ABSTRACT
Central America and Mexico are awash with firearms and an array of state and non-state armed actors, including local and transnational organized crime, gangs, death squads, police and military. For years, they have been locked in a dynamic of armed confrontation that is fueling an urgent crisis of forced displacement within and across borders. As humanitarian actors struggle to come to terms with these contemporary scenarios of armed conflict, and to develop effective strategies for addressing them, the predominant response to the flow of refugees may be exacerbating the logic of war that is driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.
El Salvador serves as a case study to show how an entrenched, militarized approach to gangs has shaped the transnational relationship with the United States, and how the politics of security have turned into a major obstacle to peace by peaceful means in the region. Throughout, a major theme is how the media shape perceptions of security and humanitarian issues, and how these, again, shape policy responses to both.
