Ever since the truce between the El Salvadoran government and the country’s gangs deteriorated, violence and murder have erupted, reported the Guardian. This is exactly the sort of thing that Donald Trump uses to fuel his hateful speech against Hispanics.
Sunday, August 16, began as the most violent day this year in El Salvador with 40 murders. The next day, there were 42 murders. On Tuesday, there were 43 murders. Compared to three years ago, the murder rate has at least doubled just for the month of August. In 2015, 3,830 people have been murdered in El Salvador.
“This country is bleeding and it urgently needs a tourniquet,” says Raul Mijango, a former Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrilla, who was a key mediator in the truce. “Now we have a war between the state and the gangs.”
Two of the world’s most violent gangs are based in El Salvador, Mara Salvatrucha (known as MS-13) and Barrio 18. However, these gangs weren’t conceived in El Salvador, per se. The El Salvadoran civil war displaced thousands and many ended up in Los Angeles. When the war ended in 1992, thousands were deported back to El Salvador and brought the LA gang culture with them. MS-13 and Barrio 18 were born out of American gang culture.
Despite this fact, Trump says that Latin American gang violence is an independent problem that has infected America. On the contrary, America’s violent culture caught on in Latin countries and grew from there.
