"What is seemingly, on the surface a group of misfits with guns engaged in criminal activity, might be a threat to stability if not controlled." "That's why we're attacking the MS-13." "Did that answer your question?" "Good, I wasn't sure." "Since 1980, gang-related murders in the U.S. and Central America have risen by 500%." "The Super Firm Hand Plan!" "We'll fight to rehabilitate and reinsert into society all those who are willing." "Governments have enacted a wide range of measures to confront the problem." "This government, your government, is planning for a future free from Maras; a future which our children deserve." "These measures have indirectly increased gang membership in Central America and the U.S." "To the criminals, I say with resolve:" "The party's over!" "The Mara Salvatruca gang, known as MS-13, is now the fastest growing and most violent gang in the world." "We must identify and destroy the MS-13 wherever it exists." "It is estimated that the MS-13 has over 100,000 members worldwide, and increasing daily." "So, I'm a citizen like everyone else." "All these unemployed people in the country." "I was destined for this." "With experience of war and weapons, but no money, no work, no nothing." "And your children going hungry?" "What else do you expect one to do?" "He had two options: to be the aggressor or the victim." "Nobody in the world would choose to be the victim." "Children of the War" "The Founders" "If I were to be born again, I wouldn't join a gang." "That's my message, above all, for youngsters interested in gangs." "A gang is no social club." "There is suffering." "The consequences are... death... hospitals, death, prison." "It gives me the creeps, when I look at the kids of today who are only 16 years old, killed by bullets, gunfire." "And now what?" "They can't do anything now that they're dead." "You know, these gangs were born out of the civil war which took place here in El Salvador." "The children were born violent." "All of us, the children who are now gang members, inherited that violence in their mothers' wombs, genetically." "The violence comes from the war which we lived through." "The Civil War" "There's a war in Central America financed by Cuba and the USSR." "They are arming, training, supplying and encouraging a war in order to subject a country to communism." "This country is El Salvador." "This is the first real communist regime on the American mainland." "The U.S. must work so that fledgling democracies of this hemisphere have a better future, so that ours will be more secure." "At the outset of the war, the national army had 14,000 soldiers." "Within a few years, the army grew to 60,000 soldiers." "The U.S. decided to invest an average of $2.5m per day." "The Salvadorean Army was made up of humble people, farmers, the same people who were exploited daily by the oligarchs were recruited to maintain the same system of oppression they suffered." "These farmers in Central America know nothing about communism." "because they were denied an education, and can't read or write." "There was no Cold War here." "This was a daily struggle to survive." "During my time in the army I learned how to kill, how to survive, because this was no conventional war." "We were fighting guerrillas." "Trained in counter-terrorism." "They arrived, kicked your door in and dragged you out." "Their uniforms were like the Nazis and they killed with the same fervor." "Back then, nothing mattered to me, not even a dead baby, an old man, a woman, or any dead body." "We were at war." "In training they would drum it into your head that even if your father was a guerrilla, he was an enemy to be hunted down." "You had to kill all enemies, there was no room for feelings." "We were in a rapid response Special Unit and heard news of a possible guerrilla campsite." "We went and cleaned it out." "It turned out that the government information was totally wrong." "It's something that remains with you." "Only you and the group know about it." "My brother had his eyes ripped out." "He suffered a lot." "They tortured him." "I know he was killed." "Nobody feels good about what happened." "The war was a business." "The government claimed all the profits." "We were forgotten like we never existed." "The U.S. government is probably most responsible for our gang culture." "They were looking to end social exclusion via armed revolt." "They decided to launch an offensive to take political power." "On the 10th January 1981 the FMLN camps were born." "[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front]" "Children and seniors died." "Youngsters and professionals died." "People who didn't have to die in this country." "People of great intellectual capacity who could have helped the country." "The army and military basically defended the interests of the rich." "Not the interests of our people." "I realized I was fighting for the wrong side." "It was an opportunity to change my political beliefs." "In this country they've committed thousands of war crimes." "They haven't asked the Salvadoran people for forgiveness." "Between 1980 and 1992, more than 75,000 people died in the war." "I chose to leave for the U.S. before they realized I was a leftist." "Around 2 million Salvadorans got tired of the conflict and decided to emigrate for the safety of their families." "The Other Side" "How were things for the refugees arriving in the U.S.?" "When we got to Los Angeles, it was a tough transition." "They didn't fit in, not even with the other Hispanics." "They just started to band together." "The first reaction arriving in L.A. was the total culture shock." "Later they enrolled me in a school, where things got more difficult." "The Mexicans would surround us, many of them, calling us names." "They hit Francisco, Roberto...why?" "Just because we were Salvadorans." "They thought that having been born in the U.S. meant we would submit to them." "And that wasn't going to happen." "The new arrivals in the U.S. had participated in armed conflict, or had witnessed the deaths of their parents, or brothers and sisters." "So they were fleeing a civil war, and would again face aggression in a different country by another group of people." "They made use of the violence they had learned to defend themselves." "In a school, there are 3 or 4 gangs which dominate." "Within those 3 or 4 there are internal rivalries." "So if you don't belong to any gang, one or more will try to recruit you." "If you don't join any gang, you live on the end of beatings from all sides." "In 1990 the situation was bad." "You couldn't walk the street without fear of getting shot at from a passing car." "So we formed a group and made a plan to hit back at them." "We recruited people one at a time, encouraging them to join us." "That's how the MS-13 was created." "The Beginning" "In rock and roll they all do this." "We went to a concert once and adopted it that same day." "This is how we identify ourselves." "Mara is a slang word from El Salvador meaning "gang"." "Salvatrucha was a pejorative term used by guerrillas during the war to refer to poor farmers and immigrants (similar to "wetback")." ""Mara Salvatrucha" taken literally today means "gang of Salvadorans"." "Originally for gang members tattoos were to show dedication, entrenchment, and indebtedness to the gang." "Tattoos on the forehead, eyebrows, lips, ears and neck were open, visible symbols around the facial area to demonstrate total and unambiguous loyalty." "This is who I am and this is my life." "If you don't like it, tough." "They communicate with each other in a range of ways, constantly inventing and reinventing these systems of communication, partly because law enforcement looks out for their signs, and also because as a culture they are naturally innovative." "Tattoos can be likened to military insignia." "Gangs go into battle dressed for combat." "Perspectives" "Gangs give young people from poor areas a way to feel like men." "Not being able to provide for your family is humiliating and it's frustrating when you're the breadwinner, but there's no bread." "There's little work to be had." "Maybe if you're lucky you can end up in a low-level, servile, or menial role." "Perhaps a chaffeur, washing dishes, or mowing lawns." "These kinds of jobs often require the father to work long hours." "That father isn't at home to care for his children." "In this environment, children can easily stray into gang culture." "If parents aren't responsible for what's happening you can't expect the police to feel responsible either." "Youth often join gangs to avoid domestic abuse." "87% of juveniles detained for murder in California have been abused physically or sexually in their homes." "There's some individuals sitting across the table from me, and I wonder what kind of circumstances have led to their facing the death penalty, compared to me sitting here." "There wasn't much difference." "It all comes down to choice." "The youngest don't sell drugs." "Instead, take this walkie-talkie." "The only thing you have to do is tell us when the police show up." "I'll give you $250 a week." "That's one thousand a month." "How do you tell a kid who makes more money than his mother, who is buying her medicine, to quit and go to school?" "To watch her get sick while you run up debt?" "In that type of environment you just can't convince anyone." "My whole career in the FBI has been in counter-terrorism." "On the surface, conventional wisdom says they're a bunch of misfits, ruffians, disorganized poor kids with guns." "But it's vital to go down a few layers and find out who is giving the orders." "Where is the money going?" "How are they communicating across countries and borders?" "That's what we must do in order to destroy the MS-13." "Not just capture the footsoldiers, but identify the leaders and hierarchy." "Here there are no bosses." "That's a lie." "You know how it works?" "We rank experience." "Whether you like it or not, we're thousands of people." "Some are 15 years old." "Others 20, 25, or 30 years old." "Logically the older you are, the more you know." "Your mind is more mature." "We see things differently." "This wasn't something that developed in an organized way," "to create an illegal trade in drugs or arms, like you see in a movie." "You have to be sophisticatd to do that." "They're not." "What happened was that they found something worth dying for." "The gang gave them all that." "An identity and sense of belonging." "The opportunity to join a protective family." "Everything which their own family hadn't provided for them." "Security, understanding, and strong, if not total, loyalty." "At least the pride of something that you belong to." "In Texas, an 18-month old child was killed in crossfire between rival gangs." "Who's in charge?" "Who is the law in this particular area?" "Is it the rule of law or the law of the gangs?" "They provoke us to fight amongst each other instead of encouraging us to collaborate and giving assistance." "They pick us up and take us across town to kill us." "They then take away the bodies and make false arrests." "I'm positive that MS-13 tells the people: don't go to the police." "We'll protect you." "The police will just turn you over to Immigration." "That's not true." "We'll protect all citizens, illegals or not." "Police officers pick up gang members, take them away" "and drop them off in rival gang territory, to give them a scare, or teach them to respect the police, whatever reason." "This could result in a beating and sometimes even death." "This happened frequently." "I saw it and took part in it." "Sometimes the police shoot someone who was unarmed." "So we'd have to cover it up to avoid getting in trouble." "Fear had paralyzed us, and it made us do stupid things." "The National Gang Taskforce is the focal point from which all Federal police departments should target, attack and destroy the MS-13, before it can evolve and change its objectives from self-enrichment to something more ominous." "One of the ways we secured the detention of a gang member was what we called false evidence." "They would fabricate arrest, planting drugs or a gun." "It was that simple." "They'd go to the cells protesting that it was a plant." "But nobody would believe them." "The same police who made the arrest have all the control." "What have been the results of the war against gangs in the U.S.?" "We have over 2 million people locked up in the U.S." "That's more than the population of Nebraska, or Houston, Texas." "We have even more prisoners than all active military personnel." "So the real question is whether locking people up is the solution." "The more prisoners we have, the more successful we are." "With so many gang members locked up, we must ask why there are so many gang members in the first place?" "Over a third of all prisoners behind bars in California are gang members." "This is the clearest failure I've ever seen in any criminal justice policy." "We have corporations operating prisons on the stock market, prisons being privatized, prisoners forced to work." "Forced to work for 11 cents an hour." "When I was in prison, it was dangerous to be alone." "You could get hit or stabbed anytime." "You can't run from danger in a prison." "If you run, you're a coward." "Most people try to run." "If they pick you out for a beating to test your resolve, you just have to take it:" "beating, stabbing, whatever." "Politicians running for election will always promise to be tough on gangs and crime." "They use it all the time as a way of getting elected." "I think they take advantage of voters who never complain." "Gangs have become the scapegoat for all Latin America's problems." "These guys grow up, and eventually get imprisoned for whatever reason." "The federal law is to deport all non-citizens." "The individual is deported and thus the gang culture is exported." "The Return" "What awaits gang members in their home countries?" "Death, imprisonment, and attacks by rival gangs," "but most likely an initial encounter with authorities." "They probably won't get to see their home." "But even if they do, there's nothing there for them." "They are publicly viewed as undesirables, enemies." "So now, the Mara Salvatrucha has come to El Salvador." "Gang members brought that culture back home." "We returned here, most of us planning to find honest work, not be delincuents, but instead to look for opportunities." "But the people saw our tattoos, shaved heads, baggy clothes, and ended up discriminating against us, closing off opportunities." "Violence already existed here." "It was already a violent country." "But even to us, it scared us." "We hadn't seen such violence before the arrival of the gang phenomenon." "All these children of the civil war were excluded human beings." "We were three siblings." "Imagine how hard it was to provide for us." "Each of us have struggled as far we've been able to." "I've always liked living on the streets, always." "Street life is the only thing I've never messed up and there's a real chance of getting ahead in life." "I'm doing this voluntarily, nobody forced me." "The habitual drug was glue." "They had nothing to live for." "They were well accustomed to violence." "They knew how to make shotguns and grenades." "Often it wasn't worth the effort; weapons were cheap." "I've fought for my government against the guerrillas in the hills." "Now they call you anti-social [in the media] but they don't consider the reasons why we are now anti-social." "After all we did for them, and then they treat us like trash!" "When you're poor and ignorant, you can't analyse your situation." "Applying for a job is impossible unless you have a clean history." "We'll never be accepted." "So the logical thing was to go criminal." "The violence there was really overwhelming." "El Salvador was like a cage from which the gangs burst out." "How did you join the Mara Salvatrucha?" "I joined the MS-13 in 1990." "Before joining, I started to have problems with them." "I went twice to the police, but they didn't listen to me." "I told them: "I'm a veteran!" "With a gun, I'll be unstoppable!"" "That's when I decided to meet the Maras, and got drawn in." "People supported me, while my family withdrew from my life." "From that time onwards, the gang has been my family." "This isn't a sport or tradition, nothing like that." "It's a personal choice to to survive and avoid death." "It's not even enjoyable." "You can be hanging around with friends when suddenly some guys appear looking for trouble with the Maras." "They've killed my friends, right in front of me." "You can say you're not MS-13 and they might kill you anyway." "So whatever happens, as far as I'm concerned:" "I'm with the MS-13." "When I started hanging around with the homeboys they would say I was a slut and think the worst of me." "But all the things they said weren't true at all." "It doesn't mean we have that kind of relationship." "As a female you are respected in a gang as an equal member." "But sometimes people in civil society will think differently." "When they finish counting the 13 seconds of initiation, you're a member in a new reality; the old one is gone." "The new reality of the gang will be your reality forever." "Now you can't go back." "It's onwards and upwards." "You have to get stuck in." "Your own family has rejected you." "The Maras will help you out, give you food, somewhere to sleep." "The idea didn't impress my mother, but I told her:" "What am I doing now?" "Nothing's working out for me." "Gradually, she got used to the idea." "When a group accepts you, and you're willing to die for them, and they tattoo your name on themselves to remember you when nobody else does, these people become very meaningful." "My friends were "Goofy", "Unhappy","Bear", "Cat", which were personalities that they themselves had created." "This in turn becomes addictive, the place where you want to be, the place where you belong, and you can't leave it easily." "The gangs provided what was lacking in the rest of my life." "What I never got at home, in the neighborhood, or at school." "In the gang they taught me how to be a man." "I got my education in the street, jails, correctional centers, prisons." "I had my first sexual experience while in the gang." "Everything that I did was by the rules, gang-related." "Gangs are the nexus of union for youth with no aim or hope in life." "The MS-13 is a religion for me." "Defending those two letters." "[unintelligible]" "The post-war Salvadoran government was more interested in economic reform as prescribed by the Washington consensus, than strengthening institutions to promote national stability." "So for a long time the problem of gang violence was ignored." ""Various MS-13 members presumed guilty of killing the businessman [...]"" "But when the violence became a problem for El Salvador's image, and international discussion started focusing on the high violence occurring in Central America, governments suddenly realized they needed to take action." "The ex-presidents went on a tour around the country to talk with the people, then came up with the idea that this was a topic that could unite the population and reverse the trend." "But they didn't talk about violence or even security in general." "They went after the gangs." "This was the common enemy to benefit the politicians." "Just like the guerrillas before, now we have the gangs." "The source of all the country's problems, the menace to society." "These media campaigns designated gangs as the enemy and the bodies started appearing." "Mutilated corpses of youngsters." "Members of the Mara Salvatrucha." "And thus it began:" "The idea of the Firm Hand Plan." "Firm Hand" "The Webster." "Sentenced to 30 years." "The Crime." "Sentenced to 35 years." "The Spy." "Sentenced to 30 years." "With penal code reform and the collaboration of the citizenry we have applied the Super Firm Hand to 5,500 gang members, returning security and peace to thousands of Salvadoran families." "Report gang members to 122 (National Police)" "The Ministry of Governance." "Security for peaceful progress." "Police officers can detain youth for being in a large group, for having tattoos, baggy clothes, or a shaved head." "All these things are common among gangs, but also of regular young people, who have a right to freedom of expression and to behave like other youth around the world." "Our situation is really incredible." "It's amazing that these gangs can assume control of neighborhoods and territory." "They torture people, commit Satanic acts, everything imaginable." "But under our legal system they are minors; untouchable." "Those delincuents who have enjoyed protection will now face justice." "I've instructed the armed forces and national police to go out and reclaim these territories and capture the gang leaders." "This operation seeks the break-up of gangs and prison time for members." "In this offensive against delincuency we will use all legitimate means including exceptional measures permitted by the Constitution." "Among these initiatives is the prohibition of membership of criminal gangs such as the MS-13 and Mara 18." "I was completely naked." "They threw me to the floor." "They started to hit me, kick me, beat me with the rifles, in front of my children, my wife and the neighbors." "It's a lie that we have freedom of expression, there is none." "The government does what it likes, it's worse than during the civil war." "Now they come after us as if we were their enemies." "They don't consider that we have families too." "I don't regret what I do." "Not because I'm against the government, but because I'm against the government's injustices." "The percentage of violent crimes committed by under-18s is far lower in all these countries than the public would believe." "However, politicians can easily win support and votes by writing a few harsh laws." "The Firm Hand Plan is just another empty measure which hasn't lowered the crime rate according to the government's own data for the last 2-3 years." "In fact, it's probably a counterproductive strategy." "The government reported 8 homicides per day before the Firm Hand Plan." "It presented the Firm Hand Plan as an alternative to reduce crime." "Two years later, the figures haven't gone down." "They are up 50%." ""Opportunities for all."" "The Prison" "It's a penitenciary system which can support 6,000 but houses over 15,000." "We've gone backwards to how it was during the civil war." "There are more undeserving prisoners than those who deserve to be there." "One cell should be for 20 people, but some have over 60 inside." "Some have to sleep next to the toilet or sitting down." "They have places solely for serious offenders." "The "worst gang members," as they are called, are placed in these centers known as Gang Modules." "Lots of prisoners are sick, many are HIV Positive." "We need someone to help us with medicine, since we don't have a doctor, only one nurse, which isn't enough." "The healthcare we have inside here is far too basic." "The rights you have as prisoners include that of association the only rights you've lost are the vote, and liberty." "All other rights you still have as prisoners." "The measures adopted by this government, and in the U.S., and in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador," "are trying to combat this social phenomenon with repression," "which is opening the way for social conflict between two classes which could end in genocide." "There's a social class marginalizing us." "We don't want to be marginalized." "They caught me in a police operation." "I went to prison and lost my job." "Now how do I make a living after being unfairly imprisoned?" "Do you think I left prison happy?" "No, I was more bitter than before." "When they ruin your life, you turn out even worse." "The MS-13 Grows" "31 U.S. States have reported a MS-13 presence." "If we look at the expansion of the Mara Salvatrucha we can see it follows the traditional paths of immigrants" "such as Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans, who head to places with big construction industries." "This is why you find an elevated presence of MS-13 members in North Virginia, Rhode Island and North Carolina." "Immigrants have also found a source of employment in the meat industry, such as in Omaha, Nebraska and N. Carolina." "where gangs like the MS-13 go to prey on their own." "They impose taxes within their territory on bus drivers, taxi drivers, street sellers, and food vendors." "Arms traffickers are using the gangs for their benefit." "There is evidence that hitmen are being hired to kill people." "In gang culture, respect is based on fear." "A new gang in an area has to gain a reputation and ways to achieve this are becoming more extreme." "Machete attacks, armed house robberies and shootouts." "In our hearts, we despise those who take the little that we have." "Why does the number of gang members keep rising?" "For every gangster they kill, there's 4 new recruits." "For every one they lock up, there's another 4 recruits." "It keeps on growing all the time." "The present situation is that gangs consider the police their enemy." "So aside from their gang rivals, there's also the government." "This is why we've seen kidnappings of government officials." "All this is happening in El Salvador." "When you see a bus attacked with 28 people machine-gunned, men, women and children, and the reason for the attack was a response to a police crackdown, you have to ask" "was this just gang violence, or violence with a political motive." "Every time I see these images, it tells me that we must identify and destroy the MS-13 immediately." "We don't harm those who don't deserve it." "But we won't allow anybody to kill a Mara and get away with it." "Violence generates more violence." "There was an understanding between the authorities that this was going to happen, and that they would participate in the massacre of the detained persons." "Wardens fired on the prison population." "They fired to kill;" "these weren't warning shots." "MS-13 members were trapped in the middle of the prison." "There was a fire, the origin of which hasn't been investigated." "If it was an arson attack or intentional." "Over 100 gang members, mostly MS-13, died as a result." "The situation is concerning." "Tomorrow morning we'll report the scientific conclusions, because things are still unclear." "The whole floor was on fire and the other rooms too." "We were locked up inside for 2 hours and a half." "They didn't open the doors, but forced us away because they thought we were trying to riot." "They saw the confusion and all the smoke coming out and all they did was fire shots and laugh at us." "Almost 40 bodies were thrown on the patio under the sun." "Later it rained, so it was hard to recognize the corpses." "Some were not even dead, but died en route to the hospital." "It was a morbid spectacle." "A feeling of impotency to see human beings treated as if they were nothing but dead meat." "It was horrible, and something I could not bear to see again." "It's a way of exterminating, of liquidating the MS-13." "What better opportunity than when they are locked up and defenceless in the location and at the time of the killer's choosing?" "This had repercussions internationally, for human rights." "The U.S. has a clear idea of what to do with criminals:" "lock them away." "In El Salvador it's different." "They kill them, get rid of them." "They extinguish the problem as quickly as they can." "The government has tried to wipe them out in the most illegal manner, not even trying to cover it up." "Public opinion is indifferent." "People are almost happy to see this kind of repression;" "the killing of 'bad elements'." "Today" "In what situation does the MS-13 find itself today?" "One way of responding to their invisibility is to make oneself more visible than ever." "It's a kind of resistance, almost a natural reaction, to antagonize the enemy openly and in their faces." "If you treat me like an animal" "I'll be more primitive than you can imagine in your worst nightmare." "I joined the gang to challenge society, to confront it." "To give back the grievances I received from society." "Society is not rejected, it is faced with defiance." "Society is made to pay for what the gangs feel they have suffered." "The gangs will confront the state with ever more boldness." "It's something I'll keep doing." "Maybe you feel fear the first time or a crisis of confidence, and you won't be able to sleep." "Like when you close you eyes, the man you killed will touch your body." "So at first there's a feeling of guilt." "But if you get used to it," "it becomes second nature, a pleasant feeling." "Anyone exposed to risk of death or something similar, can experience PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] not dissimilar to that which affects soldiers on the front line." "These gang members can have very intense symptoms." "Gang members were never organized, in their cliques and distinct territories." "Put if you put them together in the same prisons, they will meet and begin to organize nationally as a response to the politics of state repression." "The Firm Hand Plan, and all the other initiatives have only allowed for new alliances with narcotraffickers which never existed before." "Gangs keep growing but now they don't have tattoos, and don't use the old signs." "Youth still join gangs, and have new signs and tactics." "They are much more violent than 5 or 10 years ago." "I wouldn't be surprised if terrorism becomes linked to the Maras, and accusations are made against gangs." "There are so many protests against Maras and calls to crack down on them," "so much corruption in this society, that the easiest thing is to blame those groups who are socially excluded." "In order to deal a stunning, hopefully fatal blow to the MS-13, our strategy is attacking nationwide employing the same measures we used against organized crime" "in a coordinated manner to destroy them in criminal courts." "Have the policies against gang culture been successful?" "There hasn't been a decrease in gang membership in 15 years, but the budget for fighting gangs has ballooned 4 or 5 times." "We have over 2 million people locked up in state prisons." "Can that be considered success?" "It's a massive failure." "The current policies are plagued with failure but presented as successes." "The problem is when politicians like those in El Salvador apply apparently simple solutions to very complex issues." "Do you see an end to all this?" "It's possible that we'll see a truce." "But not if someone is cutting off your hand at the same time as you shake it." "I don't think the MS-13 would accept that." "I still believe peace can be achieved, but only when the government starts to look after its people." "The gang are your people." "You survived and learned a lot together." "At a certain age, you don't get bored, but you do get tired." "Now it's right to dedicate more time to the home and children." "You leave the house and get arrested, for what?" "Because you're a gang member, tattooed, and they won't believe that you've been rehabilitated." "Sadly, we're not young anymore and it's a little late for us to be dealing with all that." "My dream is to have a career in law." "Maybe it interests me because" "I've lived the history of this country and seen the injustice that exists." "I want to practice law to assist all of the youth victimised by the laws of this country and are in reality being imprisoned for crimes they haven't committed." "Things are very difficult here in El Salvador but if we join forces we can overcome our problems." "Two months after filming this interview Ernesto Miranda was murdered by gunfire at the door of his home." "The full facts are still unknown." "When you live in this neighborhood you know you'll die here, too." "You learn to appreciate life, because nobody wants to die." "If you know how to learn from living life, experiencing things, all that you go through from day to day, the poverty, stuff that will never change, because they don't want things to change." "The pain hurts too much, it's hard to explain." "Losing a militant like that, the rage and anger that we feel, can be self-destructive, if you wrap yourself up in it." "But it makes you evolve mentally and in the physical." "I'll die for this game, for the numbers and letters." "It's where I belong and I'm addicted to it." "I regret some of the things I did." "The harm caused to innocents." "The harm I did to my parents." "Think about it." "Leaders don't learn anything from the situation." "They ruin our lives but don't stop to discover the reasons behind what has happened, why it continues to happen." "But if we want peace with the government, we should be offered something, a house, a job, anything." "Instead of the discrimination and aggresion against us." "But without that, the problem will never be solved." "I'll tell you honestly, that all I do, and have done while risking my life as an ex-gang member," "and being criticized by my family for supporting change without any thanks from the government or the gangs..." "None of that matters to me." "As a Salvadoran," "I have the same rights as any other citizen." "Our democracy enjoys many freedoms: of speech, religion and association, among many others we should not take for granted." "These rights should be enjoyed by all of humanity." "This union has always defended these liberties." "This is why I want to talk to you about freedom not in the United States, but in a nearby part of the world that is very important for us:" "Central America." "We must understand the gravity of the situation." "There's a war in Central America financed by Cuba and the USSR." "They are arming, training, supplying and encouraging a war in order to subject a country to communism." "This country is El Salvador." "This is the first real communist regime on the American mainland." "We must never forget that here in the Western hemisphere we are Americans in every country from pole to pole." "So I ask all of us, independently of our political allegiances to join in a common effort to promote freedom for all peoples of this hemisphere." "Just like you work to provide your children with a better future, so the U.S. should work to provide a better future for all fledgling democracies in our region, so our own will be more secure." "Thank you, and God bless you."