Link to article: https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-guatemala-nayib-bukele-el-salvador-d6522eb02610fe8a41ebee9e4a74aadd
A Salvadoran gang leader, Eduardo Pérez alias ‘Scooby’ has been returned to El Salvadro by Guatemalan authorities after fleeing his home country in October. A warrant for Pérez’s arrest has been in place since 2009 for alleged homicides, but it was not until his gang Mara Salvatrucha ordered a wave of violence that ended with 62 dead and a massive government crackdown that he fled the country. Guatemalan authorities found Pérez in a hospital, arrested him, and returned him to El Salvador. The president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele tweeted about Pérez’s capture, saying “here the country is respected.” In accordance with the President’s assertion 58,000 people have been arrested for suspected gang activity in the government crackdown, and some constitutional rights have been suspended.
This situation shows massive government action pertaining to the issue of gang activity in the country of El Salvador. To my knowledge, violence related to gangs or similar groups has been an issue in the past in this country and many others, so the capture of a notorious gang leader and the arrests of thousands reflects steps to crack down on this violence by the government in El Salvador following a tragedy. For the region and those living there, it might mean some kind of cooperation between authorities to capture the perpetrators of the violence that has occurred, and to band together to address the issue, as shown with the cooperation between El Salvador and Guatemalan authorities in this situation. In addition, it was fairly surprising to hear that some rights had been taken away from Salvadorans. In this country, rights are guaranteed, no matter what they are or the circumstances involved, so for a government crack down on gangs to lead to limited rights was a bit shocking and will no doubt leave an impact on the country and its citizens.
The elements of this specific scenario that have been discussed in class include the fluidity of alliances and different types of actors and the power they hold. The alliances between governments used in this scenario to catch a gang leader demonstrate how states work together to accomplish common goals, such as ending gang violence. It was in each countries’ best interest to carry out the actions they did: El Salvador wanted a violent man to be imprisoned in the country, and Guatemala wanted a dangerous criminal out of their territory and unable to create issues there. The power in this situation lies in the hands of the government, and to some extent, the gangs. The government has made lots of arrests, stripped rights, and made efforts to stop gang violence, and the gangs have caused this behavior by acting in harmful ways. Both have power in this situation, and there is an interplay between the two when both influence the people and the policy.
