Northern Triangle Research Paper

Words: 769
Pages: 4

Within the past three years, 48,947 people were murdered in the Northern Triangle, the most violent location in the world, consisting of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. These nations had 2,295 cases, consisting of a 95 percent rate for homicides. All these countries are ranked as the highest amount of teen violence in the world, the most amount of homicide rates, forceful drug trading groups, weak organizations, and political crime. These three countries therefore deal with each of the issues separately including drug exportation, gang wars, and corruption. The people of Central America have been aware of violence, corruption, and dictators in their area. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras first were known as the Northern Triangle after …show more content…
This makes people run away to escape violence and unstable living conditions. A variety of national strategies have been created to fight the region's greatest threats in a combined way, but most of the times have been unsuccessful. All three countries have it present that their is a lack of security problems and unable to stop the proliferation of drugs, gangs, and fraud. Violence and insecurity in the Northern Triangle comes are the two main sources. In recent years, Central America has become one of the main transshipment routes for illicit drugs making. Local transporters contribute to violence in rural areas, particularly in border areas, and are in large part responsible for the rampant levels of corruption and the erosion of the justice and security systems. Compounding the problem of violence in these countries is the lack of economic security. It is estimated that 60 percent of those living in rural areas in the Northern Triangle live in poverty. More than one million people in these countries are neither in school nor employed. Honduras has the highest rate of girls in Latin America, with 27.5 percent of young people out of school and without …show more content…
Children and young men are often threatened or pressured to join the gangs, while young women often experience sexual assault or abuse at the hands of gang members forcing them to face ongoing community violence or flee to a country of refuge. In 2012, the U.S. Department of State approximated that there were around 85,000 gang members spread across the region, with the most number residing in Guatemala. As well extortion from criminal organizations were widespread. Extortion, a profitable source of income for gangs, and targets for extortion, can contain business owners who seem to have no problems to bus drivers. In the year 2015, the murder rate in El Salvador sprung nearly 200 percent from its rate in 2012. According to the National Forensics Institute, August 2015 was the most deadly month in El Salvador since the civil war ended in 1992, made up of an average of one murder happening every hour. The increase in violence in El Salvador was mainly due to the unraveling of the 2012 truce between two of the country’s main gangs Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and Barrio 18, both of which are known as the