Episode 8 of the Border Wars Podcast is about El Salvador. On October 15, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice designated La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as a major transnational criminal organization. Consecutive governments in El Salvador tried to negotiate with MS-13 leaders in efforts to calm down gang violence and reduce the high-rate of homicides. These efforts failed.

Former Washington Post investigative journalist and U.S. Defense Department consultant, Douglas Farah, has been investigating gangs in El Salvador since their formation in the 1990s. Published by the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), his most recent report argues that MS-13 is no longer simply a street gang but rather a Community-Embedded Transnational Armed Group (CETAG) that operates in several countries with a structured o ...