Crime

How to deal with gangs: Prosecute their members for treason

Latin America has a gang problem. The violence of the region’s drug cartels is well known to the point of Hollywood cliché, but the violence of newer gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18 in Central America, or First Capital Command in Brazil, has been less appreciated. With levels of violent crime across the region soaring, this is starting to change.

Together, the gangs and cartels have helped make the region the murder capital of the world, far surpassing any competitors. Worse, these gangs have corrupted the often fragile institutions of the states in which they reside. By overthrowing the state’s monopoly on the lethal use of force and co-opting or intimidating local law enforcement and the justice system, these gangs have in many places created a state-within-a-state.

Gangs extort the businesses and individuals within their territories for revenues and conscript unwilling young men into membership, aping the government’s power to tax and raise armies. If anyone disobeys, the gangs enforce their will by terror tactics: arson, rape, torture, dismemberment, summary execution, beheadings, and worse.