in Central America". Retrieved 11 December 2015.