Amid new bomb blasts in Pakistan, the U.S. says it may expand its embassy in Islamabad to include about 400 apartments in a project similar to its massive embassy in Baghdad. UNICEF says it has almost run out of funds to provide relief to people fleeing fighting in the Northwest Frontier Province.

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Honduras, causing one confirmed death when a house collapsed, disrupting electricity and phone services, and shaking nearby Guatemala and Belize.

Two more Conservative MPs in Britain say they will step down following outrage over their use of taxpayer money, including one who spent £22,500 to treat dry rot at her home. Eleven other lawmakers have quit since a scandal over expenses erupted, including the House of Commons Speaker.

Nigerian police arrest, then kill militant leader, Ken Niweigha. Supporters accuse police of “summarily executing” him, while police say he was killed during a gun battle.

Israeli troops say that Palestinian civilians were killed and their property intentionally destroyed under “permissive rules of engagement” during the recent offensive in Gaza.

El Salvador and Costa Rica announce plans to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Schools, hospitals, transportation and postal service are affected by nationwide strikes in France.

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who kept his daughter locked in the basement for 24 years and fathered her seven children, is sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution.

El Salvador elects a leftist president after twenty years of rule by the right. President elect Mauricio Funes is part of the F.M.L.N., the party of former Marxist guerrillas who fought the American-backed military in the country’s bloody civil war.

Far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman is set to become Israel’s next foreign minister as part of a coalition-forming agreement with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Austrian man who held his daughter captive in the basement for 24 years while fathering her seven children pleads guilty to incest but denies having murdered one of the children.

LESSON PLANS:

Accountability for Human Rights Violations

This lesson plan provides an opportunity to explore human rights violations and international courts of law. Students focus primarily on the case study of Slobodan Miloseviç’s regime.

Are All Children at the Same Starting Gate?

In this lesson, students learn about the differences in education systems in developing and developed nations, explore the factors that impede schooling, examine efforts to ensure universal access to education, and undertake a project that supports these efforts.

China’s Rule of Law: Changing with the Times?

Students identify and analyze the positive and negative effects of China’s changing legal system and build on their findings to design a program to promote a just and efficient legal system in China.

The Effects of Globalization

Use this lesson to explore the theme of global economics. Students investigate the impact of the World Trade Organization in developing countries.

Exploring Freedom of Expression

In order to understand what freedom of expression is, students first need to be able to define expression and recognize its various forms.

Gang Violence from L.A. to El Salvador

In this lesson, students will look at the harsh realities of gang life, the impact of gang life on Salvadoran society, and what is and isn’t being done to resolve the issue.

The Growth of Business and the Rise of Conservative Islam in Turkey

In this lesson, students explore the changes taking place in Turkish society and the Turkish economy.

Human Rights Basics

This lesson is designed to help children conduct a human rights discussion and understand the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Rwanda: A Nation Recovering and Rebuilding

Students will learn about the history of Rwanda and the genocide that killed 800,000 men, women, and children.

Something’s Fishy in Scotland

Explore the plight of fishing families in Scotland by researching the impact of the European Union’s fishing policies on the social, personal, environmental, economic and political realities of a small community.

Suppression or Liberation: Islam, Hijab and Modern Society

Students will explore basic beliefs and practices of Islam and examine the different views of women’s modesty and hijab among Muslims and in modern society.

Violence as a Means of Resistance

With this case study, students will explore the question of whether violence is an acceptable means of resistance to oppression or whether diplomacy and political solutions must be pursued instead.

The day we met, Vilma picked me up at the hotel in her red SUV and said that she still did not quite understand what I was doing there. We ate lunch at a Marie Callender’s and spoke for a long time. She was in tears for much of it; she was in tears before we even got out of the car. She couldn’t utter her son Diego’s name without breaking down. She has never seen WIDE ANGLE’s 18 with a Bullet and has no desire to see it. She wondered aloud why WIDE ANGLE, or anyone for that matter, would care about anything she had to say.

I am a second generation Salvadoran-American, the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants. My parents were bright and educated young people; my father was an engineering student and my mother was a teacher. They came to the U.S. for the promise of bigger and better things. They would come, work in their craft and learn, and go home to help make their country a better place. That was the plan.

When they arrived, my mother worked as a nanny and housekeeper. She received room and board and $100 per month. On her time off, Friday afternoons and Saturdays, she worked in a beauty salon in the Bronx. My aunt Dolores left five kids behind, only to care for and clean up after someone else’s kids in New Jersey. She also worked in a factory and she and my mom pulled all-nighters washing and styling wigs.

My mother and her sister also left behind three younger siblings. In the early 1980’s, amid El Salvador’s bloody civil war, it was nearly impossible to get into the U.S. While the U.S. government financed the conflict, it refused to recognize the victims or provide them political refuge. My mother, who had originally intended to return to her beloved El Salvador, became a US citizen instead and worked relentlessly for almost four years to bring her little sisters and brother to safety. They arrived in 1984.

In 1992, the Salvadoran government and guerilla groups signed a peace accord. Despite great hopes, post-war El Salvador has failed to bring peace, democracy and economic prosperity for all. In fact, only five years after the war ended, El Salvador was the most violent country in the western hemisphere, according to the World Health Organization. Many demobilized young former combatants had few opportunities to change or improve their lives. Small arms were readily available. Furthermore, the U.S. increased its deportation of violent gang members who violated immigration laws. Put these elements together, and you have a social and economic minefield.

This is the world in which Vilma raised her sons, alone. Then a fire destroyed the San Salvador market where she sold her baked goods. Her dwindling resources soon made it impossible to pay for housing, the car, and food. Vilma decided to leave for the United States with the hope of earning more money. For Diego, the very act of his mother leaving to make his life better had the opposite impact. He sought family and found it with the gang. For Vilma, it was an ironic and cruel consequence that nearly invalidated her sacrifices in the United States.

One thing has remained constant across the generations of immigration. It is never easy to be far from home. And yet immigrants make Americans’ lives easier on a daily basis: cleaning our homes, caring for our children, parking our cars, or cooking our meals (if you eat out in New York City, I bet you have at least one meal per week prepared by an immigrant). Free of these burdens, everyone else has the time to be professionals, doctors, entrepreneurs, and even filmmakers.

Vilma works hard: sweeping, mopping, wiping; stovetops, venetians, under the sink, behind the fridge, inside the vase, on top of the bookshelf where no one even looks…it is backbreaking work. And I know that now. One day when we were filming, a homeowner asked that I not film in their house. I wanted to be helpful, so Vilma agreed to let me clean. Let me tell you, I was exhausted after about an hour. Vilma took one look at my work and suggested that I stick to making TV.

It has been eight years since she left El Salvador. Vilma did not think she would be here this long and does not know when she might go back; she very much wants to see her son and family. I sensed a streak of resentment in Vilma because she feels forced to stay in the U.S. Despite the accusations she sees on the evening news that illegal immigrants steal our public services, Vilma contributes here and pays taxes like everyone else. She has no health insurance and despite my own observation of her less than optimum health, she says she has never gone to the hospital. “Whenever I feel ill,” she says, “the cure is thinking about the bill!”

Vilma is a fighter with a heart of gold. She is keen about helping the immigrant cause. After evading the idea of being on TV, she concluded that she was in a better position to do this than others who do not have legal status. She has a heart, a conscience and admirable empathy.

Diego’s mom inspires me and devastates me. She makes me proud of her, of my mother, my aunts and all the women who have left entire lives behind to make life a little better for their families back home and especially us, their children. I hope Vilma’s future and that of her family are more like my own. I hope Vilma can not only improve the lot of her family, but also improve her own life and be happy. My own mother survived 35 years of racism, classism, and xenophobia, but never wasted an opportunity. Today she is a public school teacher and a PhD candidate in Education. She is and has always been an asset to this country, and so is Vilma and millions like them. Perhaps the acknowledgment of this fact is a necessary step in improving U.S. immigration policy.

Photo credit: Simon Vanquaethem

Video: WIDE ANGLE: “18 with a Bullet”

Web Resources:

(The list below is a representative list of appropriate Web sites for the lesson. It is also suggested that the teacher encourage the students to do their own investigation using a search engine such as Google. A short tutorial on Web searching can be found, along with links to several search engines, at http://www.vcsc.k12.in.us/tcr/searching.htm)

• WIDE ANGLE’s “18 with a Bullet” resource page http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/elsalvador/
• “Homies Unidos” http://www.homiesunidos.org/ is a non-profit gang violence and intervention program with interests both in El Salvador and Los Angeles.
• The “SHARE” Foundation http://www.share-elsalvador.org/ works to provide programs for El Salvador reconstruction, including financial aid and sustainable projects.
• The Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America http://fssca.net/ works to provide “empowerment” projects for various countries in the Central America region, including El Salvador.
• The CIA World Fact Book El Salvador page https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/es.html provides political, social, and economic information about the Republic of El Salvador.
• US Department of State page on El Salvador http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2033.htm includes some information about the Salvadoran police and judicial system
• Law Library of Congress El Salvador page http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/elsalvador.html contains a wide selection of helpful links in various categories for the nation of El Salvador.
• Human Rights Watch page on El Salvador http://hrw.org/doc/?t=americas_pub&c=elsalv includes various reports on human rights issues (including child soldiers and child labor) in El Salvador.
• BBC report from 2004 on El Salvador’s government’s attempt at curbing gang activity http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3553529.stm. A follow-up BBC report from 2005 is also available http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4469434.stm
• Frontline World (2004 election) report by Joe Ruben about US/Salvadoran relations after the El Salvador Civil War and El Salvador’s efforts to rebuild. http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/elections/elsalvador/
• ScottWalace.com Salvadoran gang page includes text information regarding gang violence in El Salvador, as well as photographs of gangs and police attempting to stop gang activity. http://www.scottwallace.com/PhotoArticles/Salvador-Gangs-Photo-Intro.html# (Note: the text information is an online version of a HARPER’s story published in 2000)
• A 2005 WASHINGTON POST story discussing El Salvador gang members removing gang tattoos to avoid arrest http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50422-2005Mar19.html
• UNITED NATIONS CHRONICLE story on domestic and gang violence in El Salvador (from 2002) http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue3/0302p75_el_salvador.html
• An online report from NATION magazine from 2005, detailing El Salvador’s economic problems as well as gang-related issues, entitled “Letter From El Salvador: At the Edges of Empire”. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050711/davis
• Central America and Mexico Gang Assessment: Annex 1, El Salvador Profile from the United States Agency for International Development http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/democracy/els_profile.pdf (Note: This file is an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you may download a free copy of it at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
• The International Reach of the Mara Salvatrucha http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4539688 is a National Public Radio “All Things Considered” report from 2005 on the Mara Salavatrucha gang (known also as MS-13).
• 2005 Amnesty International Report on El Salvador, including a critical review of the El Salvador government’s actions regarding violence against women, deaths in prison, and anti-gang legislation http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/slv-summary-eng.
• “Deadly Homeboys Make A New Home in El Salvador”, an Op-Ed piece in the July, 11, 2006 LOS ANGELES TIMES, written by Ricardo Pollack, writer and producer of “18 with a Bullet” http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-pollack11jul11,0,852279.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Copy of “18 with a Bullet”

• TV/VCR or TV/DVD player (depending on format of video the teacher uses)
• Available computers with Internet access and printer capability
• Lined paper

Preliminary Teacher Preparation:

Prior to starting the lesson, the teacher may wish to ensure that desired Web sites are bookmarked on computers with Internet access and may also want to check that all necessary plug-ins (such as Flash, Shockwave, RealPlayer, and Adobe Acrobat Reader) are installed. It’s also recommended the teacher preview the Web sites selected for age-appropriateness. While the URLs were accurate at the time the lesson was published, the teacher may also wish to check Web address in case sites have changed location, or if the site is no longer available. In addition, the teacher may wish to have available any print or other video components desired for the lesson.

In this lesson, students will demonstrate their understanding of the concepts and stories included in the film “18 with a Bullet” by writing letters in which they take the role of one of the principal characters in the film, or a hypothetical gang member or government official (see below for suggested roles). The type of letter or statement written will generally depend on the role the student selects or that the teacher assigns. However, the written assignment should include the following components:

1. In most instances, the letter will be written to a hypothetical friend or family member, for example, if the student is role-playing a gang member, he/she might write a letter to a family member who was not deported from the US back to El Salvador. If the student is taking the role of a police officer or Salvadoran government official, they might use information in the film as the basis for a status report on the police and government’s efforts to curb gang violence.

2. The letter should include facts and quotes from the film.

3. Students should also add information from resources included on the “18 with a Bullet” Web pages as well as Web resources included in the lesson.

4. The student should also pay special attention to issues in lifestyle and life events which caused them to select a gang lifestyle.

5. The student should speculate as to possible different “life-scenarios” that possibly could free them from the “gang lifestyle” and provide them a more fulfilling life, as well as for their families.

6. The letter should be written in regular letter style, with a salutation to the recipient, correct grammar and spelling, as well as a realistic narrative.

7. Letters should be evaluated by following an assessment tool comfortable to the teacher, meeting whatever state and local standards needed. A sample rubric for letter evaluation can be found at the end of the lesson. The teacher may wish to adapt or edit the rubric to meet their own requirements.

If the teacher determines that the best course might be to have students take “hypothetical roles” of people not specifically included in the film, the following general “roles” may be assigned:

• Member of the “18″ gang
• Member of the rival “MS-13″ gang
• Spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend of a gang member
• Parent of a gang member
• El Salvador police officer or government official speaking on attempts by the government to reduce gang activity and violence
• US State Department official or US Ambassador to El Salvador writing a report on the “gravity” of the current situation in El Salvador in relation to gang activity
• “Ordinary citizen” in El Salvador who is writing with concern about what gang activity has done to their nation economically, politically, or socially.

As an alternative, the teacher may elect to have students select certain roles from the film and use that character as the basis for the letter. In that case, suggested roles to assign include:

• Ricardo Pollack, writer and producer of “18 with a Bullet” (in this instance, the teacher may wish to have student(s) write a letter or editorial piece explaining the significance of the film as well as impact of gang violence. The “filmmaker’s notes” on the Wide Angle Web site’s “18 with a Bullet” page http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/elsalvador/filmmaker.html, might be especially helpful.
• “Slappy” is an18 gang member who is featured throughout the film. “Slappy” is 30, married, and has three young boys. At the beginning of the film, he is hiding out from police who want to arrest him for the murder of a member of MS-13
• Erika, who is “Slappy’s” wife
• Charlie, neighborhood leader of 18. He is 16 years old
• Traveieso, a member who operates the gang’s small-time extortion racket, collecting “rent” from city buses.
• Sochi, a gang member whose mother left him to go work in America when he was six months old.
• Diablo, an 18 member who is one of the leaders also held in Chalatenango Prison
• Anne Patterson, Assistant Secretary of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, former US Ambassador to El Salvador (in this instance, the teacher may elect to have a student or students assume the rule of Assistant Secretary Patterson writing a report to either Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or President Bush detailing the gang situation in El Salvador, what steps are being applied there to solve the gang warfare issue, and whether those steps are effective. The teacher may specifically guide students completing the assignment as Ms. Patterson to the transcript of the interview with Ms. Patterson and WIDE ANGLE host Daljit Dhaliwal. Students may either read the transcript of the interview or view the video feed of it on the WIDE ANGLE transcript page for “18 with a Bullet” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/elsalvador/transcript.html

Agents of the Nacional Civil Police detain suspected members of the Salvatrucha Mara gang early Thursday July 24, 2003 as part of the government plan to fight gangs in San Salvador, El Salvador. Credit: AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Caballero

El Salvador: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)
Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known as MS-13, formed in Los Angeles during the 1980s when refugees of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war settled in Southern California and fell into life on the streets.

During the last two decades, with the aid of U.S. immigration policy, MS-13 has spread across Central America. Members are primarily Salvadoran; most were young war refugees when they came to the United States. When the civil war came to an end, however, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service ended the special refugee status it had reserved for Salvadorans seeking asylum in America and began deporting undocumented immigrants by the thousands.

Many of the deportees were returned to El Salvador (or other Central American countries) well informed by a criminal lifestyle, including the trade of guns and crack cocaine, that was previously foreign to the region. Furthermore, most were so young when they left El Salvador, they had no connections in the country beyond the gang affiliations they had formed in the United States. This led to the flourishing of MS-13 in El Salvador and its eventual spread throughout Central America, where it is said to have at least 50,000 members.

The deportation effort likewise proved ineffective at diminishing MS-13’s activity within the United States. Most members are said to return soon after they are deported, and it is estimated that there are now as many as 10,000 members in more than 30 states: in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. especially, but also in the suburbs of Maryland and even rural Virginia.

Members of MS-13 are noted for the tattoos that cover most of their upper body, even their face, in gothic script lettering — as well as for shaved heads and goatees.

By 2000, officials in Central America began to crack down on the increasingly violent gang and its chief (and purportedly better-organized) rival, the 18th Street gang, implementing a series of “zero tolerance” laws that gave governments the right to imprison suspected gang members for simply wearing tattoos associated with gang membership. Human rights groups have decried such hard-line policies, which have led to overcrowded prisons that are now effectively training grounds for gang members.

Some Central American government officials have accused the U.S. of causing the gang problem with its previous deportation policy. In February 2005, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security implemented a project called Operation Community Shield, designed to work in conjunction with Central American governments and law enforcement agencies. Ultimately, the gangs are an international problem related to intense poverty and a severe lack of education and opportunity in a region that has yet to recover from a devastating civil war.

Return to intro

Loony (left) and Diablo (right) flash their gang signs. photo credit: Tim Watts

U.S. Department of State: El Salvador
The U.S. State Department’s official assessment of current conditions in El Salvador.

Library of Congress: Country Study: El Salvador
A profile of El Salvador with analysis of its political, economic, and social development, prepared by the research division of the Library of Congress.

Embassy of El Salvador in the United States of America
The site includes legal information for Salvadorans living in the U.S., a community events calendar, and tourist information for U.S. citizens who wish to visit El Salvador.

PBS.org: Justice & the Generals
The web companion to the PBS documentary about the atrocities and human rights violations that occurred during El Salvador’s civil war.

Michigan State University Libraries: Criminal Justice Resources: Gangs
A compilation of youth gang-related resources.

Street Gangs Resource Center
An independent news site by gang expert Alejandro Alonso, which includes a section on the 18th Street Gang.

Gang Research.Net
Maintained by John M. Hagedorn, this site focuses mainly on the gangs of Chicago, but also covers global gang issues.

Photo of an 18th Street gang member. photo credit: Ricardo Pollack

The Heritage Foundation: Research: Urban Issues: “North American Transnational Youth Gangs”
An in-depth article about the phenomenon of international street gangs.

Children and Youth in Organised Armed Violence (COAV)
This project identifies and educates the international community about the problem of children involved in armed groups — criminal gangs, structured youth gangs, and vigilante groups.

U.S. Department of Justice: National Drug Intelligence Center
Includes a Drug and Gangs Fast Facts pamphlet, which is downloadable, and detailed threat assessments by state and by drug, including one about the 18th Street Gang’s links to cocaine trafficking in California.

Homies Unidos
Founded in 1996 in San Salvador, this community-based organization was created to help mitigate gang violence and has projects in San Salvador, El Salvador, and Los Angeles, California.

Duke was the first gang member I met. He’d been introduced to me by a local journalist as someone who wasn’t active in the gang but could put me in touch with those who were. Duke was 30, was incredibly charismatic and funny, and had a great wife and a couple of lovely kids. He claimed he was just kicking back these days, trying to help and advise younger homies on how to make something of their lives.

Photo of filmmaker Ricardo Pollack. photo credit: Neil Harvey

I was in El Salvador to make a film about the gang epidemic that had given the country one of the highest homicide rates in the world. I wanted to understand what made these guys tick — how it was that murder had become so ordinary to many of them. I planned to do this by getting to know a group of them well, filming them for a period of six months to see what their lives were really like behind all their bravado.

Over the next few weeks, with Duke’s help, I got to know different gang members around the city. Many were barely in their teens, and they seemed rather sweet and full of charm. Were these the crazed and heartless killers I’d heard so much about?

After two months of getting to know different “clikas” — neighborhood-based sections of the gang — I settled on my characters. Duke would be central, along with some of the younger homies he hung out with in the IVU housing project in the center of San Salvador.

The crew arrived and we were ready to start filming. But things didn’t go according to plan. The very next day, Duke, who was supposed to have retired from the gang, was arrested while driving away from the scene of a shoot-out, in possession of an AK-47. So that’s what he was teaching the younger homies. One of my central characters was now in prison, yet I had to start filming. I would have to focus on some of the other gang members in the neighborhood.

Over the next few months I got to know the boys from IVU very well: their angelic-looking leader, Charlie, barely 16 years of age; Travieso, who was in tears when I first met him because his mother had sent him a birthday card from the United States; and Slappy, who, like Duke, had been brought up in the States and claimed to want to leave the gang.

Every day I would turn up with my cameraman, Neil Harvey, and sound recordist, Tim Watts, and we would just hang out, to see what happened. Most days, not much did happen — the boys smoked a lot of grass, watched TV in their squat, and watched over their territory from the “bordo,” a slightly elevated vantage point. And then suddenly, it would all kick off. They would get word that one of their comrades had been killed by their rival gang and mortal enemies, MS. Phone calls would be made, weapons would be obtained, and off they would go to avenge their friends. Wakes for their fallen comrades were so commonplace that sometimes they seemed like little more than social occasions at which to meet gang members from other parts of the city.

Over the months I was there, I would often sit around chatting with them about what they wanted from life, what they believed in, and how it could be that they could kill with such lack of remorse. What struck me most of all was how lost some of the younger boys seemed, in spite of all their bravado about the gang. Many of them had parents who lived in the United States, and for them the gang was everything: their family, their only source of companionship, and unfortunately, their moral code. When making a film, you try not to get involved, to just document what you see, but at times it’s difficult to stay completely unattached. To see 17-year-old Travieso phone his mother in the States, whom he hasn’t seen for years, telling her over and over again how much he misses her and wants to be with her, was heartbreaking. And to see him the next day spouting his gang bravado, getting ready to go on a kill, filled me with a total sense of hopelessness for his future. He seemed a boy masquerading as a man.

At times, I also felt angry about how the veterans of the gang filled the younger boys’ heads with talk that turned them into killers. I got to know many of the gang’s leaders in prison. They too could be charming, but they were hardened killers with countless murders behind them. They seemed incapable of change. Yet, it was these men who were the biggest influence on the teenagers outside — their role models and moral guides through life.

By the time I left El Salvador, having been in the country for eight months, I’d begun to see how if all around you killing is seen as normal, as a duty even, as a test of loyalty to the only family you have, then it becomes a line that’s far easier to cross than I used to think. Murder seemed to be the ultimate way of promoting gang identity and a sense of belonging. It also seemed to make life more interesting: if you are in a permanent state of war with a sworn enemy, a mundane life is made far more dramatic.

When I asked Charlie, the leader, why they kill MS, the best he could come up with was: “Because they think they’re better than we are, but they aren’t.” Boys masquerading as men.

In Honduras, MS-13 members attack a public bus with automatic weapons, killing 28 people.
In response to popular outrage against gang violence, Tony Saca is voted into power in El Salvador on “mano super dura” or “ultra-hard hand” anti-gang platform. Platform includes policies such as arresting suspects for “gang-style” tattoos or clothing, and results in over 16,000 arrests. Gang members come to dominate Salvadoran and other Central American prisons. 2005 In the U.S., Operation Community Shield arrests 103 gang members in February and March, and another 582 in August.

In Honduras, a brief truce between the gangs ends when some 35 members of Mara 18 are killed by MS-13 members in a coordinated attack across several prisons. 2006 Statistics from the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center estimate up to 10,000 active MS-13 members in up to 30 U.S. states.

Some 25,000 gang members are estimated to be active in El Salvador, which averages 10 homicides per day, and suffers from prisons which operate at double capacity. Sources: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; CIA World Factbook; NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER; THE BOSTON GLOBE; THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE; THE ECONOMIST. ]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/18-with-a-bullet/timeline-gangs-el-salvador-and-united-states/1517/feed/ 7 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/18-with-a-bullet/introduction/750/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/18-with-a-bullet/introduction/750/#comments Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:14:44 +0000 lauren feeney http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/?p=750 ABOUT THE ISSUE

In San Salvador, El Salvador, 2,000 miles from Los Angeles’s Eighteenth Street, a gang known as “18″ governs its territory like an armed militia. In the mid 1990s, thousands of Salvadoran nationals living illegally in the U.S. were deported to their homeland. Some brought L.A. gang culture back with them to a country beset by poverty and awash in arms. Organizing support for gang members in need, meting out justice to those who would defy the gang’s code and waging an endless vendetta against its enemies, 18 is helping to make El Salvador one of the most violent and crime-ridden countries in the world.

ABOUT THE FILM

WIDE ANGLE’s film, 18 with a Bullet, follows the life of this notorious Central American gang for six months. By the end of the film, most of the gang members profiled – Slappy, Sochi, and 18-year old Travieso – are in jail serving long sentences for their crimes.

For the summer 2008 re-broadcast, WIDE ANGLE follows the film with an update that tells another side of this transnational story. Like many Salvadoran gang members, Travieso was separated from his mother when she went north to find work in the United States.

Today, she runs a successful cleaning business in the U.S. and holds a temporarily legal immigration status, but her sacrifices and the remittances sent home have not managed to give Travieso the better life she had dreamed for him. This mother’s story paints a nuanced portrait of one immigrant’s experience and the sometimes heartbreaking difficulties of life stretched across borders.