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Founded in 1980s Los Angeles by Salvadorean war refugees, Mara Salvatrucha (MS or MS-13) is today one of the main street gangs in the United States and northern Central America. In recent years the group has developed a reputation for extreme brutality and, arguably, ties to drug trafficking organisations. Given the gang's reach and ostensibly destructive impact, the first non-fiction narrative by US investigative journalist Samuel Logan clearly engages with a very topical issue. Through the case of Brenda Paz, a Honduran-born teenager who joined MS-13 in the United States and was brutally killed by fellow gang members after having become a federal informant, This is for the Mara Salvatrucha aims to take us into the very heart of the gang. This gripping and highly readable account provides a detailed understanding of Paz's story, which has never been exhaustively covered despite the media attention it received. However, for those hoping to learn more about MS-13, particularly its transformations, the book will be a disappointment. The volume mostly chronicles Paz's brief stint in the gang, her cooperation with the police and especially her inner struggles over her desire to abandon violence but not her friends, and exposes the gang's hidden world in barely three of 54 brief chapters. As the title indicates, Logan argues that MS-13 is the United States' most violent gang, yet his evidence is unpersuasive and testifies to a possible over-reliance on law enforcement sources, which tend to have a narrow view of street gangs. Like many works in the journalistic genre, the book lacks references and makes only brief mention of the use of interviews. This ambiguity raises questions about the ways in which the story was reconstructed, particularly Paz's thoughts and emotions, and makes it impossible to verify its more contentious points.
The book offers some fascinating insights into gang joining and gang life, including the role of females in these groups. Paz, a good student from a humble but caring family, entered MS-13 in search of belonging and attention when her parents' marital problems and her mother's growing mental illness required the girl to live with relatives in Texas. Paz's example shows...