The Day MS-13 Betrayed the Guatemalan Sur

<p>On August 15, 2005, the Mara Salvatrucha set off nine simultaneous prison riots across Guatemala that left 36 people dead. But they didn’t do so out of hate: The eruption of violence that broke El Sur —a long-standing non-aggression pact between MS-13, 18th Street and other gangs— was a strategic move seven years in the making, with one cold motive: business.</p>

Carlos Martínez José Luis Sanz