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Violence is not something external to the societies in which it takes place. Its form, its
intensity is directly linked to the economic, social, political and also technological
possibilities.
The spread of the Mara Salvatrucha (also known as Mara 13) from a Los Angeles based
Salvadoran street gang to a  transnational organisation
during the 1990ies offers an example of how contemporary forms of violence are influenced
by one of the major processes of our time, which is globalisation. Members who were sent
back to Salvador exported the US gang organisation and gang culture to central America.
After reading the introduction text below you will have to watch to short films on the Mara 13 and complete a test.
"MS-13 got started in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadorans fleeing a civil war. Many of
the kids grew up surrounded by violence (...). When [they] reached the mean streets of the
L.A. ghetto, Mexican gangs preyed on them. The newcomers' response: to band together in
a mara, or "posse," composed of salvatruchas, or "street-tough Salvadorans" (the "13" is
a gang number associated with southern California). [In 1992, after the end of the
Salvadoran civil war], the gang's ranks grew, adding former paramilitaries [who fled
their country] with weapons training and a taste for atrocity. MS-13 eventually adopted
a variety of rackets, from extortion to drug trafficking. When law enforcement cracked
down and deported planeloads of members, the deportees quickly created MS-13 outposts
in El Salvador and neighbouring countries like Honduras and Guatemala.
It's considered the fastest-growing, most violent and least understood of the nation's
street gangs-in part because U.S. law enforcement has not been watching as closely as it
might have. As authorities have focused their attention on the war against terrorism,
MS-13 has proliferated. In the FBI's D.C. field office, the number of agents dedicated
to gang investigations declined by 50 percent. "There was a definite shift in resources
post-9/11 toward terrorism," says Michael Mason, assistant director in charge of that
office. "As a result, we had fewer resources to focus on gangs." " (Campo-Flores et al. 2005)
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