MS 13 and the Al Qaeda Connection

Mara Salvatrucha 13 and Al-Qaeda

President Bush should reflect back to March, 2001, when he granted "temporary protected status" to as many as 300,000 illegal immigrants from El Salvador, many of whom were hardened veterans of that country's civil war, a war that raged for 12 years, and ended in1992. That bloody war pitted government troops against leftists guerillas, and incurred in excess of 100,000 casualties, along with sending hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing northward. A large percentage of these refugees that had fought in their homeland, and who had been trained by U.S. Army advisers in El Salvador on the finer aspects of explosives, weaponry, infiltration and warfare, made it into the U.S. And in so doing, became the nucleus of a new formidable street gang, now pervasive throughout the United States.

With the arrival of the first wave of these people in Los Angeles, the area of Rampart Division became the first stop. At that time, Rampart was the home base of the violent Eighteenth Street gang. The newcomers who had been part of the bloody civil war in their homeland, were quick to seize upon the opportunities afforded them in their new home. After all, doesnâ€,,t everyone come here to make a better life? We keep hearing that from the politicians.

Many of the Salvadorans jumped in with the Eighteenth Street gang, but the majority of them decided to form their own street gang limiting membership to Salvadorans only. Thus, Mara Salvatrucha was born. The name â€,,Mara Salvatruchaâ€"13,â€Â