Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

by Jonathan Blitzer

In short order, there were hundreds of others, and while many of them were mortal enemies, certain American rules still applied. Called “southern pacts,” in reference to the Mexican Mafia in California, the arrangements allowed for outright war between gangs, but forbade the extortion of businesses that fell in another’s neighborhood. The arcane logic of this new civil war made sense to the participating gangsters, but not to the people caught in the crossfire. Every Salvadoran carried a national identification card necessary for any number of quotidian reasons: to enter work, pick up medicine at the pharmacy, and sign for packages. But because these documents listed home addresses, they also invited scrutiny from upstart gangsters, who could know if an otherwise innocent person happened to live on a rival’s turf. To some of the fiercer cliques, which set up checkpoints on the outskirts of their own neighborhoods, someone with a “bad” address was a legitimate target.