Why The Children Are Fleeing From Central America by William Boyle

All these people, including many young, unaccompanied children taking this terribly dangerous journey of thousands of miles through Mexico, entering the U.S. illegally, and then trekking across a deadly hot desert on foot -- it is all to escape the clutches of even deadlier gangs in their countries of origin.

However, many people do not realize that the problem of these Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan gangs, has its origin here in the USA.


The problem of these violent gangs, got its start here in the USA, back in the 1970's and 80's, with the children of Central American undocumented single mothers, worker-women (office-building cleaning-ladies, janitors, house-maids).


These children grew up here in the USA, but because their mothers had to work 2 or 3 jobs, they had little or no home supervision... and these kids were a perfect prey for the US drug-gangs, which used them as street-vendors or school-drug peddlers, because as juveniles they were told that they would get little or no jail sentences.
 
However, when these children were captured, they were discovered as undocumented non-citizens and deported to El Salvador, Honduras, or Guatemala... during the 1990's and 2000's there were thousands of these teenagers deported to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala - they got there, and many of them didn't even speak Spanish! The only occupation they knew was how to be ruthless gang-members, and sell drugs.

The law-enforcement system in these Central American countries was completely unprepared for this onslaught. At this time the gangs have completely overwhelmed and corrupted the police - and some say even the judicial branch, and the military in these Central American countries.


And yes - the main reason at present for the continued existence of these gangs in Central America also has its origin here in the USA - it is the insatiable and continued demand for illegal drugs here in the USA.

So now these Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan gangs, are just franchises of Mexican drug-cartels, and yes, home-grown USA urban gangs.


I do find it hard to believe that extensive trafficking of dangerous and harmful drugs can happen without the complicity of police and political authorities - this is certainly a problem of the abuse of power of these political authorities.

Excerpt from the Washington Post: "U.S. officials are scrambling to understand and manage the surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America who have turned up at the southern U.S. border over the past few months." - http://www.washingtonpost.com/.../dc751266-f0b4-11e3-914c...