Space of Detention

Zilberg Elana Zilberg

Description

Space of Detention is a powerful ethnographic account and spatial analysis of the "transnational gang crisis" between the United States and El Salvador. Elana Zilberg seeks to understand how this phenomenon became an issue of central concern for national and regional security, and how La Mara Salvatrucha, a gang founded by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles, came to symbolize the "gang crime-terrorism continuum." She follows Salvadoran immigrants raised in Los Angeles, who identify as-or are alleged to be-gang members and who are deported back to El Salvador after their incarceration in the United States. Analyzing zero-tolerance gang-abatement strategies in both countries, Zilberg shows that these measures help to produce the very transnational violence and undocumented migration that they are intended to suppress. She argues that the contemporary fixation with Latino immigrant and Salvadoran street gangs, while in part a product of media hype, must also be understood in relation to the longer history of U.S. involvement in Central America, the processes of neoliberalism and globalization, and the intersection of immigration, criminal, and antiterrorist law. These forces combine to produce what Zilberg terms "neoliberal securityscapes."

Sujets

• USA
• El Salvador
• États-Unis
• Salvador

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 07 novembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822392804
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

S pa c e o f De te n t i o n

elanaZilberg

S pa c e o f De te n t i o n

The Making of

a TransnaTional

gang Crisis

beTween los angeles

and san salvador

DukeuniversityPressDurham and London2011

© 2011 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States

of America on acid-Free paper ♾

Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan

Typeset in Quadraat by Tseng

InFormation Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

In memory of

Dorene Golin Zilberg,

Alicia Rivas de Baires,

and Begoña Aretxaga

inTroducTion Neoliberal Securityscapes 1 cHronology 25He Divided Ends of Peace

Pa r T i.Lo s A n g e L e s

onE 53Latino Looter: Law of Place Two 75Street oodlum: Topographic ReForm THrEE Criminal Cop: Spatial Justice 101

Pa r T ii.s A n s A LvA D o r

four Criminal Deportee: Transnational Space 129 fivE Gang Peace Activist: He Space of Civil Society 151 Six Soldier Cop: Remilitarized Space 177

Pa r T iii.i s t u r b A n c e A D t i m e i n s PAc eA n D SEvEn 207He Gang–Crime–Terrorism Continuum

concluSion all of Mirrors 233 EPiloguE 241Impressions From a Political Present

acknowlEdgmEnTS 251 noTES 259 bibliograPHy 301 indEx 333

c ontentS

neoliberal seCuriTysCapes

It’s the MOst VîOLeNt GàNG îN AMeRîCà . . . It hàs 10,000 FOOt sOLDîeRs îN the U.Ś., spReàDîNG îts BRûtàL WàYs àCROss 33 stàtes . . . AND NOW ît’s GOîNG îNteRNàtîONàL, FûeLeD BY Mî- GRàtîON àCROss the esteRN heMîspheRe, LeàVîNG îts BLOODY MàRK FROM ÇeNtRàL [AMeRîCà] tO the AMeRîCàN heàRtLàND . . .

OLîCe îN à hàLF-DOzeN COûNtRîes stRûGGLe tO CRàCK îts CODe

àND DeCîpheR îts MethODs.

—World’s Most Dangerous Gang(DOCûMeNtàRY)

introDuction

On ebruary 5, 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales of the United States and President Elias Antonio Saca of El Salvador announced a new collabora- tive eort to combat the gang La Mara Salvatrucha (Ś) and the 18th Street Gang. His eort, named the Transnational Anti-Gang Unit (Ā), would be made up of the ederal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and El Salvador’s National Civil Police, along with an “embedded” prosecu- tor From the Salvadoran attorney general’s oîce. It would also Facilitate the eîcient implementation of ÇĀÉ (the Central American ingerprinting Ex- ploitation initiative). He day aFter Ā was announced, the chieFs of police For El Salvador, Guatemala, onduras, and Belize met in Los Angeles to draFt a proposal For the third annual International Gang ConFerence in San Salva- dor. He same year, the Federal Interagency Task orce on Gangs (comprised of governmental oîcials From ïve agencies including the departments of omeland Security, DeFense, State, and Justice, together with the United