TY - UNPB
T1 - The Truce Between the Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street Gang in El Salvador: From Opportunity to Failure
T2 - Working Paper (version October 2016)
AU - van der Borgh, G.J.C.
AU - Savenije, W.
PY - 2016/11/1
Y1 - 2016/11/1
N2 - This paper looks at the emergence and unravelling of the government sponsored gang truce in El Salvador between March 2012 and the end of 2013. The gang truce was a unique experience that involved the presumed threat to civil and national security in a process, whose objective was to construct and implement a social or political solution to the gang problem. Since the truce emerged in a political context which is generally seen as not very conducive to this kind of initiative, particular attention is given to the question of how the political space for the truce was forged and attacked. Our emphasis is on the importance of understanding the power dynamics of processes of war-making and peacemaking by looking at opportunities, organizational structures, and frames. The rather impressive initial results, especially the significant reduction in homicides, helped to attain a degree of acceptance of the truce. However, it proved extremely difficult to forge a broader coalition in support of the truce and to elaborate a comprehensive and compelling discursive ‘pro-truce’ frame. Therefore, the initial acceptance of the initiative remained particularly vulnerable to critique and attacks. The main problem of the truce process was not primarily the public recognition of the power wielded by the gangs, but rather the lack of strategy and clear rules of the game to manage it. The growing social and political opposition to the truce, and the lack of consensus between key government actors, the facilitators and between different groups within gangs, caused the window of opportunity that had come into existence, to be closed as quickly as it had opened.
AB - This paper looks at the emergence and unravelling of the government sponsored gang truce in El Salvador between March 2012 and the end of 2013. The gang truce was a unique experience that involved the presumed threat to civil and national security in a process, whose objective was to construct and implement a social or political solution to the gang problem. Since the truce emerged in a political context which is generally seen as not very conducive to this kind of initiative, particular attention is given to the question of how the political space for the truce was forged and attacked. Our emphasis is on the importance of understanding the power dynamics of processes of war-making and peacemaking by looking at opportunities, organizational structures, and frames. The rather impressive initial results, especially the significant reduction in homicides, helped to attain a degree of acceptance of the truce. However, it proved extremely difficult to forge a broader coalition in support of the truce and to elaborate a comprehensive and compelling discursive ‘pro-truce’ frame. Therefore, the initial acceptance of the initiative remained particularly vulnerable to critique and attacks. The main problem of the truce process was not primarily the public recognition of the power wielded by the gangs, but rather the lack of strategy and clear rules of the game to manage it. The growing social and political opposition to the truce, and the lack of consensus between key government actors, the facilitators and between different groups within gangs, caused the window of opportunity that had come into existence, to be closed as quickly as it had opened.
M3 - Working paper
BT - The Truce Between the Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street Gang in El Salvador: From Opportunity to Failure
ER -