15 July 2011

A boy waits to see a medical provider at an Army Reserve clinic in El Salvador. Children this young are sometimes targets of gang recruitment efforts in the South American country.
                      Photo By Staff Sgt. Kristen King/U.S. Army ReserveBy Raymond Billy | Resonate News

What some are calling a subculture of violence among El Salvador's youths is threatening to metastasize, locals say. Aggressive recruitment by gangs, coupled with a dearth of parental oversight in some areas, is helping to create social conditions in which hundreds of youths are being murdered each year.

Wally Cook, a missionary in El Salvador for eight years, said the dangers posed by — and to — the country's young adults are palpable.

“If you ask the average person on the street what the biggest problem facing this country is, they'd likely tell you it's juvenile delinquency,” said Cook, 59, who founded Amazing Love Missions in 2003 with his wife, Judy, to mentor El Salvador's youths. Cook said a “huge culture of abandonment” was contributing to crime among the country's young people.

“A lot of kids ask, 'Why don't I have a mom and dad?'” said Cook, who estimates up to 25 percent of the teenagers he works with don't have a father in the home. Many Salvadoran parents leave their children and come to the United States. They work and wire money back to their families, said Cook, who moved to El Salvador from Canton, Texas.

While the parents go north in search of jobs, gang members trained on the streets of the U.S. are flowing back into the Central American country. Many of these were the children of immigrants who joined the Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street gangs to fight Mexican groups in Los Angeles. Upon their arrests in the States, many gang members were deported to El Salvador, bringing with them a new level of violence.

Luis Vasquez, a Tyler, Texas, rheumatologist born in El Salvador, said this lawlessness doesn't infect the whole nation.

“The majority of Salvadorans are honest people trying to make a living. But you have a cancer in the society and that is these gangs,” said Vasquez, 47, who returned to El Salvador for his high school years and some college before starting his medical practice in Texas. He said the gangs are aggressively adding to their number.

“These guys go out and recruit fresh members before they are even teenagers,” Vasquez said. “Especially kids born into gang families. Their dad is a gangster, their mom is a gangster and they end up joining,” he said.

Possible brutality by El Salvador's National Civilian Police might be adding to the problem. According to a U.S. State Department report in April, “credible” complaints have been made against the police for “harassment or arbitrary detention” of minors. According to the report “Gang members were separated from the regular prison population when possible,” suggesting there is at least some commingling between hardened criminals and youths. Gangs “exercise influence within the prisons and the judicial system,” the report said, likely making efforts to add members relatively easy even while in custody.

All of this might factor into a staggering death toll among young people in El Salvador. According to a report by the nonprofit Sangari Research Institute, El Salvador had the world's highest murder rate with 105.6 victims per 100,000 people ages 15 to 24 in 2006, the most recent year statistics are available. The country of 6 million people also had the highest overall murder rate per capita.

Cook, of Amazing Love Missions, is among those trying to reach young people before gangs do. His organization helped establish Ruta 3:16, a youth church in San Salvador, the nation's capital. He said the ministry's aim is to welcome those who might be shunned by other churches.

“We try to reach out to the disaffected members of society. Kids come here with wild hair and tattoos and we try to disciple them and show them Christian love.

“A lot of people are just looking to have a relationship with God. They don't necessarily wake up one morning and say 'I need to change my style of clothing and hairstyle and cover my tattoos,” Cook said. “We take people as they are.”

Nevertheless, Cook said he has no choice but to draw the line at potentially repentant gang members.

“We need to protect every member of the church. As much as we'd like to take in gang members looking to be discipled, their lives are in jeopardy once they decide to leave a gang. They don't let you quit. The only way you leave is you die,” Cook said.

Youths who are able to receive mentoring are very appreciative, said Matt Murphy, who has spent time in El Salvador each of the last three years with Pine Cove, a Tyler organization that helps facilitate Christian camps for children.

“Going to camp is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many of them and they really enjoy it,” said Murphy, 27, noting the economic conditions of the kids. He said many became emotional as this year's camp drew to a close.

“A lot of them cried when the camp ended. They became quite attached to some of the counselors. It was tough to say goodbye.”

Cook — whose organization is supported financially by Word of Victory Outreach Center in Canton —  said he hopes efforts to reach El Salvador with the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bring healing to youths who have been emotionally wounded by “the culture of abandonment.”

“The Scripture says 'Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me,'” Cook said, quoting Psalm 27:10. “I don't want to change people's behavior so much as I want to change their relationship with God. If that doesn't change a person, nothing will.”

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