Mara Salvatrucha 13

From GTA World

34.png

The Mara Salvatrucha (MS, MS-13, or MSX3) also known by the alternative names Westside Mareros, Trece Diecinueve or The Two Letters is a viciously violent Central-American street gang and transnational criminal organization that was formed in the Westside Los Santos district of Little Seoul in 1979 under the name Mara Salvatrucha Stoners. The street gang was formed by the offspring of Salvadoran peasants who were fleeing the horrors of the Salvadoran Civil War of the 70's and 80's.

The word 'Mara' came from a Salvadoran slang word that meant 'gang' or 'gathering'. The word 'Salvatrucha' is believed to have been a term used to honour Salvadoran Guerrilla Fighters who fought and overthrew William Walker during a Central American conflict of the 1800s.

The earliest so called mareros were long haired punk rock enthusiasts who engaged in crimes such as petty theft and the sales of soft and psychedelic drugs. More often than not during the 80's the Mara Stoners lived a peaceful existence in Little Seoul, where they often attended punk rock concerts in other West Los suberbs such as Vespucci Beach. It was at these punk rock concerts that the Mara Salvatrucha came to adopt their signature handsigns, the handsign of the devil. Known within the gang as 'La Garra' or 'The Claw'

When the interethnic and inter-racial clashes of the 1980s and the 1990s gradually came to an end between the years of 1993 and 1996, the Mara Salvatrucha were no longer disorganized street gangs of Salvadoran immigrant criminals who identified with punk rock culture and a strong pride in fiercely guarding their ethnic communities. They were a new and vicious breed of street gang who were feared throughout the city's impoverished districts and slums, as well as middle class suburbs, for their cold blooded approach to crime. The street gang also developed to be much more militant and organised than before. They became extremely secretive and as a result, closely guarded their secrets with horrific violence.

The Mara Salvatrucha have historically and traditionally identified themselves in various ways. They usually wear blue and white clothing, sports paraphernalia with the number 13 on it, are heavily tattooed (especially on the face) and communicate with gang signs such as the Devil Horns and various other accompanying handsigns. No matter which geographical region that they occupy, they predominately speak Central American dialects of Spanish that heavily incorporate urban slang from both El Salvador and the Chicano subculture of Southern San Andreas.

Their moral subculture dictates that extreme acts of violence that include decapitation, disembowelment, physical castration, rape and other forms of sexual assault are necessary in order to obtain retribution against their foes and to exercise control in the areas in which they operate.

Presently, the Salvadoran and Salvadoran American communities, as well as the ethnic communities of other Central American immigrants, have publicly disavowed the Mara Salvatrucha 13 transnational criminal organization through official mediums such as private immigration aide programs and community projects.

Mara Salvatrucha History

Mara Salvatrucha, known throughout Los Santos as the West Side (W/S) Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) is a predominantly Central American street gang formed in Los Santos, San Andreas during the late 1970's. The criminal gang was formed in the now-gentrified Little Seoul neighbourhood of Westside Los Santos. Criminal groups of Central American refugees were first documented by the Los Santos police in 1982. The criminal gang grew from the undocumented Central American population throughout the 1980s, and by 1988, had became an established gang in the United States. In the decades since its inception, the Mara Salvatrucha have grown from being a ragtag group of marijuana-smoking heavy metal enthusiasts into a transnational criminal enterprise.

The first community, or barrio, for Central Americans in Los Santos was formed in Little Seoul. At the time, Little Seoul was an impoverished neighbourhood of Westside Los Santos with a predominant Latino and Asian demographic. It had not yet undergone any gentrification and had a reputation for its high rates of violent gang activity. Although Little Seoul's first Salvadoran barrio was established in 1979, other similar barrios were formed elsewhere in West Los and Vinewood during the decade. The first community leaders for these barrios were refugees and economic migrants who left El Salvador during the civil war. Legal entities and other organizations were created in the communities, by Latino Americans, to help their immigrant counterparts with settling into the country. Because many of the Salvadorans in particular were refused asylum upon entering the United States, they were classified as illegal immigrants. Throughout the decade because of this, more Central Americans from the Northern Triangle nations came to the United States without any documentation.

Ethnic conflicts in the streets between Central Americans and the already established Mexican Americans quickly became commonplace. This was due to the incompatible cultural differences between the Central Americans and the Chicano sub-culture. In particular, Salvadorans were widely discriminated against by Mexican Americans through being denied local jobs, experiencing physical removals from community association centers and getting harassed while peacefully living in their neighbourhoods.

These cultural differences resulted in ethnic clashing between Central Americans and Mexican Americans over a period of several years, encompassing much of the 1980s and parts of the 1990s. Many of these clashes came in the form of street brawls and violent crimes involving edged weapons and firearms. Criminal elements within the Salvadoran community in particular, later identified as the Mara Salvatrucha Stoners by the Los Santos police, were found to be responsible for instigating much of these violent clashes.

Although the Mara Salvatrucha Stoners had originated as a criminal gang of juvenile delinquents with an interest in heavy rock music and consuming cannabis, it had morphed into a brutally vicious and violent gang by the end of the 1980s. This barbarity was borne out of their clashes with Chicanos in the streets, where they brought their experiences as insurgents in the Salvadoran Civil War with them. In the early 1990s, the Mara Salvatrucha in Los Santos fell under the leadership of a former Salvadoran Army special forces soldier, Mario Villatoro.

Mario brought his military experiences from the civil war to train and discipline the gang. This ex-military influence lead some investigators from the Los Santos police and FBI to theorize that Salvadoran state actors were responsible for the gang's early growth, although these theories have never been proven. Around the same time period, the leaders of both Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang had a falling-out over unknown criminal matters. The resulting effect caused a bitter rivalry and street war between the two gangs that still exists today. Previously, Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street were friendly towards each other because they both allowed Central Americans to join and were largely non-discriminatory.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, hostilities in the Northern Triangle countries in Central America came to a close.

The civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala were finished and the Sandinistas defeated the American-backed government of Nicaragua. With some stabilization happening as a result, the US government began deporting convicted Central American criminals back to their countries after they finished their state prison sentences. Many of the deportees were gang members from the Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street gangs.

When these deportees returned to their countries, they formed their gangs there and rapidly rose throughout the criminal underworld. These large-scale deportations began after the Salvadoran Civil War ended in 1992. Eventually, criminals stopped being the only ones targeted by federal immigration authorities, and raids were conducted in urban communities in Los Santos. Many law-abiding illegal immigrants, who lived in the United States for several years, were deported throughout the 1990s. Prior to these waves of Central American deportations, the Northern Triangle nations did not have significant problems with gangs or organized crime. The re-building process following their civil wars and revolutions were fertile grounds for criminal gangs and other organized crime elements during the 1990s.

Mara Salvatrucha adopted its modern form during the late 1990s, when it had already spread throughout multiple districts and neighborhoods of Los Santos. The gang had also departed from San Andreas for other regions of the United States, such as the Western, Southwest and Northeast states. Central American communities around the United States began seeing Mara Salvatrucha presences, and this included power-bases in places such as Washington D.C. and East Island City, LC. The gang continued growing and becoming worse throughout Latin America, eventually expanding to Mexico by the 2000s. At this point, the gang effectively became an international criminal enterprise.

Mara Salvatrucha Today

As of the early 21st century, the Mara Salvatrucha are a transnational criminal organization. They are active in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America. Allegedly, they have criminal contacts in Western Europe, North Africa and as faraway as Australia. In Canada, the gang has been documented by the Toronto Police Service since 2008. The gang is said to also be criminally operating in Montreal, Quebec. Within the United States in particular, Mara Salvatrucha has lost a significant amount of influence in San Andreas over the past decade. However, they have been strengthened in the American Northeast. In particular, the police in Washington D.C., Maryland and Liberty City have had extreme difficulties with combating the gang. The gang has garnered the attention of mainstream American politics during the 2016 US federal election, as they were targeted by Donald Trump as a part of his election campaign. Calls for harsh crackdowns on the gang, especially in the East Island City neighbourhood, have came from both the general public and the Republican voter-base. These actions are supported by people who want a tough-on-crime approach to justice in the United States, but many immigration advocates and even Mara Salvatrucha itself has cautioned that these measures will make matters worse for Salvadorans living in the country.

The Mara Salvatrucha are notorious for their barbaric brutality in their diabolical personal pleasures. Its members are infamous for their usage of knives, machetes and hatchets to physically assault, murder, torture and mutilate their gangland enemies. They are feared throughout the urban and suburban areas of Los Santos for their involvement in violent sexual crimes that include sexual assaults and rapes. The gang's members have a well documented history of sexually assaulting and raping members of the general public within their homes, private businesses and other open areas.

However, some do not fear the Mara Salvatrucha but instead hate and despise it. Some gangs in Los Santos, such as the Playboy Sureños (PBS) and the Harpys (HPS), have waged street wars against the gang for the sake of weakening their influences across the city. This was allegedly ordered by incarcerated members of various prison gangs in the state, but this hasn't been proven by law enforcement authorities. Other gangs under the umbrella of the Sureños and 18th Street gang have co-operatively worked to take up former Mara Salvatrucha territories once they suffer losses as a result of these street wars.

Throughout Mexico, the Mara Salvatrucha are contracted by Mexican drug cartels as muscle for their efforts during the ongoing Mexican Drug War against the Mexican government, federal police and military. These Mara Salvatrucha members who act as muscle for the Mexican drug cartels go out of their way to be as bloody and barbaric as possible. Horror beyond what was seen in Los Santos in the 1980s and 1990s and what continues to be seen for that matter is created by Mara Salvatrucha members acting on behalf of drug cartels in Mexico.

The Mara Salvatrucha in Latin America & The East Coast

Throughout other Central American countries the Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 both hold strong presences aswell. The street gangs are in regular contact throughout various Guatemala, Honduras and Belize cities where they are involved in vicious street wars against eachother for control of territories and various key points throughout the cities.

The Mara Salvatrucha in El Salvador still hold a considerable amount of influence within the slums of the various cities and towns spread around the small Central-American country. Other gangs exist in El Salvador that are not affiliated to MS or 18, Alongside the La Mirada Locos 13 (MLS13) gang and the Playboy Sureños (PBS) gang. Other notable non-MS and non-B-18 street gangs currently operating in El Salvador reportedly include, among others, La Mao Mao and La Mara Maquína – both of which emerged during the civil war of the 1980s, along with the various smaller gangs affiliated to La Raza and Mara Desorden.

In El Salvador both of the Mara Salvatrucha Cars and their respective programs are all at war with various offshoots of other Salvadoran street gangs such as La Mao Mao 180 (MM180), Mara 18 (M18), La Mirada Locos (LMLS) and Mara Maquina (MM).

Throughout Mexico, the Mara Salvatrucha are contracted by Mexican drug cartels as muscle for their efforts during the ongoing Mexican Drug War against the Mexican government, law enforcement and military. These Mara Salvatrucha members who act as muscle for the Mexican drug cartels go out of their way to be as bloody and barbaric as possible. Horror beyond what was seen in Los Santos in the 1980s and 1990s and what continues to be seen for that matter is created by Mara Salvatrucha members acting on behalf of drug cartels in Mexico.

Recent Crimes

In 2017 and early 2018, the Mara Salvatrucha slowly began resurging in Little Seoul. Countless attacks against Asian-American (Particularly Chinese) members of the community were reported to have been assaulted, stabbed and even shot on several occasions. Due to the acts of the local Asian communities, the clique that had been terrorizing them soon went defunct.

During the later months of 2019, members of the Mara Salvatrucha 13's 'Tiny Winos' clique attacked the Gravedwellers Motorcycle Club on multiple occasions with the help of their allies at the time from the Vespucci Rifa 13 and Hillside Gangsters 13 street gangs. One of these brazen attacks on the Gravedwellers MC was the burning of the latter MC's Vespucci Beach clubhouse. Upon being set on fire by the Mara Salvatrucha, the biker gang's clubhouse subsequently exploded mere minutes later. No members of the MS-13 gang were prosecuted as a result of the burning of the clubhouse.

Throughout 2020, various murders were committed by the Mara Salvatrucha. These murders started when Yahira Zendejas, a reputed member of the Mara Salvatrucha Tiny Winos clique was found brutally murdered. Months afterwards, the body of Layla Coreas, another reputed member of the MS-13 gang was found dead in Little Seoul

In the later months of 2020, a decapitated teenager was found deceased in the Mount Chiliad State Wilderness national park.

Also in the later months of 2020, a reputed MS-13 shotcaller by the name of Xiomara Coreas or 'The Zombie' was shot to death by the Los Santos Police Department after attempting to murder one of their officers.

Shortly after the killing of Zombie Coreas, a brutal double murder was committed in Mirror Park by one Josue Zelaya, nickname Bandit. Zelaya had been a leader of the Mara Salvatrucha's Palomino Locos offshoot and was also thought to be a possible leader of the MS-13 in San Andreas overall, up until his arrest he was rumored to have maintained an iron fist like rule over most MS-13 cliques throughout Los Santos.

Josue Zelaya currently sits his prison sentence out in the Twin Towers Correctional Factility (TTCF).

Allies & Rivals

For the most part, the Mara Salvatrucha in Los Santos are only liked by themselves and friendly towards each other. All other gangs throughout Los Santos are either indifferent towards them or they're hated as well as despised. Within Los Santos, they are in regular conflict with their rivals from the Sureños, Barrio 18, the East Los Maravilla, the Bloods and the Crips.

While they have had past conflict with other street gangs and criminal organizations such as the Asian Boyz, Wah Ching, the Tiny Raskal Gang, Public Enemy Number 1, various Peckerwood gangs and the Nazi Lowriders, among many others, they are not considered main rivals.

Among the most recent additions to the Mara Salvatrucha's long list of rivals is the Hillside Gangsters 13 street gang, an El Burro Heights street gang that had previously been on good terms with MS-13. The so called 'alliance' between the two gangs was bought to an end as a result of tension between the two. The cause of the feud is said to be as a result of a female.

Allies include but aren't limited to:

  • Mexican Mafia
  • Mexican Drug Cartels
  • Black P Stones
  • W/S Rollin 20's Neighborhood Bloods
  • Geer Gang Crip (3x)
  • Schoolyard Gangster Crip

Rivals include but aren't limited to

Mara Salvatrucha Cliques

Forum Locos Salvatruchas (Defunct) Palomino Locos Salvatruchas (Defunct) Lowenstein Grandes Salvatruchas

Retrieved from "https://wiki.gta.world/index.php?title=Mara_Salvatrucha_13&oldid=1444"