page_title: Crime in El Salvador
section_title: Gangs
hierarchical_section_title: Crime in El Salvador / Gangs
caption_attribution_description: English: An MS-13 suspect bearing gang tattoos is handcuffed.
context_page_description: Organized crime in El Salvador is a serious problem. Efforts to understand or deal with this phenomenon in the small Central American country have been insufficient.
  There are an estimated 25,000 gang members at large in El Salvador; another 9,000 are in prison. The best-known gangs, called maras in colloquial Salvadoran Spanish, are Mara Salvatrucha and their rivals 18th Street; maras are hunted by death squads, including Sombra Negra. Newer rivals include the rising mara, The Rebels 13. Criminal youth gangs dominate life in El Salvador; an estimation of at least 60,000 young people belong to gangs. It one of the three countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America, along with neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, which are all afflicted with high levels of violence.
  In 2012, El Salvador saw a 41% drop in crime compared to 2011 figures due to what the Salvadoran government called a gang truce. In early 2012, there were an average of 16 killings per day, but in late March that number dropped to fewer than five per day, and on April 14, 2012, for the first time in over three years, there were no killings in the country.
context_section_description: M-18 and MS-13 are the largest and most notorious in El Salvador. M-18 is also known as 18th Street and M-13 as Mara Salvatrucha. M-18 was formed in the 1960s by Mexican-American youth in the Rampart neighborhood of Los Angeles, California."  The 18th Street gang, originating in Los Angeles, has proliferated in San Salvador. The Mara Salvatrucha is a rival gang.
caption: An MS-13 suspect bearing gang tattoos is handcuffed.
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