Maras Gangs

This paper discusses the dynamics of the gang-crime-terrorism continuum and its relationship to ”generations of warfare” within the contemporary spectrum of conflict. The focus is to explore the potential for gang-terrorist interaction in the current and emerging conflict environment. The concepts of third generation street gangs (3G2), netwar, and fourth generation warfare (4GW) are applied to investigate the typologies and relationships of third generation street gangs and terrorist groups.

This article will briefly summarize the country’s current state of affairs
both in general (politics, economics, society, etc.) and religious terms. We will then highlight case studies of positive examples of Christian life among the country’s inhabitants. Finally, we will explore what the Salvadoran church can learn from global Christianity, and vice-versa.

En el presente artículo se hace una breve reseña de la situación actual del país, tanto en aspectos generales (política, economía, sociedad, etc.), como en términos religiosos. Posteriormente, se visibilizan casos de estudio donde se ejemplifica el buen actuar cristiano de algunos de sus habitantes. Por último, se elabora un análisis acerca de lo que la iglesia salvadoreña debe aprender del cristianismo global, así como de lo que la iglesia global debería tomar en cuenta del cristianismo salvadoreño.

Los educadores y los educandos, ahora sí, tienen en esta obra la información y las opiniones que les pueden ayudar —sobre todo a las nuevas generaciones de salvadoreños y salvadoreñas— a concebir opiniones novedosas y más justas para la gran mayoría del pueblo, manipulado y engañado con imágenes falsas e interpretaciones interesadas de la realidad, por quienes siempre han querido perpetuar privilegios abusivos e injustos, que le niegan un futuro digno al ciudadano marginado por la pobreza y la ignorancia.

Traditional street gangs have focused on a narrow slice of violence. Primarily turf-oriented, they operate under loose leadership, with ill-defined roles and a focus on loyalty and turf protections. These "first generation" or "turf" gangs are limited in political scope. They are localized and not highly sophisticated. In terms of their position in emerging conflict, they are proto-net warriors. The more entrepreneurial, drug- centered gang emerges as a "second generation" type. "Second generation" gangs are more cohesive, with greater centralization of leadership. Drug-selling becomes a group rather than an individual activity. Drug gangs use violence to control their competition and assume a market rather than a turf orientation. They may embrace a broader political agenda (albeit market- focused), operate in a broader (sometimes multi-State) context, and conduct more sophisticated operations. The emerging phenomenon of the "third generation" street gang is a mercenary- type group with goals of power or financial acquisition and a set of fully evolved political aims. Third generation gangs operate at the global end of the spectrum and are more sophisticated in nature. This type of gang may embrace either quasi-terrorism or true terrorism to advance its influence; Such gangs are net warriors who challenge the nation-state. To date, no gang falls squarely into the third generation categorization, although some gangs are moving along the three spectra of politicization, internationalization, and sophistication toward that end.

The last three decades Central America has been living on the terror of violence. The crime led by the gangs has been seen as a potential insurgency and as a cause of political instability. The way we understand the gangs’ role in the region will determine all the planning process of public policies, but also on the execution of them. Determine the causes for the rise of street gangs in Central America over the past decades will allow us to establish the strategy, testing policies and starts developing the new tactics that will be use to change the environment that makes likely the generation of gangs in the region. The extermination of all the causes that are leaving gangsters to win the hearts and minds of the youth, will enable us to do better, only then we will stop doing without knowing (Per-Olof H. Wikström 2007). The main causes found by policy makers and scholars are: social inequality, lack of rule of law, bad economic performances, Mexican cartels in the region, and terrible living conditions in certain urban areas.

After nearly a hundred years of debate and analysis, the gang concept remains hotly contested within the social sciences. Once thought to be an exclusively American phenomenon, the study of gangs has become increasingly global over the last several decades. Countries from every world region have observed the emergence of gangs and gang-like groups. In some of these places, gangs resemble their American counterparts while in others they not only engage in  petty crime and drug trafficking but targeted assassinations, corruption of public officials, and racketeering as well. These activities make them less like the delinquent youth groups they were once conceived as and more akin to organized crime. In less stable and violent contexts still, gangs have even been incorporated into ethnic militias, rebel groups, and paramilitaries or have taken on a more vigilante ethos by combating violence and providing some semblance of order. The remarkable proliferation of the gang form over the last several decades and the incredible variation in the phenomenon across the globe requires a reassessment of the gang concept.
In the limited literature which focuses on the study of gangs cross-nationally, there have been several conceptualizations proposed. Some scholars have attempted to separate smaller street gangs from a variety of other related phenomena: prison gangs, drug gangs, and organized crime. They have done so by crafting a more restrictive concept. However, while separating street gangs from other criminal groups may make sense in the American or European context, it applies less well to other parts of the globe where such organizational forms have become thoroughly integrated thus blurring these traditional conceptual boundaries. On the other hand, some scholars have advocated for a conceptual framework which captures the transformative nature of gangs and encompasses any and all types of gangs and gang-like groups. Such an evolutionary framework fails, however, to distinguish between gangs and a huge variety of criminal and political non-state armed groups which share little in terms of their origins, motivations, or activities. The best conceptualization, this author argues, is a minimal one that incorporates gangs and many gang-like groups but avoids conceptual stretching to include virtually all non-state armed groups. Ultimately, contemporary scholars of gangs within any national context must be increasingly attentive to the global dimensions of the gang organizational form and the various overlapping and multi-faceted relationships they maintain with a variety of other  non-state armed groups.

En El Salvador el fenómeno de las Maras, estructuras sociales que efectúan numerosos actos delincuenciales conectados con diversas formas de violencia, ha sido una temática de investigación desde su surgimiento desde la década de 1990. No obstante, abordajes sobre diversidad sexual y sus posibles conexiones con las Maras es una relación no explorada por las ciencias sociales. Esta comunicación se propone identificar las relaciones que existen entre las personas lésbicas, gays, bisexuales, transexuales (LGBT) y las Maras en El Salvador.
El tipo de metodología que se utilizó fue la exploratoria y bibliográfica. Esta situación se debe a que no existen fuentes bibliográficas que investiguen stricto sensu esta temática previamente. Se recurrió a entrevistas a activistas LGBT y a la revisión documental de informes de violencia contra personas LGBT que registran actos de violencia atribuidos a miembros de las Maras.
Al ser un proceso de investigación sobre un fenómeno no discutido con amplitud y recordando las palabras de Foucault los procesos judiciales son una fuente de información extremadamente útil para localizar el surgimiento de nuevas subjetividades. En tal sentido se procedió a localizar procesos penales en los que existía un cruce entre alguna identidad LGBT y algún miembro de las Maras. Se analizaron 14 relatos jurídicos que proporcionaron información de relevancia para esta investigación.
Entre las normas de las maras destaca la no aceptación de homosexuales. Esta norma responde al ideal de “Macho” que marca las relaciones de género y sexualidad al interior de las Maras. Esto se traduce en la utilización de la violencia como vía hegemónica para construir una masculinidad machista en los miembros de las Maras, en que se presenta un rechazo total a cualquier expresión de género u orientación sexual fuera del patrón binario heterosexual. No obstante, con la utilización de los relatos jurídicos y entrevistas, se confirmó la existencia de personas LGBT al interior de las Maras.
Para cerrar, como resultado de la investigación se obtiene que las estructuras de poder integradas por hombres en las Maras reproducen y amplifican el machismo, el patriarcado y la homofobia. Utilizan la violencia como dispositivo de control y castigo para los cuerpos de los integrantes o no de las Maras que pretendan cuestionar el sistema de subordinación de género de lo masculino sobre lo femenino o al que trasgreda el sistema heterosexual.
Entre la penalización violenta por una parte y las fronteras porosas por otra, las vivencias de prácticas sexuales diferentes a la norma heterosexual existen al interior de las Maras. Sin embargo, en la ejecución de una economía política de la violencia por parte de las Maras, ninguna persona LGTB está exenta de padecer violencia física, sexual u homicida en El Salvador.

LAS PANDILLAS transnacionales se han convertido en una real preocupación a través del hemisferio Occidental. Las pandillas criminales callejeras han evolucionado hasta el punto de crear amenazas a la seguridad pública y privada tanto en vecindarios, áreas metropolitanas, naciones y en las zonas fronterizas. Tales pandillas—conocidas como maras—no son sólo pandillas callejeras sino que se han transformado a través de tres generaciones debido a sus interacciones con otras pandillas y organizaciones transnacionales de crimen organizado (por ejemplo los carteles de narcóticos) en complejas redes de amenazas.  El presente artículo analiza la evolución y la situación actual de las pandillas transnacionales en América Central, con un enfoque en las pandillas MS-13 y M-18. Explora asimismo brevemente las estrategias contra pandillas que han sido empleadas y las futuras potenciales amenazas. Es esencialmente un informe situacional acerca de las pandillas de tercera generación en América Central. Incluye además antecedentes del nexos de Los Ángeles (LA), y la migración transnacional pandillera, en el contexto de los estudios de las pandillas de tercera generación.

Questo libro racconta una città e la sua struttura spaziale condizionata dalla dimensione della violenza. La città in questione è la capitale del Guatemala, paese centroamericano la cui storia affonda le radici in un passato di divisioni etniche e sociali culminate in un conflitto armato interno, iniziato nel 1960 e terminato trentasei anni dopo. La violenza è quella delle mara, le gang centroamericane. O meglio, è quell'elemento sfaccettato le cui pratiche e i cui discorsi si sono coagulati negli ultimi anni intorno al fenomeno del banditismo giovanile. Le gang rappresentano, in questo lavoro, un punto d'accesso per interpretare criticamente Città del Guatemala e, più in generale, per pensare alla "città segregata" fuori dagli stereotipi e da un punto di vista innovativo. Tra il 2008 e il 2013 l'autore vi ha trascorso più di un anno, compiendo una ricerca etnografica nelle sue periferie, in una prigione e in un quartiere residenziale di classe media. Il risultato finale suggerisce un'inversione logica: uno dei fenomeni sociali più sfruttati dall'opinione pubblica, dalla politica e dall'apparato punitivo statale per giustificare la segregazione urbana, qui è utilizzato per decostruirla e coglierne le complesse ragioni e implicazioni politiche.
"Questo lavoro, ben scritto e coinvolgente, offre al momento l'esplorazione più sofisticata e articolata sulle bande giovanili e l'insicurezza urbana in Guatemala, e costituirà sicuramente un punto di riferimento fondamentale nella letteratura sulla violenza dell'America Centrale" (Dennis Rodgers, Università di Glasgow).

Transnational gangs are a concern throughout the Western Hemisphere. Criminal street gangs have evolved to pose significant security and public safety threats in individual neighborhoods, metropolitan areas, nations, and across borders. Such gangs—widely known as maras—are no longer just street gangs. They have morphed across three generations through interactions with other gangs and transnational organized crime organizations (e.g., narcotics cartels) into complex networked threats. This article looks at the evolution and current transnational gang situation in Central America, with a focus on MS-13 and M-18. It also briefly explores counter-gang strategies that have been employed, and future threat potentials. It is essentially a situation report on third generation gangs in Central America. It also includes background on the Los Angeles (LA) nexus, and transnational gang migration, in the context of third generation gang studies.

El Barrio 18 y la Mara Salvatrucha, proliferan en contextos donde la producción de la violencia se agudiza. Las pandillas pertenecen a una realidad dominante de muerte y optan por reproducir relaciones injustas de poder. Estos conjuntos exponen la regularidad del uso de las agresiones en Guatemala, por lo tanto, los ataques que dirigen a la sociedad, las conductas intergrupales y las embestidas que les propina el Estado y algunos sectores de la población son materia de análisis. Para pensar a las clicas nos preguntamos: ¿qué fines persiguen?, ¿qué lógicas concretas explican su permanencia y cambio? y ¿qué fenómenos se asocian a su presencia? Dichas interrogantes son abordadas en este libro.

This essay briefly recounts the evolution of the gangs that occupy failed communities and states, further discusses and updates lie model of third generation street gangs discussed in an earlier Journal of Gang Research article--typically described simply as third generation gangs (3 GEN Gangs), and suggests strategies for coping with and mitigating this evolved form of gang violence. Of note is the lack of impact 3GEN Gangs studies have had on domestically focused U.S. academic gang research while, at the same time, becoming a dominant model in use by defense analysts and scholars focusing on increasingly politicized non-state threat groups including heavily armed Latin American gangs.

The focus of this dissertation is on the reintegration of youth gang members in Honduras. The aim of this qualitative research is to broaden the knowledge of reintegration processes and programs in one specific country in Central America, namely, Honduras. A sample of fourteen interviews with stakeholders in the field of maras and pandillas is being investigated and the results revealed some similarities between the different methods of reintegration. Our data suggest that a comprehensive process, including the family, school, community, and governmental support via social politics is necessary to give the youngster a platform where he can reintegrate himself into society, and refrain from committing any criminal behavior. However, most respondents agreed upon the fact that leaving a gang is very difficult and includes high risks, the most infringing being assassination. Most stakeholders call for more investment in prevention at an early stage, i.e. before a youngster gets related to a gang.

Transnational organized crime resides at the heart of nearly every major threat confronting the Americas today. These organizations systematically degrade democratic institutions and the rule of law, stunting economic growth and stifling legitimate commerce and investment. The threat of transnational organized crime in the Americas requires greater focus and investment from policymakers to effectively combat illicit trafficking networks, corrupt government officials, gang activity and violence, and the growing presence of hostile extra-regional actors such as Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah. The US government should engage with regional allies to restore the hemispheric coalition against transnational organized crime. The Trump administration can lead the way by applying asymmetrical policy tools such as targeted sanctions while also working to enhance enforcement capabilities, promote economic development, and develop counterterrorism legal frameworks in neighboring states.

An analysis of North American national defense policies and their implications on transnational and border security. Issues of migration and organized crime are also touched upon in the literature, providing readers with an greater, in-depth understanding of security problems faced by the region as a whole.

Transnational organized crime is a pressing global security issue. Mexico is currently embroiled in a protracted drug war. Mexican drug cartels and allied gangs (actually poly-crime organizations) are currently challenging states and sub-state polities (in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and beyond) to capitalize on lucrative illicit global economic markets. As a consequence of the exploitation of these global economic flows, the cartels are waging war on each other and state institutions to gain control of the illicit economy. Essentially, they are waging a 'criminal insurgency' against the current configuration of states. As such, they are becoming political, as well as economic actors. This presentation examines the dynamics of this controversial proposition. The control of territorial space -- ranging from 'failed communities' to 'failed regions' -- will be examined. The presentation will examine the exploitation of weak governance and areas (known as 'lawless zones,' 'ungoverned spaces,' 'other governed spaces,' or 'zones of impunity') where state challengers have created parallel or dual sovereignty, or 'criminal enclaves' in a neo-feudal political arrangement. The use of instrumental violence, corruption, information operations (including attacks on journalists), street taxation, and provision of social goods in a utilitarian fashion will be discussed. Finally, the dynamics of the transition of cartels and gangs into 'accidental guerrillas' and 'social bandits' will be explored through the lens of 'third generation gang' theory and 'power-counter power' relationships. This presentation will serve as a starting point for assessing the threat to security from transnational organized crime through lessons from the Mexican cartels.

Esta publicación resume la investigación que llevamos a cabo sobre violencia, y derecho a la educación en el Triángulo Norte de Centroamérica (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras) por encargo de Save the Children.
La violencia estructural, y la falta de políticas integrales y marcos protectores se convierte en un factor de expulsión de miles de niñas, niños y jóvenes del sistema educativo, vulnerando así su derecho a la educación y al mismo tiempo, otros muchos derechos humanos.

"Cruces, Rifles y Volcanes": Violencia contra mujeres y niñas en El Salvador, es el capítulo 1, del tomo II (1-54) del libro De Género y Guerra: nuevos enfoques en los conflictos armados", coordinado por Carlos Mauricio Lopez y Rocío Cachari Cachari.

En este capítulo se presenta una aproximación a la violencia basada en el género contra mujeres y niñas en la república centroamericana de El Salvador, ofreciendo cifras de varias de sus expresiones, y contextualizando el fenómeno en términos del legado de la guerra civil (1981-1992) que culminó en El Salvador con la firma de los acuerdos de paz en 1992, y de la existencia de diversas corrientes religiosas que tienen un impacto en las políticas públicas en materia de género, en especial, respecto de los derechos reproductivos.
En un país donde cada día miles de personas emigran escapando de diversas formas de violencia, que incluyen la violencia social relacionada con las maras y la violencia sexual entre otras, llamó la atención de la autora la existencia y actividad de las "defensoras de derechos humanos de las mujeres y del medio ambiente".
Estas mujeres, muchas de ellas sobrevivientes de violencia de género, en forma gratuita acompañan a otras mujeres y niñas que sufren violencia de género, y enfrentan junto con las mismas, muchos riesgos de represalias. Es por ello que, el capítulo ofrece también el trabajo empírico de la autora residiendo durante tres meses en El Salvador.

This book is a compilation of field reports from a team of citizen security experts working in the Americas. Their most recent research, presented in this report, evaluates specific instances of citizen participation in local security initiatives in five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and the Dominican Republic) and presents a comparative analysis of the results.

This publication adds to the recent years of dialogue regarding defense and security issues in the Caribbean.  Bobea et al. present their analysis in the context of this diverse, complex, and dynamic region, shedding new light on the reforms of security and defense institutions and their future implications for the region.

This dissertation was submitted as part of my master's degree in Conflict, Security and Development at King's College London in August 2014. This thesis won an Honourable Mention as runner up in the master's degree category at the 4th International Thesis Competition on Public Safety, Victimization and Justice in Latin America, organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the  National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico (INEGI). The certificate for this award is attached to the PDF file.

This dissertation is an empirical evaluation from a citizen security perspective of the government sponsored truce between the gangs B18 and MS13 in El Salvador. The author has chosen a human rights based definition of citizen security which rests on three pillars: civic rights, the right to personal security, and the right to the use and enjoyment of personal property (IACHR, 2009). The Introduction provides information on the regional context of El Salvador and the phenomenon of youth gangs in the country specifically. Chapter 1 is an account of the main events of the truce until June 1st 2014. Chapter 2 is an evaluation of the impact of the truce on personal security & the right to private property; it focuses on homicides, disappearances, internal displacement, robberies and extortion. Chapter 3 is an evaluation of the impact of the truce on civic rights; it focuses on the monopoly of force and territorial control of the Salvadoran state as well as in the role of the maras in the 2014 presidential election.

The evidence presented by the author allowed her to conclude the truce had negative and positive effects on citizen security in El Salvador. The negative effects are that extortion thrived mostly unchallenged during the truce, that the negotiations with the government consolidated the territorial power of the maras and that gang leaders instrumentalised the public visibility conferred upon them by the process to influence the 2014 presidential election. The positive outcomes of the truce are that it reduced the loss of life caused by homicide, it allowed the Salvadoran state to access crucial intelligence about the maras and it effectively challenged the vision that repression (which often violates human rights) is the most adequate policy to enhance citizen security thus significantly modifying the terms of the security debate in El Salvador.

Contemporary warfare is no longer the sole domain of adults and state forces. Children are increasingly involved in conflicts waged by nonstate actors: guerillas, terrorists, jihadi bands, gangs, criminals, and warlords. These groups utilizing child soldiers operate outside the norms of war and the rule of law, and have abandoned long-held prohibitions against terrorism, attacks on noncombatants, torture, reprisal, and slavery. These actors fight among themselves and against states for turf, profit, and plunder while accelerating the barbarization of warfare. This article examines the use of children in war and armed conflict. Specifically, it reviews the contemporary child-soldier issue and discusses child combatants in three settings: internal conflicts (civil wars and insurgencies), terrorism, and criminal gangs. Finally, it describes how children become child soldiers and looks at ways of responding to the problem.

The proliferation of irregular armed actors which defy simplistic definition has caught public and academic attention alike, not least in the pages of this journal. To move the debate on non-state armed groups (NSAGs) forward, this article seeks to enhance our conceptual understanding of parochial armed groups which are not primarily driven by ideological or religious objectives. Thus, this article clarifies similarities as well as differences between subtypes of community-based armed groups (CBAGs) on the one hand, and between CBAGs and other NSAGs, on the other hand. By doing so, a typology is developed that classifies militias, gangs and vigilantes on the basis of their political, economic and security-related dimensions. The resulting ideal types are discussed through the lenses of different explanatory frameworks and policy debates in the field of contemporary security studies. A major typological issue is the tendency for CBAGs to ‘turn bad’ and become threats to the stability they were expected to transform, becoming a serious problem in countries where they operate. It is concluded that the challenge of CBAGs ultimately needs to be addressed by putting in place a functioning state that can tackle the underlying woes that led to their proliferation in the first place.

This paper provides an in-depth examination of the evolution of street gangs and narcotrafficking groups in Honduras under the regime of Juan Orlando Hernandez, and new government strategy and organizations to combat it, including the inter-agency FUSINA organization, and the Military Police for Public Order [PMOP].  It concludes that, despite legitimate concern over some aspects of the Hernandez government, such policies are innovative solutions that have helped Honduras make important advances in its fight against organized crime and gangs, and deserve further inspection and, in some cases, more U.S. support.

According to much contemporary literature on the illicit global economy, there is a convergence between different groups involved in transnational organized crimes such as drug trafficking, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons, as well as terrorism. This has increased the urgency of countries’ efforts to stem irregular migration, and some countries have militarized their border controls. However, a closer look at two prominent groups, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), shows that neither group has consistently used smuggling of migrants as a source of revenue. Moreover, the organization and aims of these two groups are geared towards the acquisition of territorial control, which does not match the short timescales and operational nimbleness required of migrant-smuggling groups. The authors thus argue that the oftalleged link between organized crime, terrorism and human smuggling is largely artificial.

Criminal cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) rely on corruption to enable their pursuit of criminal profit and power. Indeed, Mexico’s cartels emerged from the seeds of corrupt police profiting from the narcotics trade. While violence is the public face of criminal cartels and transnational gangs, corruption is the core threat to public trust and state legitimacy and capacity.

El objetivo de este artículo es aportar al debate sobre la construcción social y mediática de las pandillas en El Salvador, a través del estudio de las narrativas periodísticas que se desprenden de tres medios escritos durante el año 2015: El Diario de Hoy (EDH), La Prensa Gráfica (LPG) y El Faro (EF). Esta publicación tiene su fundamento en se fundamenta en la investigación realizada para la tesis de maestría en comunicación de la Universidad Centroamérica José Simeón Cañas, bajo el título Narrativas sobre las maras en la prensa escrita salvadoreña en el año 2015 (Hernández-Anzora, 2017).

Third generation street gangs are a crime and security problem in many global cities, internationally linked ethnic Diasporas, and cross-border regions where insecurity and criminal non-state actors reign. Widely known as third generation gangs (3 GEN Gangs), complex gangs operate with broad reach—often across borders—and can develop mercenary and at times political and potentially terrorist objectives. The typology of the three generations of gang evolution (based on the interaction of politicization, internationalization, and sophistication) is recounted, recent trends in transnational street and prison gangs are explored and future potentials are suggested.

This working paper assesses the potential for employing humanitarian diplomacy to mitigate the humanitarian crisis stem- ming from conflicts between criminal cartels, gangs, and the state in Mexico and Central America’s Northern Triangle. It will assess opportunities for humanitarian diplomacy to enable humanitarian access to protect refugees, the in situ civilian populace, and humanitarian aid workers from violent attacks from a range of Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs), especially, cartels and gangs, by negotiating with and engaging criminal armed groups (CAGs). The research employs assessment of sec- ondary sources (literature review) and select interviews.

The nature of conflict and crime is changing. Technology allows groups to spread their influence without regard to geographic limitations. A shift from hierarchies to network organizational forms is also occurring. As a consequence non-state actors can extend their influence to gain social, political or economic power and challenge state institutions. This article examines the potential tar gangs, transnational criminals and terrorists to embrace network forms and utilize technology to wage net war. Factors which influence 'third generation' gang organization (politicization, internationalization and sophistication) are described to illustrate how a net-based threat can mature. A move toward network organization within transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups demonstrating the potential for these classic criminal entities to emerge as net war actors is also reviewed. Finally, the need for state institutions such as the police and military to develop networked responses to combat
networked threats is stated.

Gangs dominate the intersection between crime and war. Traditionally viewed as criminal enterprises of varying degrees of sophistication and reach, some gangs have evolved into potentially more dangerous and destabilizing actors. In many areas across the world—especially in 'criminal enclaves' or 'lawless zones' where civil governance, traditional security structures, and community or social bonds have eroded—gangs thrive. This essay briefly examines the dynamics of crime and war in these contested regions. Specifically, it provides a framework for understanding 'criminal insurgencies' where acute and endemic crime and gang violence challenge the solvency of state political control.