El Salvador is arresting thousands of people for violating its COVID-19 quarantine, further packing a ‘hellish’ penal system once described as a ‘petri dish’ for infectious disease.
A new Human Rights Watch report finds many Salvadoran deportees are killed once home, often by the gangs they fled. Rampant impunity means El Salvador can’t protect vulnerable people from violence.
Trump officials plan to send asylum seekers from the US to El Salvador while their claims are processed. That would expose these vulnerable people to grave dangers, says a political violence expert.
Naomi Roht-Arriaza, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
Conservative Alejandro Giammattei beat former first lady Sandra Torres with 60% of the vote. But turnout was the lowest in Guatemala’s modern history, in apparent protest of both candidates.
Anthony W. Fontes, American University School of International Service
Thousands of Central American migrants are trying to cross the U.S. southern border. One scholar followed their paths to find out why they make the dangerous, sometimes deadly, journey.
Dennis Rodgers, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)
Imaginaries of gangs as inherent forms of brutal anarchy promote particular political agendas and obscure the ways gangs can reveal the underlying dynamics of the contexts within which they emerge.
Immigration experts explain who’s really trying to cross the US-Mexico border, what they want — and why immigration, even undocumented immigration, actually benefits the country.
Anthony W. Fontes, American University School of International Service
MS-13 is not the biggest or most violent gang in the US. But its grisly murders and Latino membership inflame Americans’ anxiety about immigration. GOP campaign ads stoke those fears to attack Democrats.
The leader of the United States has made immigrants the new face of a threatening “Other,” a primitive savage who has many of the features of the “Indians” of the American frontier myth.
How city and state governments identify and keep records of suspected gang members can be problematic. Good data are essential to addressing violent crime across the US.
Some 200 Central Americans who fled violence at home want to apply for asylum in the US. Trump says they’re ‘not welcome.’ Here, key info on the ‘caravan’ to the US-Mexico border.
Trump justice officials portray the Salvadoran gang MS-13 as a powerful drug cartel staffed with criminal undocumented immigrants. That’s a dangerous mistake if you actually want to prevent violence.
Corruption, not gang warfare, is the root cause of the record violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Until public officials stop shielding criminal groups like MS-13, lawlessness will reign.