FBI opens anti-gang office in Central America
The FBI has opened a permanent office in El Salvador to help Central American police fight a growing wave of U.S.-style youth gangs that have threatened social stability.

An FBI agent opened the office in the capital, San Salvador, in late April to investigate gangs as well as other organized crime, Salvadoran authorities said on Wednesday.

Salvadoran President Tony Saca said on Tuesday he had asked the United States for help in fighting crime.

"This support from the FBI is part of a coordination that we discussed with Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice," Saca said.

A U.S. Embassy source in San Salvador told Reuters the FBI's activities would extend to Honduras and Guatemala, "not just in relation to gang problems, but also other crimes."

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica vowed in March to create a joint "rapid force" to confront violent youth gangs, terrorist threats and drug traffickers.

Youth gangs, known as "maras," proliferated in Los Angeles in the 1980s when a flood of migrants fled Central America's civil wars and adapted to U.S. gang culture.

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed a law ordering non-U.S. citizens sentenced to more than a year in prison to be deported after serving their time. About 20,000 ex-convicts have been sent home to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in the past four years alone.

Last Christmas, suspected gang members shot 28 passengers to death on a bus in Honduras and left a message defying politicians who had declared war against crime.