In addition to these economic policies challenging the democratic governance in El Salvador, violence and crime were defining the identity of this nation, and in response the government implemented an anti-gang strategy in 2003 known as the Iron Fist or Mano Dura (Hume 2007). The strategy urged for the immediate imprisonment of gang members whether they were intentionally involved in an act of violence or simply having gang-related tattoos. This led to contend that there were more violent crimes in the late nineteenth hundreds than there were during the 12 year civil war. Hume argues that this was led by the rightist government “that silenced the articulation of political alternatives with the use of force” (Mano Dura: El Salvador Responds
