Central America

Troubling news came out of the news cycle concerning El Salvador. Reportedly some soldiers were caught trying to sell grenades to gang members, there seems to be a troubling continuum in the uptake of violence in the gang crisis gripping Central America of which this is an example. This region has seen decades of civil war, strife, violence, but why? Why is this region (in particular Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) so punished to a never ending cycle of violence? I will try not to generalize with the rest of Latin America but it is certainly important to point out some threads that reach through history into our current times.
  Inequality is certain a large part of the equation. From the start the Spaniards came to conquer and take the wealth of the Americas, they created very unequal systems of rule which was very hierarchical and static. Land was monopolized in the hands of a few and the majority of the population (mostly of mixed race, indigenous, and African) were violently suppressed. Even after they gained independence these systems of rule remained largely intact. Revolutions were attempted by the masses and a few in the middle class people but were suppressed by the militaries. Some basic structures of democratic institutions like voting were put in place but were seen as largely illegitimate by the masses because they were corrupted by the elites. The 1980's saw the outbreak of civil wars except in Honduras but civil strife still bubbled, in Nicaragua the rebels succeeded in overthrowing a dictatorship but they had to contend with a war by the U.S backed contra. El Salvador and Guatemala went through years of civil war that saw tens of thousands of lives killed. These nations are still contending with their histories and issues yet to be resolved.
 When we read or hear stories of the shocking brutality occurring in Central America we have to remember the context and the histories through which these nations have struggled to over come.