Story: Fleeing Gang Violence and Forced Recruitment

Gang Violence and Forced Recruitment

Fleeing Violence in Mexico and Central America

As part of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) research into conditions of asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, in 2019 a team of medical doctors documented 10 cases of asylum seekers in Tijuana that were fleeing gang violence.

In each case, their accounts were consistent with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) definition of who gangs target and how this violence forces people to flee: forcible youth recruitment into gangs; extortion of small business owners and other specific groups unable or unwilling to pay protection money or provide certain goods and services; threats or killings of witnesses to crimes, or those who have reported crimes; and gender-based violence toward women and girls, among other groups.

As the following cases demonstrate, gangs have a “high level of organized determination as to who should be killed, when and where,” and these are not “random criminal acts.” Moreover, PHR’s research found that in six of the 10 cases related to gang violence, the asylum seekers tried to find a safe haven in their own country or another country before fleeing to the United States, but continued to face insecurity given the gangs’ stronghold. As Manuel, an 18-year-old man who fled gang recruitment in El Salvador, explained to PHR, “the country is so small that there are gangs in every corner and in all neighborhoods.”

The following images tell the story of Manuel, as well as Jorge, 60, who fled Honduras in search of asylum in the United States. All names have been changed for the protection of the asylum seekers.

Manuel, 18, El Salvador

Manuel and his older brother Douglas grew up together in El Salvador. Like many young men in that country, Douglas was targeted by a gang who wanted to recruit him, but he refused to join.

One evening, when Manuel and Douglas were at home, gang members arrived on motorcycles and asked Douglas to go with them. When Douglas asked why, the leader said that they wanted to talk about their offer. Out of fear that they would kill him and Manuel, Douglas went with the gang members. The next day, his body was found in a canal. He had been strangled with his own shoelaces.

The gang then began pursuing Manuel. Having witnessed Douglas being taken away by these members, Manuel knew who was responsible for Douglas’s death – which he knew made him a target. He also believed that the gang had planned to recruit Douglas, and then Manuel and his other brothers, one by one. When asked if he had gone to authorities, Manuel told PHR:

“It is all one corruption scheme because in many neighborhoods they [gangs] pay the police to kill people whom they cannot [kill]. The gang pays the police to do the work of the gang.”

Manuel fled and took refuge in another town. Eventually, the gang found Manuel at this refuge, so he fled to yet another town, but was again found. With nowhere else to go, Manuel then joined the migrant caravan that traveled from Central America to Tijuana in late 2018.

Upon arriving in Tijuana, members of the same gang Manuel had been fleeing for the past two years found him, threw him into a tent, and began beating him. When they ripped off his shirt and saw Douglas’s name tattooed on Manuel’s chest, they hit him harder on his chest with a metal rebar because he had lied. They also attempted to stab him in the chest, which he was able to stave off using his forearm as a shield. Finally, police officers intervened, and Manuel escaped. He then went into hiding in Tijuana while he waited for his turn to make a claim in the United States.

Jorge, 60, Honduras

“They burn people alive. They put a lot of clothes on them, tie them up, and then drench them in gasoline.... I did not let them catch me. They would have burned me alive.”

Jorge lived with his wife and sons in northern Honduras, where he worked as a small farmer. He left to do seasonal work and, over time, began hearing stories that his 17- and 20-year-old sons in Honduras were facing increasing pressure to join a gang.

When he arrived in Honduras, Jorge found out that his family had not been paying the “war tax” – protection money demanded by gangs. The gang had forced his wife to marry a gang member and live in a house with the man in a neighborhood which was completely dominated by the gang. Both sons had been coerced into selling drugs, and even his 12- and 14-year-old nephews had been forced to do jobs for them. The eldest nephew became especially disturbed when the gang wanted him to commit a murder. Jorge decided to take all four boys out of Honduras.

He first took his sons out of the country, and then returned for his nephews. The gang members began asking about the sons, who had been their recruits, and José’s wife sent him secret messages begging him to leave Honduras before he got killed.

Jorge was walking down the street when he was approached from behind and hit in the shoulder, neck, and chest with a baseball bat, which broke his clavicle.

José’s clinical evaluation is highly consistent with his narrative. When Jorge raises his arm above 90 degrees, he experiences pain and weakness (4/5 strength) and therefore has difficulty doing manual labor, which was how he made a living previously. He did not seek medical attention when he was beaten in Honduras in September 2018 because he was afraid that the gang members would find him, as they are sometimes tipped off by health professionals. He is unlikely to ever regain his pre-injury level of functionality.

Jorge screens positive for post-traumatic stress disorder and moderate depression. He reports that he has trouble sleeping nearly every night and often has nightmares. Jorge also is afraid of gang members in Tijuana. He has seen people with tattoos that identify them as part of the same gang he was fleeing in Honduras. He is afraid that they could identify him and his nephews and try to kill them.

Jorge laughed when he first spoke of the beating – a common natural response to downplay trauma. He often seems to intentionally withhold the most difficult parts of his experiences to hide embarrassment and demonstrate his positive attitude. This is consistent with how Jorge clarifies that, while he has pain in his clavicle, he is ready to work hard and contribute positively to life in the United States.