A Virginia Reader On Eight MS-13 Murderers In Montgomery County, Maryland
08/12/2012
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From: Vincent Chiarello (e-mail him)

The faces in the newspaper photos  are different, but the stories are basically the same: a Latino parent or grandparent sobbing over the loss of a family member caught up in the whirlwind of Latino gang violence, a growing phenomenon nationwide. [Sweeping gang murder case to wrap up in Montgomery County, By Dan Morse, The Washington Post,Metro Section, August 6, 2012, p.1]

Three years ago, 15 year old Dennys Guzman-Saenz was kidnapped at a bus stop in suburban Maryland, and "stabbed more than 50 times;" his body then thrown in a frozen pond. Maryland Police officials insist that although the vicious and violent gang, Mara-Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13), tried to recruit the victim, he had refused and was not a member, but to their rivals, the 18th Street Gang, the attempted recruitment was enough to seal the boy's death warrant.

Among the facts determined at the trial of these murderers was that a 23 year old woman, Silvia Martinez, was among the first to use a butterfly knife on the victim's body. Eight defendants, including Martinez, have pleaded guilty to the murder. It’s “the most first-degree murder convictions in any single case in Montgomery County history”

In an act of policy madness during the civil war in El Salvador three decades ago, the US government allowed tens of thousands of Salvadorans into this country with "work permits," which authorized their seeking employment in the US. That civil war has long ended, but no administration - Republican or Democratic - has ever sought the return of these "temporary guests," who, according to the latest data from the Center for Immigration Studies, now number nearly two million.  And with them has come the plague of gang violence unknown in the country outside of black neighborhoods. 

Four years ago, Time Magazine reported that there were 55,000 (no typo) gang members in Salvador; 35,000 in Honduras. The number of Latino gang members in the United States is estimated to be 150,000, and they are a presence in most major cities in the nation.

All these numbers indicate that gang violence in the US is now part and parcel of life, another "contribution" of Latinos doing jobs "that Americans won't do."

Three paragraphs before the Post article concluded, the reporter/editor (reluctantly?) included these words, which are predictable by any immigration-reform patriot:

“Of the eight who admitted to murder, some had at least questionable immigration status...and face deportation if they ever get out of prison.”

The response to such inanity is that had they not been here, the murder may not have happened, but don't expect to hear that from anyone in this administration or from police officials in Maryland. After all, the city and county where the murder took place are sanctuaries for illegal immigrants.

See previous letters from Vincent Chiarello.

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