SUMMARY

By the end of the year 2000, escalating violence among adolescent gang members within El Salvador's juvenile penitentiaries prompted authorities to implement a crucial measure: dividing inmates by gang affiliation and transferring them to separate facilities. This strategy, initially implemented as a response to the dire situation within juvenile prisons as well as rise of gang control within the prison walls became glaringly apparent, soon gained traction as a potential solution for adult penitentiaries as well.

In La Mariona prison, where rival gangs MS-13, M18 and La Raza cohabited, clashes were frequent. La Raza, who originally controlled La Mariona, sought to control MS-13 and M18. Tensions reached new heights following the transfer of La Raza's leader out of La Mariona in December 2002, resulting in more intense and regular conflicts between the gangs. Eventually, the inmates requested the director of La Mariona to remove one of the gangs and after a vote, the MS-13 members were relocated to another facility.

Following this, the prison became divided into distinct M18 and La Raza sectors, sparking a violent struggle for power. On August 18, 2004, tensions erupted into violence when a grenade, smuggled into the prison by visitors of M18 gang members, detonated, triggering a violent confrontation between the rival groups. That day, 34 men lost their lives in La Mariona, with 24 of them belonging to La Raza.

The non-state conflict between M18 and La Raza is first included in UCDP data in 2004. In August of that year violent clashes took place in La Mariona prison, resulting in over 25 deaths.