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Fleeing Central America's Killing Streets

Cindy Arnson

This article about violence and organized crime in Central America, and its effect on migration, quotes Latin American Program Director Cynthia J. Arnson.

[...]

"The gang-driven violence that claimed Andrea's life has roots that date back to the earlier waves of immigrants who escaped to the US during the Central American civil wars of the 1980s.

Cynthia Arnson, the director of the Latin American Program at the Wilson Center, said that past deportation policy helped spread US-born gangs like Mara Salvatrucha into the Northern Triangle countries.

"A lot originated in the deportation in the 1980s," Arnson told Al Jazeera. "That was a piece of organisation for gangs such as MS-13 and the 18th street gang.""

[...]

The full article is available here.

About the Author

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia J. Arnson

Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Program
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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more