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Title: Fighting for Peace
Author: Isaac Ontiveros
Date: June 2013
Language: en
Topics: interview, war, borders, peace, USA
Source: https://abolitionistpaper.wordpress.com/resources/fighting-for-peace-alex-sanchez-on-wars-and-borders-at-home-and-abroad/

Isaac Ontiveros

Fighting for Peace

The US government’s war on gangs has crossed, created, and exploited

many borders. Its roots extend from the state’s attempt to neutralize

oppressed peoples’ struggles for self-determination inside and outside

the US, and its violence has targeted communities from Los Angeles to

San Salvador. This war has led to the deaths of thousands and the

imprisonment, impoverishment, disenfranchisement and dispossession of

many more. Through his work in organizations such as Homies Unidos, Alex

Sanchez has worked across many different borders as part of brave

efforts to stop violence, make peace, and most importantly, make lasting

shifts in power for those communities living through the war on gangs.

Isaac Ontiveros [IO]: While we often think first of national borders

between countries, we can also think of the borders between people who

are locked up and their loved ones on the outside or the economic and

racial barriers that people come up against. In the work you do, how do

you relate to borders?

Alex Sanchez [AS]: One of the ways that people have dealt with

oppression is by fighting it, like with what happened in El Salvador.

Guerilla groups came together under the FMLN [Farabundo Martí National

Liberation Front] and they started fighting the oppressive government

that was funded by the United States. Many people fled. Some fled

because they were being persecuted by death squads and the military,

and, ironically, they fled to the country that was funding this war—the

United States. When you cross these lines, the border from El Salvador

to Guatemala, from Guatemala to Mexico, and from Mexico to the United

States, you start looking at that picture and asking: “What am I? Who am

I?”

We create borders all the time. Within our own families—“It’s our

family”—we create that nucleus of what to belong to, what tribe we

belong to… that’s nothing new. When it comes to issues of community,

then we’re talking about larger issues than ourselves. How does that

community identify you? How do you identify within that community?

I was a Salvadoran who was part of this wave of immigrant children who

came from El Salvador in the late 1970s. We came from a war-torn

community where we had been exposed to violence as children, and came to

communities here in the US where our culture clashed with other

cultures, with other ethnic groups that didn’t understand where we were

coming from. We started dealing with these identity issues, and people

creating their own issues, creating their own borders within their own

communities, to identify their own little tribes, their own little

organizations that they were using to deal with their own problems. I

got into a gang to get answers to some of those questions I didn’t have

answers to.

The street organizations started quickly and became so big because they

provided a community to these kids that were disenfranchised; that

nobody gave a damn about; that were seeking their identity. You had the

war, children of war, immigrants. Most of them spoke only Spanish. Most

of them were targeted by the other more traditional gangs. And what

happened is that once you started creating that protection within the

community, then you start having issues with others outside that

community. So, friction is created. This form of organization became

criminalized and introduced to the criminal justice system. That’s when

these other borders within our communities were created. We started

fighting each other. People were targeted, there were victims, and there

was also internalized oppression that you’ve been growing up with. You

let it out on each other. You cross that line in your community, that

invisible line, and let it out on somebody else. You cross the street,

you cross that border.

There’s no physical border around certain areas, it’s not visible, but

we knew they were there. We were dealing with this land that had been

divided by these borders: the Brown being divided by the white, which is

how we looked at the United States, as a gringo, yanqui, other country.

You knew that there were entire communities that were borders as well,

that you could not go to. People were fighting each other behind that.

You went deeper into downtown and then you had skid row. And it doesn’t

have borders around it but that’s where everybody was pushed into. It’s

definitely an economic issue.

IO: Could you talk about another way you have crossed borders—doing

truce and peace work among street organizations? Describe the historic

truce between the Mara Salvatrucha and Calle 18 organizations in El

Salvador last year.

AS: In ‘92 in El Salvador there was an historical peace agreement

between the government and the FMLN. Once this peace agreement was

signed, and there was an official end to the war, it became difficult

for Salvadorans who had fled as refugees to be able to stay in the US.

Many of them started being deported down to El Salvador, Guatemala and

Honduras.

The issue of deportation became worse in 1996 when some of the worst

anti-immigration laws were signed, along with the anti-terrorism act, by

Bill Clinton. Immigrants became a target. Many individuals coming out of

prison that had their permanent residency, but not their citizenship,

were deemed deportable because of past convictions. They started

deporting masses of people back to Central America. These individuals

did not have places to go, did not have shelter, their families were in

the US. For many, the only way they had to survive was by creating

community. They learned how to survive within this oppression that they

experienced in the United States. The same borders and rivalries that

existed in California started to be recreated in communities in Central

America. We can say that the gang violence was exported to El Salvador

after the ‘92 peace accords.

What developed was years of warfare, years of fighting. The violence

spread through all the different street organizations or gangs, Mara

Salvatrucha [MS], Calle 18, La Mirada–gangs that have their origins in

Los Angeles. They started fighting each other and the oppression by the

state on these groups was influencing them. The US played a role.

Corporations and institutions such as the NYPD [New York Police

Department], LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department], acted as advisors on

policies that started being implemented. We started seeing police

policies such as zero-tolerance developed in New York now being

implemented in Central America: extreme, continuous harassment of

community members. Identifying individuals just on the basis of how they

act, dressed, the community they lived in… Extreme oppression and

extreme harassment led to other extremes: violence, mass killings. You

had death squads in El Salvador targeting individuals that had been

deported from the United States, identifying them by their criminal

records.

Incarceration created a level of violence that had never been seen

before in El Salvador. Prisons in El Salvador simulated prisons in

California. One even became known as Alcatraz. Many of the individuals

that were being sent there, like Pelican Bay Prison in California, were

in the segregated housing units, and these individuals were being

tortured. Many died from lack of health care. The meals that they served

had rocks in them, so their teeth would break. Violence spread. More and

more people started being targeted and targeting each other inside the

prisons and in the communities. Many family members were being targeted.

The violence was not only between gang members but also started

[affecting] their families. Many individuals in the gangs didn’t mind

each other being targeted–that was the name of the game they were

involved in–but once you crossed that border, once you crossed that line

to targeting each other’s families, it was beyond anything.

The level of aggression that street organizations visited on each other

was horrific— There were 15 murders per day. And so some gang members

started to speak with Raúl Mijango who was a former guerrilla and member

of congress. They were able to bring in Monseñor Fabio Colindres and

build communication with some of the leadership of the gangs in the

maximum security prisons. The leadership said, “We can stop this. We

need opportunities and support from the authorities in the prison system

and also law enforcement. We need support from the government.”

So there was some dialogue between the gangs. This included the Minister

of Public Security and Safety, who did not oppose the truce. About 30 of

these leaders were able to have communication. They spread the word to

the other prisoners, and started communicating with their members in the

streets.

The secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) went to El

Salvador, and there was a gesture by MS and 18th Street that they would

turn over guns in a gesture of good faith. And we’re not talking about

hand guns; we’re talking about high caliber .30-.30s, M16s, AK

47s—weapons they were using to basically annihilate each other, that now

they were putting at their feet. They said, “You destroy them. We don’t

want to give them to the government because these guns might end up back

in our hands.”

So, news came out that there had been a truce called by the gangs, which

led communities to also support the agreement. By the end of the week

everybody was in agreement, and violence went down from 15 murders per

day to four.

This happened in March 2012. It has been challenging. It’s difficult to

maintain a truce when you do not have the complete support of

government. But they’re not directly opposing it and it seems like there

is some support from the Minister of Public Security. We also have the

OAS and the World Bank involved and they’re looking at how to provide

some resources for prison reform. You have the European Union also

engaged. You have the International Red Cross also beginning to support

the truce. So, you have big international organizations that have been

introduced to the individuals that have been creating this truce, and

they believe this truce is real.

IO: Last year was the 20th anniversary of not only the LA Rebellion but

of the Watts Truce. Although this peace agreement between street

organizations probably saved thousands of lives over the course of

several years it was actively destabilized by the LAPD. Why is there

such an investment in destabilizing these truces?

Alex: In El Salvador, over 1,000 individuals have honored this truce.

Violence has stayed down for almost a year now. But we know there are

going to be forces that are going to try to undermine peace. We know

that the Arena Party [a right-wing political party in El Salvador] has

come out to put some pressure on the Salvadorian government, which right

now is run by the FMLN, which is the first time that a left-wing

government has taken power. The ones that have been making profit out of

violence and mass incarceration are losing money in El Salvador. For

example, the private security companies are losing money because the

violence is reduced. There are a lot of people that are going try to

undermine this truce, including the US State Department which named Mara

Salvatrucha a “transnational criminal organization.”

Here in California, once the 1992 truce between the Crips and the Bloods

came into effect—and then the following year a truce between the Latino

gangs—the issue became that there were was no outside support. There was

no effort by any governmental agency to support and start investing in

what was happening. The police union and the prison guards’ union, could

not taking credit for reduction in violence. The reduction came from the

street organizations in our community that had decided to stop the

violence. And once you become able to reduce the violence, they’re going

to say, “No! You cannot be the ones in control of violence. We need to

be the ones in control of violence. We need to keep these organizations

fighting with each other.” And this is because there are many

stakeholders involved that are making profit out of it. And that’s why

you saw in ‘92 and ‘93, some of the most horrific policies introduced in

California: Three Strikes; Proposition 21; anti-immigration policies.

Some of those most horrific policies came after the peace truces. Even

the Federal Government came in and said we cannot let these people be

empowered to stop violence. They started infiltrating some of these

organizations; they started using organized crime laws such as the RICO

Act [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] to go after

organizations in our communities, basically funneling millions of

dollars to targeting gangs and paying people to start turning against

their own people. And this is why those agreements from ‘92 and ‘93 were

not thoroughly sustained.

But many individuals that took part in the truces were able to say, “You

know what? We can continue doing some of this peace work without any

funding, without any support.” Many of them started establishing

organizations to continue trying to help and maintain these agreements.

And that’s why you see that the level of violence never went back up to

the levels of the ‘80s. And now the city of LA, and other parts of the

state and country are starting to create some funds for gang

intervention work. But it is still not funded accordingly.

You can see the disparity. The Youth Justice Coalition [in Los Angeles]

is pushing for just onepercent of the budget that law enforcement and

probation gets to be used for gang intervention and prevention. This

would create hundreds of millions of dollars for people in affected

communities to do peace work. But, the people that are making money out

of crime, and advocating for harsher penalties against people that

commit crimes, and the prison guard union, and the LAPD and other law

enforcement [agencies] are not going to support any peace agreement,

because it means they’re going to lose money and power.

But we have come a long way. We are working to stop another generation

of our children from falling through the cracks—and that’s all we want.

We want to help those brothers and sisters within those walls, once they

come out to be able to create a life for themselves. And that’s what

we’re trying to do. That’s something that resonates not only here in

California but across the borders. I have no doubt that many of the

brothers that are part of the peace truce in El Salvador last year, were

also part of the street negotiations and agreements in Los Angeles in

’92 and ‘93. So there is a link that transcends our borders.

IO: On the subject of overcoming attempts by those in power to

destabilize this work, could you talk a little bit about how you were

recently targeted, and the victory you were able to celebrate?

AS: In 2009, I became part of a federal gang indictment as a part of a

RICO Act case. They charged me with conspiracy to murder somebody in El

Salvador. It was a shock to me because I had been away from gang

violence for over 14 years. I had dedicated my life to trying to serve

the brothers and sisters that have been in engaged in that environment.

But it wasn’t surprising for me to see myself get caught up in one of

these indictments once I saw that the LAPD was also involved. The LAPD

first targeted me in 2000. They came after me because I was the alibi

for a 14 year old kid they were trying to charge with murder. And they

tried to come after this group I was working with. They raided the

church where we had our art program. I got arrested and they thought I

was easily going be deported back to El Salvador and not mess up the

case that they had against this kid. It took two years but I beat the

case and sued LAPD and won.

Because we did that, they looked at us as the enemy. But I looked at the

LAPD basically as this gang that was trying to shut me out of my

community, trying to take control. And, being somebody that knows how to

deal with these issues, I took out the tools that I had learned, which

were community organizing, educating the community, and putting things

on paper. We started organizing the community to develop strategies to

file complaints against law enforcement, and so on, to protect

themselves.

So this led to me being arrested in 2009 as part of a RICO indictment,

in which the LAPD translated a wiretap in a way that seemed like I had

conspired to hurt somebody in El Salvador. We realized that this officer

has basically lied under oath. And he had omitted sentences that he did

not want to translate because those sentences would clear me and show

that I was not an active gang member. We had to fight for my bail. We

ended up having to go to the court of appeals where we outlined all the

mistakes that they made, in regards to the process, in regards to the

evidence that they had and were using against me. We had Father Greg

Boyle of Homeboy Industries [a highly respected gang-intervention

advocate] to testify on my behalf, and other people that came forward

that were willing to testify on my behalf. We won the appeal and I ended

up getting bail. It was a high bail, $2 million. I was like, “I’m never

getting out, because I don’t have even one percent of that.” Friends put

down their homes, and our community came forward and I was bailed out.

In late 2012 we submitted a motion to dismiss the case, addressing all

the intentional mistakes made by the government. The government

submitted their own motion recommending that the court dismiss all

charges against me. They did this to avoid addressing the issues pointed

out in our motion. [The motion to dismiss] became official in January

when the judge signed the order, and we have until late April to see if

the government re-files charges against me. The fight continues.

The bottom line to all of this is that they did not want us to continue

helping our men and women coming out of prison, our young men and young

women coming out of juvenile halls, our young generations that have been

lost to violence and drugs. Not only was I on trial, but so was the work

that we were doing.

What’s happening is that they will never let former gang members or gang

members that belong to street organizations become politicized. We saw

what happened with the Black Panthers, the Brown Berets, Latin Kings and

other groups that started organizing in their communities. These

organizations were infiltrated and criminalized and some were destroyed.

They do not want these organizations in Los Angeles to become

politicized, because we’re talking about thousands and thousands of men

and women that could become advocates of peace.