Honduras, uncharacteristically, is the most advanced. Earlier this month, Honduran President Ricardo Maduro successfully drove through congress an amendment to the penal code, which stipulates that belonging to a violent gang, known as maras, will now be punishable by up to 12 years in prison.
The new law means that mara leaders will face tough prison sentences of between nine and 12 years and a fine of between L10,000 and L200,000 (US$570 to US$11,430). Gang members will face sentences a third of this length. More than 400 gangs operate in Honduras, many of them extremely violent.
El Salvador followed suit. President Francisco Flores is trying to push through the legislative assembly a similar law. He launched Operación Mano Dura ('Operation Firm Hand') on 23 July, which saw the Salvadorean police arrested 541 mareros within a matter of weeks, although judges were forced to release about 200 of them, according to official sources, because the police had no charges to file against them. According to police statistics, at least 30,000 young Salvadoreans belong to these maras and turf wars claim the lives of about three gang members daily.
In Guatemala, congress is considering a bill, presented by the opposition Partido de Avanzada Nacional (PAN), which mirrors those in Honduras and El Salvador. Guatemala's national police have arrested 2,582 gang members so far this year on possession of illegal firearms, drug dealing, and assault and murder charges, according to statistics released on 19 August. National membership of maras is put at 500,000.
'The problem is that many of those imprisoned get out quickly even though some of them have been arrested up to 40 times,' police spokesman Faustino Sánchez says. The police recently launched Plan Escoba ('Clean-sweep'), which has seen 500 mareros arrested in the last six weeks.
End of preview - This article contains approximately 335 words.
Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article
Not a Subscriber?
Choose from one of the following options
