Wilson Center Reports How Street Gangs Have Complicated Mexico Security Patrick Corcoran - InSight Crime
go to original September 10, 2013

A new report from a Washington think tank examines the complex role of youth gangs in Mexico’s security challenges and offers recommendations to reduce their threat.

In a report from the Wilson Center (pdf) titled “Understanding and addressing youth in ‘gangs’ in Mexico,” Nathan Jones, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, investigates how street gangs have influenced Mexico’s broader security challenges, how their rise is reflective of a larger set of socioeconomic ills, and how the government may best combat their effects.

(Jones' report was part of a series of working papers on civil engagement and public security in Mexico co-sponsored by the University of San Diego, including one co-authored by InSight Crime Co-director Steven Dudley. See other reports here.)

Youth gangs play an important role in the local security landscape, one that has been evolving and growing more vital in recent years. As Jones notes, the gangs are increasingly working with larger trafficking organizations, but using a distinct operational model.

“Youth gangs, sometimes referred to as street gangs, typically control local turf for extortion and drug distribution," he writes. "They engage in less profitable criminal activities than larger, more sophisticated, organized crime groups that focus on drug and arms trafficking and are more geographically dispersed.”

While the affiliations between youth groups and larger groups like the Zetas are typically loose, there are some examples of a deeper association. For instance, near Mexico’s southern border, the notorious Central American maras, namely Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and Barrio 18, have formed alliances with some of the more prominent trafficking organizations, in which the smaller groups fulfill specific roles. One prominent example is the combined efforts of the Zetas and the MS13 in managing the human trafficking routes used by Central American immigrants on their way to the US.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

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