A triangle of death
Posted: 14/06/2012 Filed under: Antonio Sampaio, Armed conflict database, Latin American security, Transnational threats and political risk, US | Tags: drugs, El Salvador, Guatemala, Gulf Cartel, Honduras, maras, Mexico, Sinaloa Cartel, street gangs, violence, war on drugs, Zetas 1 Comment »
A Mara Salvatrucha gang member in prison in El Salvador. Photo: Moisen Saman, courtesy of Sony World Photography Award 2008/Creative Commons
By Antonio Sampaio, Research Assistant, Survival and the Armed Conflict Database
The Economist has dubbed it ‘the tormented isthmus‘. It is the most murderous region on earth: the ‘northern triangle’ of Central America formed by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The bloody drugs war that has raged in neighbouring Mexico since 2006 has spilled over into a region already destabilised by years of civil war in the 1980s, plagued by local gangs and corrupt institutions, and with too few police.
While adding the region to the institute’s Armed Conflict Database recently, we unearthed a raft of alarming statistics. These include: Read the rest of this entry »
