TFMS book trailer no. 2

Moving over to my book blog...

I'm moving posts over to my book blog, focused on the MS-13, immigration, deportation, with additional information on radio interviews, book tour dates and locations, and news of reviews, coverage, etc.

Starting tomorrow, July 7, the blog will be accessible via the official website of This is for the Mara Salvatrucha.

Relevant posts will be cross-posted here, but I don't expect to be back to regular posting for a few weeks, at the least.

Thanks!
Sam

PS - I wanted to thank John Robb at Global Guerrillas for mentioning my book on his GG news blog post on the 2nd of July. Cheers, John!

This is for the Mara Salvatrucha - book trailer no. 1

A little coverage: This is for the Mara Salvatrucha

I've been on the road for work this week, so before the weekend I wanted to share here a few spots on the Internet where there has been a little early coverage of my book on the MS-13.

One of the few bloggers I read regularly, Zen Pundit, received an early copy of my book from my publisher. He was kind enough to devote some time for a post. Thanks!

Over at the Dallas Morning News' bookblog, reporter Diane Solis put up a brief review on my book and a related book by Tom Diaz. I've not read Tom's book, but I'll be sure to buy it. He operates a blog called Fairly Civil.

Our friends at Mexidata.info also posted a note on the book release.

And investigative reporter Jonathan Franklin, who recently published a piece - The Real Con Air - on deportation, interviewed me for this piece, and was nice enough to get the book's title in there. Thanks Jonathan!

Finally, my book is available for Kindle readers, and will be on stands July 7th.

Focused on Book Promotion, for now...

My book on the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) will be on shelves by the 7th of July. So as we get closer to that date, I expect I'll be blogging a lot less on issues pertaining to Security in Latin America, and working more on the book's blog (under construction), as well as Southern Pulse | Networked Intelligence.

Once my book promotion activity simmers down to a more manageable level. I'll return to regular, and hopefully, daily posts here.

Thanks for your patience!

Publishers Weekly review of my book

I've posted below the Publishers Weekly review of my book. This is the kind of cookie-cutter review we've all seen on Amazon, but it's a great overview of the story (with a couple of gratuitous comments thrown in:

This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America’s Most Violent Gang Samuel Logan. Hyperion, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4013-2324-0

Using all of the tools of a capable police investigation, Logan, a journalist based in Latin America, connects the fortunes of Brenda Paz, a Honduran-American teenager, with the ultraviolent Mara Salvatrucha gang. After family difficulties led Paz’s father to send her to Texas to live with her uncle, she witnessed a friend’s murder by her boyfriend, the leader of the local MS-13 gang, and fled to Virginia following her boyfriend’s arrest. Logan probes the secretive Mara Salvatrucha, which funds its illegal activities through extortion, kidnapping, prostitution, drugs and theft, causing the FBI to label it the most dangerous of all criminal outfits. Eventually Paz informs on the gang about the national leadership and crimes, and the Feds unwisely stash the restless teenager in the witness protection program. Placing the reader in the midst of this story with harrowing detail, Logan writes of a young life wasted and an evil crime empire. (July)

Maras and Heavy Weaponry

Two stories in Central America surfaced late last week, suggesting that street gangs, aka "maras" or "pandilleros" in Spanish, have begun purchasing heavy weaponry.

Funds from extortions, kidnapping, and drug sales, have been used by maras in El Salvador to purchase at least two AK-47s, one M-16s, a G-3s, and even a light anti-tank weapon (LAW).

According to Oscar Bonilla, the director of El Salvador's National Council of Public Security, cited the arrest of five street gang members, and the seizure of their weapons (listed above), when discussing this trend.

The five gang members were arrested while transporting the arms police believe were to be used to attack a maximum security prison in Zacatecoluca, located about an hour from San Salvador. This is the prison that is thought to house a critical mass of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) senior members.

This news comes on the heels of a separate incident, where gang members used "heavy caliber rifles" and police uniforms to surprise and murder six individuals in the areas of Quezaltepeque and Kejapa, about 20 miles from San Salvador. Reminds me of what the Mexican organized criminals like to do - use police uniforms.

The articles rounded out the news with a few statistics:

In 2008, the economic costs of violence in Central America reached US$6.5 billion, or some 7.7 percent of Central America's combined GDP

During this time, businesses and families spent some US$1.2 billion to protect themselves

Between 90,000 and 100,000 gang members live in Mexico and Central America, many of them deported from the United States.