Security & Strategic Review September 2010 (ISSN 1741-4202)

The street gangs in El Salvador and Guatemala have moved on in the past month from using violence against their victims to attacking law enforcement agencies; targets have included the police, prison officers and a court, and the weapons used have included assault rifles, grenades and a car bomb. These developments appear to echo the actions of the favela-based drug gangs in Brazil more than those of Mexico's drug cartels. They do however, revive the fears aired back in 2005 about street gangs evolving into a new form of 'urban insurgency' [SSR-05-05].