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Bueno, Gangs and Development 37 

 

Gangs and Development: The Difficulties of 

Transformational Development in Gang-

Controlled Communities in El Salvador  
David Bueno

 

 

 

 
Gangs’ ability to exert territorial control in El Salvador is changing the social dynamics in 
marginal communities, and Pentecostal churches are one of a few remaining social institutions 
surviving in this context. In the past ten years, gangs have transitioned from local criminal 
cliques to an influential social phenomenon. Pentecostals’ familiarity and access to gangs has 
many development practitioners looking to faith-based empowerment initiatives to solve 
broad social issues influencing gang expansion. At the same time, gang entanglement poses a 
distinct threat to the security and stability required to achieve sustainable development. As a 
practitioner of transformational development in El Salvador for over thirty years, I have 
recently observed the increasing isolation gang control is having on marginal communities. 
This article takes a closer look at the effects gang entanglement has on sustainable 
transformational development approaches in El Salvador, specifically examining three 
programs in the community of San Martín. The challenge is to identify transformational 
development policies, advocacy approaches, and support resources that best suit gang-
entangled communities. To accomplish this, a larger discussion on transformational 
development in gang-entangled communities is critical. 
 

 

 
Introduction 

Marginal communities in El Salvador have 

experienced the growth of evangelical churches 

(primarily Pentecostal), community associations 

(including nongovernmental organizations/NGOs), and 

gangs. As a practitioner of transformational 

development engaged in El Salvador over the past thirty 

years, I have recently witnessed a troubling shift in the 

social dynamics in marginal communities. Gangs have 

transitioned from local criminal cliques to an influential 

social phenomenon. Previous efforts to diminish gang 

influence, whether Mano Dura (law enforcement) or 

Mano Suave (structural reforms), have had limited 

success in reducing the growth of gangs and decreasing 

violence. Gangs’ ability to exert territorial control is 

leaving many marginal communities isolated from 

external support systems, and Pentecostal churches are 

one of the few remaining social institutions surviving in 

this context. The hope is that transformational 

development can bring sustainable results in gang-

affected communities.  

This article takes a close look at the effects of gang 

entanglement on transformational development, 

specifically examining three faith-based programs in the 

community of San Martín. San Martín is a community 

with a substantial gang presence and a long history of 

church and parachurch engagement in transformational 

development. My research is primarily empirical, and 

based on in-depth conversations with community 

members, development practitioners, and church 

leaders working in transformational development. The 

programs in question are focused on achieving 

transformational development at the individual or 

community level. While these programs have been 

successful, in terms of positively affecting the lives of 

many young people and families, they have had little 

impact on broad structural issues that perpetuate the 

expansion of gangs. Sonja Wolf, after researching gang 

prevention programs, concludes that the necessary 

societal change will be difficult without the cooperation 

of the most powerful strata of Salvadoran society (Wolf 

2017, 223). At the moment, however, transformational 

development practitioners working in gang-entangled 

communities cannot count on such cooperation. In 

light of these limitations, achieving sustainable 

transformational development is severely hindered by 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 38 

gang-created insecurity and instability. The challenge is 

to discover how transformational development can best 

be achieved in gang-entangled communities. 

 

Transformational Development in Gang-

Entangled Communities in El Salvador 
The challenge for many community initiatives is 

that gang control makes the long-term prognosis of a 

better future untenable. Sustainable socio-economic 

development requires a base level of security and 

stability. Paul Collier suggests creating a policy 

environment at the international level that encourages 

economic growth and good governance. If these 

measures fail, then the use of external force may be 

required to ensure stability (Collier 2007, 124). 

Unfortunately, both these measures have been applied 

to no avail in El Salvador. Both heavy-handed police 

tactics and subsequent structural social adjustment 

strategies have not mitigated the growth of gangs (Wolf 

2017). Desperate for results, many are turning for 

answers to local churches. 

The connections between gangs and Pentecostals 

have been well-documented in Brenneman’s book, 

Homies + Hermanos. For example, he explains how 

one of the only ways gang members are allowed to leave 

the gang is through religious conversion. Brenneman 

explains how ex-gang member converts found 

Pentecostal evangelicalism to be both advantageous and 

effective (Brenneman 2012, 16). Despite the power of 

these conversions, the prospect of leveraging these 

relationships to achieve greater societal change is 

improbable. The current dynamics between gangs and 

faith-based communities expose the practical 

limitations to achieving sustainable transformational 

development. Practitioners of transformational 

development in these environments are experiencing a 

regression toward addressing basic needs, and long-

term community objectives are threatened by the 

insecurity.  

In gang-controlled communities, common-good 

initiatives require gang consent, or minimally, gang 

indifference. Independent of what community leaders 

determine, the gangs’ need for control overrides 

common good objectives. For example, in the 

community of San Martin the community water system 

is on the verge of collapsing. Technicians and water 

committee members are unable to access certain 

communities controlled by the gangs. Yet collaborating 

with gangs to sustain the village water system is 

problematic on many fronts. Any arrangements with the 

gangs come without guarantees, and further legitimize 

their authority. It also begs the question of who is 

transforming whom? Church and community members 

face the difficult reality that gang control creates an 

environment unsuitable for their vision of the future. 

 

Evolving Gang Dynamics 
The degree of influence by local gangs in the 

marginal communities of El Salvador has been a major 

development over the past ten years. Something is 

changing in the way gangs operate, and it is altering the 

power structures in marginal communities. Gangs are 

evolving from Los Angeles-style neighborhood cliques 

to a broader national phenomenon. The common 

narrative that gang members are disenfranchised young 

people motivated by criminal enterprise has been 

challenged by criminologist Steve Dudley. Dudley’s 

years of research on MS13 gangs lead him to suggest 

that the biggest motivator for gang affiliation in El 

Salvador is not criminal enterprise or money, but rather 

social connectivity and a sense of belonging. Dudley 

argues that as criminal enterprises, gangs are relatively 

unsophisticated (Dudley 2019). Yet despite their 

relatively small budget, they have grown in size and 

influence throughout the country. Dudley also points 

out that no matter how hard previous governments have 

tried to undermine gangs’ financial support systems, the 

gangs keep multiplying. Dudley concludes that gang 

issues in El Salvador are not going to be solved with law 

enforcement tactics; they must instead be addressed at 

a societal level.  

The changes in gang behavior over the past few 

years are a bit of a paradox. At one level gangs are 

becoming more inclusive groups that have reduced 

entry barriers and offer more levels of affiliation. For 

instance, not all new recruits are required to submit to 

a thirteen-second beatdown to join the gang (Insight 

Crime 2021). These original requirements may still 

exist at higher levels of gang leadership, but new recruits 

can opt for less committed levels of engagement. Young 

people can fulfill entry-level functions, like being 

neighborhood sentries, without being full-fledged gang 

bangers. Many new recruits are also instructed to avoid 

getting tattoos or other gang markings, so as to be more 

inconspicuous. This broader approach seems to 

contradict the fact that gang control of the local 

community has become more exclusive. Access to their 

communities is closely monitored. Their internal 

organization has improved to the extent that gangs now 

manage national networks to vet outsiders. As gangs 

grow in number, become better organized, and gain 

territorial control, their influence increases.  

The turf war between 18th Street gangs and Mara 

Salvatrucha (MS) is not simply about neighborhood 

pride, but about controlling strategic territory that 

ensures safety and creates opportunity. What role 

government, police, and organized crime play in this 

battle for territory is still unclear. There are indications 

that gangs leverage territorial control to create alliances 

at the highest levels of national authority. For example, 

a recent article in the Salvadoran newspaper El Faro 

describes how gangs manage to influence elections by 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 39 

controlling access to heavily populated marginal 

communities (Martínez and Valencia 2018). There are 

also signs that gangs are leveraged by more sophisticated 

players. Dudley points to the fact that during the recent 

COVID-19 pandemic much of the government aid in 

many marginal communities was delivered through the 

gangs (Dudley 2019). Regardless of who is leveraging 

whom, gangs now boast of determining elections, 

having connections at every level of society, and 

operating as a parallel security force in marginal 

communities. In such a context, transformational 

development efforts cannot ignore gangs’ growing 

influence. 

 

Local Pentecostal Churches and Gangs 
The role of the local church in shaping a better 

future is a foundational aspect of transformational 

development, but in El Salvador’s marginal 

communities, the church’s relationship with gangs is 

complicated. Not surprisingly, these social groups 

overlap in many areas (The Economist 2018). Manuel 

Vásquez highlights how the same conditions that make 

joining a Pentecostal church appealing to the poor also 

make joining a gang appealing to disenfranchised young 

people (Vásquez 2003, 134). Stephen Offutt’s 

application of social entanglement theories reveals the 

complicated environment in which church and gang 

members are connected by familial, economic, and 

social relationships (Offutt 2020). Both churches and 

gangs create patrimonial communities that help address 

feelings of isolation. 

It is important to highlight that there are varying 

degrees of gang entanglement. Churches in 

marginalized communities most affected by gang 

control are typically small (100 members or fewer) 

neighborhood churches that belong to traditional 

denominations. The degree of entanglement is 

correlated to physical location and extended history in 

the community. For instance, churches in residential 

neighborhoods have to abide by strict gang protocols, 

such as driving with windows down or paying “renta” 

(protection fees). Emerging independent churches, 

however, are typically established in areas zoned for 

commercial use. Pastors and congregation members 

enter and leave these churches more freely. In tightly-

controlled communities, gang consent is required for 

any non-local to enter.  

Another important distinction is that the familiarity 

between Pentecostal churches and gang members does 

not imply that the relationship is of mutual consent. 

Pentecostal churches are also constrained by gangs’ 

territorial controls. Luis Huezo Mixco has noted that 

Salvadoran Pentecostalism contributes to the 

“dynamism of the special,” which creates a paradoxical 

similarity to the gangs, whose worlds overlap and place 

them in tension (Huezo Mixco 2020, 231). Pentecostals 

are entangled with gangs, but are by no means co-

conspirators in a new social order. They share an 

ecosystem that facilitates the growth of both Pentecostal 

churches and gangs, but their ability to coexist is 

precarious. Pastors must decide whether to 

accommodate gang authority or risk the consequences. 

This is a deviation from the past, when the margins of 

society provided less contested social space for 

Pentecostal churches.  

In a previous article (Bueno 2001), I identified the 

margin as a place of refuge, an environment conducive 

to the development of alternative support structures 

critical for a local expression of faith and community. 

The Pentecostal movement’s cacique style leadership, 

autonomous organizational structure, and Holy Spirit 

empowered moral authority have all been integral to 

building local capacity. Today, however, marginal 

communities are not conducive to building and 

sustaining alternative support systems. Pentecostal 

evangelicals who once sought independence from a 

restrictive macro social system are now looking for 

external support to help address the insecurity and 

violence that affect their communities. Pentecostal 

churches and gangs share an increasingly hostile 

margin, and surviving has required new methods of 

adaptation.  

R.R. Reno (2019) describes the postmodern crisis 

that contributes to the emergence of nationalism, 

populism, and other strong loyalty-based affiliations. 

His work focuses primarily on the Global North, but 

has relevance on the emergence of both gangs and 

Pentecostalism in El Salvador. Reno describes society’s 

current crisis as a disquietude born of homelessness. 

“We distrust the social system as ineffective, economies 

as volatile, and political institutions as self-serving. We 

climb without safety nets, there is no stability, no rest – 

no home” (Reno 2019, 103). Reno proposes that in an 

unstable society the emergence of what he calls “strong 

gods” is predictable. The perennial up-rootedness of 

the human condition – and the homelessness 

intensified by modernity – magnifies the craving for 

strong loyalties and conceptions of truth (Reno 2019, 

105).  

Strong beliefs and loyalties can be useful for 

restoring identity, but can also lead to distorted and 

destructive ideologies. Gangs view disenfranchisement 

as arising from the lack of money, power, and respect. 

All may contribute, but when the solution is loyalty 

rooted in fear, and control based on violence, these 

strong gods become oppressive. For Pentecostals, the 

crisis begins with the condition of the soul. “Cast out of 

Eden, we are always homeless” (Reno 2019, 105). 

Pentecostals look to restore their identity through a 

process of salvation and sanctification. Bryant Myers 

points out that a major reason why charismatic and 

Pentecostal Christians are the fastest growing 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 40 

expression of the church today is that they have an 

answer for whose god is more powerful (Myers 2011, 

10). Gangs and Pentecostals both yearn for strong gods 

that provide a sense of belonging, but their methods of 

operation could not be more different. Gangs’ use of 

violence, drugs, and satanic imagery is suspiciously 

counter to Pentecostals’ nonviolent, austere, and Spirit-

filled ways. Still, gang preference for “genuine” converts 

does not suggest some simple form of youthful 

rebellion, but rather that the violence they embrace 

must be attributed to a more profound darkness born 

of fear, abuse, and neglect.  

Pentecostal churches cannot individually address 

and/or manage all the social ills fomenting gang 

proliferation, and coexisting with gangs is increasingly 

difficult as gangs gain greater control. Most pastors and 

church members strive to maintain cordial relationships 

with gang members, and do their best to avoid direct 

confrontations. While community-based churches, 

comprised of the poor and marginalized, have the 

potential to influence gang members, they are also the 

most affected by the gangs. Pentecostal churches in 

these communities have the daunting challenge of being 

a refuge from and for gang members. The recent killing 

of an Elim church pastor by gang members underscores 

the volatile nature of these environments (Alfaro and 

Marroquín 2021). Despite a growing realization that 

coexistence with gangs is hardly sustainable, most 

churches still instinctively embrace a cautious approach 

to social engagement. 

 

Pentecostal Churches and Social Engagement 
As communities become more affected by gangs, 

will Pentecostals move beyond their traditional focus on 

individual salvation to begin addressing structural social 

issues? The general perception is that Pentecostal 

churches’ influence in public discourse is still not 

representational. Some large independent churches 

take a somewhat active role in voicing concerns about 

current conditions, and many Pentecostals participate 

individually within broader social institutions. Yet a 

collective approach to social action is still limited. 

Pentecostal churches’ social engagement is mostly 

private and local.  

A recent thesis by my brother, Ron Bueno, 

cofounder of ENLACE, raises the question of whether 

social action among Pentecostal churches in El 

Salvador is a “contested ritual” (Bueno 2019). His 

work, primarily among rural and semi-rural Pentecostal 

churches, reveals resistance to social engagement at 

many levels. He notes a general hesitation when it 

comes to getting involved with issues that seem political 

or embrace the broader community. For example, 

joining the local ADESCO (government sanctioned 

community association) is contested by traditional 

Pentecostal churches. R. Bueno describes the current 

process that pastors use to ritualize, like adding prayer 

or evangelism, to justify social action. This approach 

creates “contested rituals” by reticent church members 

who are trying to avoid secular entanglement.  

In the early 1930s, evangelical churches 

(predominantly rural) had few options other than to 

build suitable socio-religious structures in the less 

contested margins of society. David Martin describes 

this tendency as a “haven” from society (Martin 1990). 

By creating alternative social structures on the 

periphery, they were able to avoid the contentious 

public square dominated at the time by a triad of power; 

a military state, the Catholic Church, and wealthy 

landowners. The goal of being a separate and holy 

people with a strict code of behavior was not intended 

to have a broad appeal. “True Christians” chose the 

narrow path, which, by definition, made the rise of a 

popular movement unlikely. Pentecostals, however, 

understood how empowering a direct experience with 

God is for those who feel forsaken. What was not 

foreseen, even by most Pentecostals, was how many 

people felt marginalized. For Pentecostals in El 

Salvador, isolation would not be a long-term strategy. 

By the 1950s, Pentecostals had begun to adopt more 

evangelistic social outreach strategies aimed at church 

growth. 

In the 1980s, a division between urban and rural 

social perspectives became more evident. As the 

economy transitioned from agrarian to industrial, urban 

areas began to grow. In the urban context, Pentecostal 

churches gained traction with working and professional 

middle classes. Pentecostals began to develop schools, 

universities, and clinics that provided alternatives for 

underserved communities. At the same time, most 

churches in El Salvador’s rural and marginal 

communities remained relatively poor and small. 

Recent estimates indicate that 33% of Salvadorans live 

in conditions of extreme poverty, of which the majority 

are found in rural areas (World Bank Group 2021). In 

contexts with limited resources, Pentecostal churches 

tend to favor internal approaches to holistic ministries. 

It stands to reason that communities directly affected by 

crime, poverty, and marginalization would prioritize the 

needs of the congregation instead of broad social issues.  

By the 1990s large independent neo-Pentecostal 

churches began to emerge and exhibit greater economic 

and social influence. Concurrently, international aid 

and evangelical parachurch organizations also began to 

proliferate. Social programs that emphasized 

community engagement received support from external 

parachurch organizations. Many Pentecostal churches 

independently established partnerships with aid 

organizations to implement social programs directed at 

the broader community. Many schools, clinics, and 

childcare initiatives were established in marginal 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 41 

communities with the support of international aid 

organizations.  

In the 2000s, gangs began to appear in marginal 

communities heavily populated by Pentecostal 

churches. Gangs were initially viewed by church 

members as a public nuisance that could be mitigated 

with a strong police presence, but by 2010 it had 

become evident that larger social forces were at work. 

Managing the social effects gangs have on their 

communities is a challenge most pastors and church 

members are not equipped to confront. Instead, pastors 

and church members in gang-dominated communities 

apply their theology in a format akin to moral triage, 

negotiating principles of holiness and righteousness 

under conditions of extreme duress. One youth pastor 

I interviewed expressed how conflicted he is by the gang 

situation in his community. “It is hard not to feel 

compassion for young gang members who have 

routinely been left exposed by their families, society, 

and even their own gangs. Yet the gangs’ use of violence 

and fear to control the community is a direct threat to 

the church and its members” (Youth Pastor, September 

24, 2021).  

On the margins of Salvadoran society, law and 

order are no longer provided by the public authorities. 

In heavily entangled communities, gangs and 

community members are left to negotiate their own 

rules of engagement. The police and military are viewed 

with distrust, and stories of gang infiltration become 

more common. Without a clear understanding of who 

is in control, especially in marginal communities, 

churches are even more reluctant to develop strategies 

that rely on government support. Not knowing whom 

to trust makes broad social collaboration problematic. 

At present, the moral imperative for churches is to 

survive rather than thrive. 

 

Pentecostal Churches as the Solution for 

Gang Domination 
In scenarios typical of the Bible’s David and 

Goliath story, small, poor, and increasingly isolated 

Pentecostal churches are asked to solve the growing 

social problems that perpetuate the growth of gangs. 

We seem to be at the end of a development cycle in 

which macro-level structural adjustment policies turn 

their attention back to local empowerment strategies. 

This is not an ideological shift, but rather a pragmatic 

attempt to pivot toward more effective ways of 

addressing the growing gang problem. As described 

previously, Mano Dura (law enforcement) approaches 

have not been effective in reducing the expansion of 

gangs. In the wake of these failures, government and 

international organizations began to focus more 

resources on structural social change policies.  

Based on World Bank data, Stephen Offutt points 

out that from 2013-2021 El Salvador received well over 

$1 billion in foreign aid (Offutt, Forthcoming, 240). 

While not all the funds specifically targeted the 

reduction of gangs, it was the express belief of the 

government and international aid organizations that 

changing the structural conditions of society, by creating 

a thriving economy and good governance, would 

mitigate gang membership. Offutt describes “a crowded 

field of actors involved in gang prevention efforts in El 

Salvador. Multilateral organizations, national 

governments, and humanitarian organizations, all 

seeking, and willing to fund, solutions” (Offutt, 

Forthcoming, 239). And yet, local and international 

macro structural efforts to improve El Salvador’s 

political economy have not stemmed the growth of gang 

influence in El Salvador. Many Christians are not 

surprised. 

Bryant Myers asserts that modern worldviews – 

materialistic, technocratic, and technology-reliant – do 

not include spiritual elements that can help the poor 

(Myers 2011, 45). This view seems to ring true in El 

Salvador. The experience with gangs has exposed the 

limitation of materialistic approaches. There are signs 

that international aid organizations are increasingly 

open to faith-based solutions. For example, the Moody 

Foundation received a glowing endorsement from 

Marcy Sanchez (director of narcotics and legal 

compliance for the US embassy) at the inauguration of 

“Vida Libre,” a faith-based gang rehabilitation program. 

Kenton Moody (Pentecostal missionary and founder of 

Moody Foundation) echoes Myers’ sentiment that the 

challenge is for Christians to come out of our self-

imposed exile and contribute our faith material to the 

conversation (Myers 2011, 45). The local church as a 

key player in transformational development is currently 

based on its familiarity and access to gang-entangled 

communities. The challenge is to determine if local 

churches have the capacity to free their communities 

from gang control.  

 

Defining Transformational Development 
For many Christians engaged in social work, 

transformational development approaches have guided 

our efforts. And yet, understanding how 

transformational development can help marginal 

communities disentangle from gangs is unclear, partly 

because there is no definitive path to social 

transformation. Wayne Bragg argues that 

transformation is the best biblical term to describe a 

Christian view of development. Bragg’s paper is not a 

development theory per se, but a list of characteristics 

of transformation, each a transformational frontier 

(Myers 2011, 153). With his path-breaking book, 

Walking with the Poor (1999, 2011), Bryant Myers 

builds on Bragg’s seminal ideas by consolidating and 

expanding the principles and best practices of 

transformational development that have now guided 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 42 

many Christian NGOs since the turn of the 

millennium. This includes the NGOs I have worked 

with in El Salvador. Myers uses the term 

“transformational development” to distinguish it from a 

purely material connotation common to development. 

Transformational development addresses the whole of 

human life: material, social, psychological, and spiritual 

(Myers 2011, 3). For Myers there are several critical 

contributions to transformational development that 

only the Church can provide, especially the restoration 

of spiritual wholeness. The goal is to achieve a process 

of change (transformation) that restores our identity and 

vocation. A process that is achieved when we establish 

right relationships with God, humanity, and creation. 

One big question emerging from gang-entangled 

communities, therefore, is what role local churches and 

parachurch organizations can play in achieving 

sustainable change. Myers defines sustainability in two 

ways: First, transformational development should end 

in a transition to sustainability, moving from 

dependence to independence. Second, the 

community’s understanding of sustainability must 

include the physical, mental, social, and spiritual 

dimensions (Myers 2011, 193). This multi-dimensional 

approach to defining sustainability means we must 

evaluate the effectiveness of transformational 

development at both a structural level and a community 

project/program level. Achieving lasting results is 

contingent on developing support systems that enable 

communities continuously to build toward a better 

future; and on building the local churches’ capacity to 

be trusted, continuing sources of moral influence that 

challenge the community’s social values toward healthy 

and productive relationships.  

The local church as a partner for transformational 

development is both a principle and a practical 

decision. Leslie Newbigin states: “It is surely a fact of 

inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left 

behind was not a book or a creed, nor a system of 

thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community” 

(Quoted by Myers 2011, 191). Research by Gerard 

Clarke also calls attention to the practical fact that faith-

based civil society organizations are major, if not the 

largest, contributors to social welfare in much of the 

Global South (Clarke 2006, 837). Poignantly, in gang-

entangled communities, the local church is one of the 

few remaining options to solving the gang crisis. 

Unfortunately, it is no small task, especially considering 

that local government and international aid 

organizations, with all their resources and expertise, 

have failed to resolve it. How the local church can fulfill 

this role is a concern for many practitioners engaged in 

transformational development.  

Myers’ framework for transformational 

development does not propose a one-size-fits-all 

formulaic approach, but rather suggests that if we take 

each frontier seriously, we can take another step toward 

a more comprehensive, holistic view of transformation. 

Building on Abhijit Banerjee’s and Esther Duflo’s 

work, Myers suggests that by avoiding simplistic 

diagnoses and listening more carefully to affected 

communities, we may understand the logic of their 

choices and possibly develop more effective policies to 

support their development efforts (Myers 2011, 40). By 

applying a suitable social learning approach to our 

specific fields of engagement, we can discover the best 

human future, which for Myers is the Kingdom of God. 

Myers concludes that, at the most fundamental level, 

the cause of poverty is relationships that do not work 

for human well-being, that do not allow everyone to 

flourish (Myers 2011, 295). This framework has guided 

church and parachurch initiatives in El Salvador, yet the 

recent increase in gang influence has left many 

development practitioners wondering if current 

transformational development strategies are enough to 

restore healthy community relationships. 

Understanding how Pentecostal churches can 

address gang entanglement is more than academic 

research. It is an attempt to shed light on a critical 

conversation presently taking place among church 

leaders, development workers, and community 

members committed to being agents of transformation 

in their communities. Reflecting on how gangs have 

flourished in the shadows of the Church is a soul-

searching exercise. In one such conversation, a pastor 

shared with tears how his son had been recruited by the 

gangs, and how devastating it was for him (Care Worker 

2017). It is in such settings that a fuller, more authentic 

understanding of transformational development must 

materialize. 

Gang-controlled communities in El Salvador pose 

a unique challenge to Pentecostal churches 

implementing transformational development strategies. 

There are two common and conflicting assumptions 

about the role Pentecostal churches can and should 

play in addressing gangs. First is the notion that because 

Pentecostals are present in gang-entangled 

communities they are ideally suited to be agents of 

transformation. Second, however, is the question of 

whether typically small, poor, and socially cautious 

Pentecostal churches in gang-entangled communities 

have the capacity or desire to address broad social 

issues. Required is an understanding of how gang 

control is affecting transformational development and 

vice versa. In the community of San Martín, both 

Pentecostals and gangs are active and have a strong 

presence. As Myers states: “It is hard to talk about how 

to continue the journey to where we want to go if we do 

not know where we are” (Myers 2011, 290). Right now, 

communities in El Salvador are increasingly controlled 

by gangs, so this is where the churches and parachurch 

organizations are and where we begin. 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 43 

 

Transformational Development in Gang-

Entangled Communities of San Martín 
The following three examples in the communities 

of San Martín, a municipality in the capital city of San 

Salvador, highlight the conundrum of practicing 

transformational development in gang-controlled 

communities. San Martín has many characteristics of 

semi-urban contexts that are heavily entangled with 

gangs, like poverty, rapid growth, and crime. Its 

administration is divided into eight townships and 

thirty-seven hamlets. According to the government’s 

projections, the population in 2020 was 92,027 

(DIGESTYC 2021), a little fewer than 30% of whom 

are adolescents (ages 10-24). The gangs are already 

strong in San Martín, but this means that some 25,000 

young people are at prime gang recruitment ages.  

I have often heard it said, “Isn’t it funny how day 

by day nothing changes, but when you look back, 

everything is different?” Initial conversations with 

community stakeholders regarding the influence of 

gangs echo this observation. My conversations with 

people who live and work in San Martín highlight one 

of the challenges with social learning approaches. It is 

difficult to take the time and resources needed to assess 

big picture issues when one is struggling to execute daily 

tasks. For instance, to the question of “How is the gang 

situation presently affecting your community?,” the 

most common response was: “About the same as 

always.” Residents in San Martín describe the gang 

situation with a degree of normalcy and 

accommodation. Yet, as the conversations progress, 

people begin to describe how gangs are increasingly 

gaining control and influence in their communities. 

They describe a context in which there are varying 

degrees of gang control, which dictates how much 

access and freedom they have in their communities. In 

some neighborhoods, gangs have complete authority, 

such that not even the police can enter. In most cases, 

the local inhabitants’ movements are restricted and 

people have to adjust their behavior to coexist with the 

gangs. What they describe is not a static crime problem, 

but a community negotiating unstable social 

arrangements.  

Communities are awakening to the realization that 

they belong to gang-controlled territories. The gangs 

have divided the country into territories controlled by 

numbers or letters. Numbers are areas controlled by 

18th Street gang (18), and letters belong to Mara 

Salvatrucha (MS). Any unknown person entering a 

gang-controlled territory can be stopped and required 

to show their ID. If the address on the ID is from a 

territory controlled by rival gangs, the bearer is either 

deterred from entering or heavily monitored. The level 

of control also affects where one can work. A teacher 

who applied for a position at a school in one of these 

communities was persuaded to look elsewhere, because 

she lived in a neighborhood controlled by rival gangs. 

Community members instinctively appreciate the 

realities of gang entanglement, but struggle to articulate 

a clear definition of their relationship with the gangs. 

Consider the example of a local Christian school. 

  

Christian Academy 

The Christian school in San Martín has 

approximately four hundred students and was 

established in the 1980s by a traditional Pentecostal 

denomination. The director of the school is the son of 

a local pastor and a former student at the school. When 

asked about how gangs affect the school, he explained 

that in the initial stages of gang activity, the school was 

able to control gang incursion by screening out children 

involved in gangs. Parents chose to send their children 

to the school because it protected them from gang 

recruitment common in public schools. Now, as 

communities become more entangled, it is increasingly 

difficult to keep the gang element out of their schools.  

Gang influence is no longer just about the students, 

but parents and neighborhood friends as well. There is 

now a second generation of gang members. A culture 

of fear permeates the whole community, because no 

one knows who can be trusted. “I have had students join 

gangs who are now in prison or have been killed, and I 

have also personally been affected by gangs” (School 

Director, September 9, 2021). Once, as a teacher, he 

was falsely accused of sexual harassment by a student 

who was dating a gang member. He asked the girl to 

stop talking on her cell phone during class. In 

retaliation, the student was instructed by the gang how 

to file a sexual harassment complaint. Three months 

later the charges were dropped due to insufficient 

evidence, but the message had been sent: do not 

challenge the gangs. Amazingly, he testifies of God’s 

protection and faithfulness while awaiting sentencing in 

prison. He explains how he was protected by former 

students who had been imprisoned for gang crimes. His 

relationship with gang members in his community is 

complicated. He says it is an opportunity to influence, 

but it also comes with risks. 

The school director cannot articulate clear 

protocols that guide his engagement with gang 

members, but he does point out that being known in 

the area is important. He describes how on one 

occasion the school milk supplier was detained at 

gunpoint by gang members. They were demanding an 

extortion fee. The director was informed of the 

situation and was able to negotiate his freedom. He 

explains that “when there is a conflict, I can sometimes 

approach the gang members if I know them or they 

know me. If I worked in a different community, I would 

not have the courage to confront gang members” 

(School Director, September 23, 2021). He explains 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 44 

that local credibility and a humble demeanor can 

provide some sway with gang members, but their 

response is not predictable and one should approach 

them with wisdom.  

The school director proceeds to explain how and 

when he feels at liberty to approach gang members. 

“You can confront them with sound advice, and even 

preach to them about the ills of a gang lifestyle. To 

some extent, they expect that from a Christian, but it 

must be done in the right spirit. If you are 

condescending or threatening, you might not make it 

out alive.” He believes that young people know if you’re 

for them or against them. But he also points out that 

there are no written rules of engagement, and when you 

approach a gang member “te la tienes que jugar” (you 

roll the dice). In San Martín, troubled young people 

have gone from being neglected and/or bullied, to being 

feared and given preference. Gang members have 

gained the upper hand using intimidation, and the 

school staff are adjusting by using relational persuasion 

to the best of their ability to resolve conflicts that affect 

the school and its students.  

The school director once mustered the courage to 

ask a favor from the local gang leader, who had been a 

childhood friend. He asked if he could paint over the 

gang graffiti on the school walls, but the gang leader said 

“I can’t give you permission, because the younger gang 

members are crazy and wouldn’t understand” (School 

Director, October 29, 2021). Gang leadership is a 

tenuous position that requires one to constantly 

engender member loyalty. The personal relationship 

the director has with the gang leader gives him a degree 

of accessibility, but there is a collective system that 

overrides their personal relationship. Gang 

organization is local and fluid. From the outside, gang 

organization appears chaotic, but gangs have unwritten 

rules, codes, and tactical procedures that preserve and 

guide the collective. As a collective, gang members have 

power, but as individuals they are highly exposed. 

The gangs’ ability to control territory is 

foundational to their growth and safety. Their ability to 

control who can access the community significantly 

hinders the school’s ability to operate efficiently. The 

director states that school enrollment and attendance 

are down. “A student from the Altavista neighborhood 

had to drop out because it was controlled by the rival 

gang.” “It is also hard to recruit new teachers if they’re 

not from the community. Outside suppliers hesitate to 

provide the school with delivery services. Our 

community is considered to be in the red zone by 

service providers” (School Director, October 29, 2021). 

Many basic services, like internet, water, and electricity 

can go weeks without being repaired, because repairs 

require security measures. The school is becoming 

increasingly isolated from external support systems. 

The school still receives external subsidies for 

scholarships, uniforms, and school lunches from 

charitable partners, but the ability to be self-sustaining 

is increasingly difficult in this environment. 

The Director’s concern for the young people in his 

community is evidenced by the risks he takes to serve 

his students and community. As a transformational 

development practitioner, his heart and capacity are 

what have allowed him to keep the school doors open. 

At times, he has been able to leverage his good 

reputation in the community to negotiate small 

concessions. His relationship with individual gang 

members is a local currency in San Martín, but it has its 

limitations. The school, as an institution, cannot 

negotiate general agreements with the gangs. There are 

certain gang principles they will not violate for anyone, 

and the volatile dynamics of gang organizations makes 

establishing formal negotiations impossible. For 

example, when the school tried to get permission from 

the gangs for the student who lived in Altavista to attend 

the school, they could not even determine who within 

the gang had the authority to approve it. Therefore, 

trying to establish common-good agreements with the 

gangs is challenging.  

Despite the growing limitations experienced by 

gang entanglement, the positive effects the school, and 

especially by the director and school staff, have on 

young people is evident. The community’s situation 

would surely deteriorate if the school had to close 

down. Without the school’s positive presence in the 

community and the acknowledged benefits of 

education, the gang situation would certainly be worse. 

The real challenge arises when looking to the future. It 

is hard for the director of the Christian school and 

community leaders to envision a way out of gang-

entanglement on their own. The transformational 

development framework acknowledges the importance 

of structural and macro level approaches critical for 

creating sustainable conditions. What is not clear is how 

the director and the school can capitalize on their local 

knowledge and positive history to strengthen a more 

collective response to gang control. What is conceivable 

to them is a transformational development strategy that 

continues to shape the future by changing young 

people’s outlook, while changing the broader social 

conditions affecting their community seems 

improbable. 

 

Community Water Project  

Another arena in which local development 

practitioners experience the challenges of gang 

entanglement in San Martín is the community water 

project. I interviewed the Program Coordinator of a 

Christian NGO that oversees the water project. The 

water system serves three townships in San Martín. The 

project originally served 1,200 residents, but is currently 

serving 750. At the moment, the project is limping 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 45 

along, and the future sustainability of the project is in 

jeopardy because of gang dynamics.  

This water project was started in 2012 with the help 

of a Christian NGO. The project is called “El Milagro” 

(The Miracle), because for many years the national 

water authority had told community members that 

potable water in the area was not feasible. After years of 

desperately seeking to access water, the community 

finally attained the support of a Christian NGO and 

local mayor to sponsor the water project. The project’s 

goal was to serve eleven communities in the area. It was 

completed in 2018, at a cost of $1.8 million USD. The 

quota for each household is currently $10/month, 

much less than the $40/month people used to pay when 

the water was supplied by trucks. A water association 

was legally registered and trained to operate and 

manage the water system. The project brought clean 

potable water to approximately 250 families.  

Unfortunately, the water association now has to 

deal with the effects of increased gang influence. Three 

of the eleven communities refuse to pay their water 

quotas. The program coordinator explains that “In El 

Rincon most families are gang-related and do not pay 

their water quotas. Water association staff no longer 

enter or visit the community. The gang also demands 

free water for their soccer field. “Solo conocidos 

pueden llegar” (Only known people can enter). We 

(external aid workers) cannot enter these communities 

or exert any pressure for payment because of the gangs” 

(Program Coordinator, August 18, 2021). Economic 

conditions in San Martín are also affected by local 

businesses and services that are forced to pay “renta” 

(protection money) to the gangs. This puts an additional 

financial burden on community members already 

struggling to make ends meet. About 30% of families 

that use the water system are not up to date on their 

payments. “The water project is collapsing because they 

cannot pay their bills” (Program Coordinator, 

September 24, 2021). If this trend continues, the 

sustainability of the project will be compromised.  

The program coordinator believes that they must 

raise water quotas to $15/month to keep the system 

afloat. The committee president expressed his concern 

that current leadership cannot get people to agree on 

raising rates. The water committee has financial 

problems and there are not enough funds to maintain 

and operate the system. When the water committee 

association was confronted with the growing reality that 

the system was going bankrupt, they tried to solicit 

external assistance from government and international 

aid organizations. Unfortunately, there is no external 

assistance on the horizon. The territorial control by the 

gangs and the government’s inability or unwillingness to 

address it, make it very difficult to convince external 

entities to invest in a project that has a low probability 

of being sustainable. Any immediate solutions to the 

community’s water challenges will thus have to be 

internal. 

The program coordinator recently spoke with 

water association members to explain that no external 

funding was imminent, and that if they cannot agree to 

raise rates and devise methods to reduce delinquent 

payments the system would collapse. In light of this 

reality, two board members gathered the courage to 

approach the gangs in one of the delinquent 

communities. The outcome of this effort is not yet 

known, but the future of the water project hangs in the 

balance (Program Coordinator, December 23, 2021).  

The program coordinator says most communities 

in San Martín now have a limited vision of the future 

because of the insecurity caused by gangs. The 

communities focus primarily on immediate needs, like 

houses and latrines. They have no vision of the future 

for their community (Program Coordinator, October 

29, 2021). Their only dream is to escape, preferably to 

the United States. They have resigned themselves to the 

reality that they will not improve their economic well-

being in their current environment. Unlike the 

Christian school that receives some external support, 

the water project depends completely on community 

support. Initially, many resources were invested in 

capacity building to ensure the maintenance and 

operation of the water system. No one anticipated a 

context in which gangs would gain so much control they 

could put a stranglehold on community initiatives. 

 

Church and Parachurch After-School Program  

The final example is an after-school program 

connected with the Good Shepherd Pentecostal 

Church. The church is located on the border of two 

rival gangs. This church has a long history of serving the 

broader community. In 2005, it began hosting an after-

school program (Centro Desarrollo Infantil - CDI) 

funded by an international NGO. The child 

sponsorship program serves approximately three 

hundred children, from 0–18 years of age. The focus is 

primarily on tutoring, but they also sponsor vocational 

workshops and a soccer program. The CDI program 

has also invested in three micro-enterprises that aim to 

create employment and generate internal revenue.  

When I asked the pastor what results the after-

school program is having in the community he stated: 

“The program benefits many children, and it has been 

useful in preventing kids from joining gangs. For 

example, one child in the program began to hang out 

with gang members, and by working with his parents we 

were able to rescue him from the gangs” (Pastor, 

November 3, 2021). He also believes that parent 

workshops are beneficial for gang prevention. He 

laments that the program has not had the desired 

spiritual results. Despite the program emphasizing 

Christian formation, he calculates that less than 3% of 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 46 

the children who have gone through the program are 

actively attending a church. I followed-up on why the 

spiritual aspects are missing, if the parachurch 

organization encourages the church to engage in it? He 

initially attributed the spiritual deficit to a lack of prayer 

(spiritual commitment), but he also admitted that the 

church did not always support the program as it should. 

Church and CDI program activities are not completely 

integrated and operate semi-autonomously. To 

illustrate his point, he gave the following example: “The 

CDI has a vocational training program for music, yet 

the church itself does not have a worship group.” The 

Good Shepherd Church had once been a “leader 

church” in the community of San Martín. But today the 

pastor’s vision of the church’s role in the community is 

more cautious.  

In 2020, the national director of after-school 

programs informed the church that they would no 

longer be expanding operations in El Salvador. 

According to a statistical report, the community was no 

longer considered to be in conditions of extreme 

poverty. After more than fifteen years of operating in 

the community, the program is beginning a process of 

transition toward self-reliance. I asked the pastor if the 

church and established micro-enterprises could sustain 

the current program. “The program has a monthly 

budget of $6,000 USD,” he said, “and the micro-

enterprises are currently generating about $250 per 

month. With a 50-member church it would be difficult 

to sustain the program without external support” 

(Pastor, December 22, 2021). The priority is to get 

currently enrolled children through the program.  

The after-school program in San Martín is part of 

a direct partnership between the local church and the 

international parachurch organization. There is no 

formal agreement with the national church 

organization. Pentecostal churches’ autonomous 

associational structure lends itself to these hub-and-

spoke alliances with parachurch organizations. 

Whether direct partnerships are done for expediency 

or principle, the net result is that local churches’ 

ecclesiastical support systems are often unaware of their 

activities or unable to support them. From an 

institutional perspective, the national church plays a 

limited role in sustaining these programs. 

In addition, the fact that the local congregation 

cannot sustain the children’s after-school program 

without parachurch sponsorship is concerning in a local 

economy controlled by gangs. One of the hallmarks of 

transformational development strategies is that they 

connect projects with a local church. It becomes a 

major challenge when local churches (primarily in low-

income communities) do not have the support systems 

to sustain initiatives. Much like the Christian school, the 

benefit of this program for the three hundred plus 

children is undeniable, and it is especially critical for 

keeping more children from joining gangs. The 

challenge is keeping programs operational when 

current indicators used to determine need do not take 

into account the effects of gangs. This program is 

critically important for gang prevention, but because 

this is not the primary focus of the program it may lose 

its financial support. The type of poverty inflicted by 

gangs cannot always be measured by traditional 

standard of living metrics.  

Overall, church and parachurch organizations’ 

transformational development projects and programs 

in San Martín have been effective in addressing 

individual needs of children and families. Their 

presence in the community also provides a glimmer of 

hope that there is a way out of gang entanglement. 

Unfortunately, without major macro/structural change 

the gangs will continue to deprive these communities of 

the stability that makes sustainable development 

possible. The need for a more collective response is 

thus critical. Churches and parachurch organizations 

have unique access to gang entangled-communities, but 

they cannot be expected to transform them alone.  

 

Analysis   
Pentecostals and gangs in El Salvador share space, 

family ties, and cosmology, but their contrasting 

responses to marginalization put them in tension. 

There is no common vision of the future and their 

methods of influence are diametrically opposed. Yet in 

spite of the volatile environment, local Pentecostal 

churches and parachurch organizations have managed 

to survive by taking a cautious approach to social 

engagement. As a result, they are among the few 

remaining social organizations in increasingly isolated, 

gang-controlled communities. Their presence and local 

empowerment programs provide valuable assistance to 

many vulnerable families. At the same time, the 

increase in gang influence exposes the limitations of 

these approaches. As gangs expand their networks of 

influence, sustainable transformational development 

initiatives are increasingly stifled. The need to address 

gang issues is paramount for the well-being of these 

communities. Unfortunately, there is no gang specific 

transformational development approach to guide 

churches and parachurch organizations to achieve 

sustainable change. 

Before considering transformational development 

strategies for gang-entangled communities, it is 

important to situate the analysis within the day-to-day 

environment. Rehabilitation and reintegration 

programs are clearly part of a comprehensive gang 

mitigation strategy, but they have little effect on gang 

control and violence. For this reason, the focus of this 

research is on the effects gang entanglement has on the 

sustainability of transformational development efforts 

in the community. As witnessed in the community of 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 47 

San Martín, most established transformational 

development programs are currently following program 

strategies and procedures that were developed prior to, 

or independent of, gang entanglement. Program criteria 

and methods did not anticipate how increased gang 

control would affect their long-term goals. At present, 

local churches and parachurch organizations are in 

tension with gang influence, and there are few, if any, 

ongoing sustainable transformational development 

approaches that address gang entanglement.  

A review of different gang mitigation strategies 

applied to date can be disheartening. Aggressive police 

tactics, macro-level structural adjustment polices, and 

gang rehabilitation initiatives have all proven largely 

ineffective (Wolf 2017, 208). Gang-entangled 

communities are in development limbo. There is no 

immediate solution to the structural concerns feeding 

gang growth, and increasing gang control in marginal 

communities affects the stability required for 

sustainable development. For transformational 

development practitioners it is hard to find right-fitting 

strategies. The community water project in San Martin 

provides an example of an NGO that, in the absence of 

a suitable strategy, simply stays the course. The water 

project continues to pursue a standard programmatic 

progression from dependence to independence. Yet 

increased gang control affects the stability required to 

achieve sustainability objectives. Ignoring these social 

dynamics can create misaligned goals and strategies, 

and put added strain on local stakeholders.  

Considering the organizations that adjust or initiate 

new programs in gang-entangled communities, the vast 

majority focus on addressing immediate needs. In San 

Martín, the instability caused by gang control caused the 

Christian NGO to instinctively focus new efforts on 

addressing basic needs, such as latrines. Development 

organizations commonly adjust their programs when a 

major disaster strikes a community. In cases where wars 

break out or natural disasters strike, policies and 

procedures shift toward disaster relief and/or refugee 

assistance. Similarly with gang entanglement, in the 

absence of stability, many development practitioners 

gravitate toward providing direct assistance. After all, 

violent social crises caused by terrorism or crime are 

typically classified as disasters (Wisner 2015). 

Unfortunately, in the case of gang entanglement, the 

social crisis has no clear ending point. In many 

communities, gang entanglement has become the new 

norm. Also, in cases where emergency relief methods 

are employed, they do not create any kind of systemic 

and permanent change in the social conditions that can 

help stabilize the community. Church and parachurch 

organizations that utilize emergency relief tactics must 

be mindful that the situation may not improve any time 

soon.   

Finally, let us consider conflict theory approaches 

to addressing gang violence. There is ethnographic 

research in other parts of Latin America that reveals 

that residents in conflictive communities can and do 

stand up to violence by state and non-state actors. But 

in El Salvador, open confrontation of the gangs is rare 

(Wolf 2017, 229). What makes some forms of civil 

resistance possible in some contexts and not in El 

Salvador is unknown. But what is clear is that anyone 

confronting gangs without government support is likely 

vulnerable to both legal prosecution and/or gang 

reprisal. Similarly, non-confrontational structural 

strategies also seem destined to fail. Alex de Waal 

suggests that “people need to develop a sense that, as 

part of a larger political community, they have rights on 

which they should insist – to development, to a 

sustainable livelihood, to respect for civil and political 

rights” (Quoted in Myers 2011, 196). Still, these rights 

are irrelevant to gangs, because gang members do not 

belong to formal international systems in which they 

can be held accountable. At present, transformational 

development practitioners in San Martín and elsewhere 

continue to apply grassroots empowerment initiatives 

without a clear long-term strategy.  

 

Going Forward: How the International 

Development Community Can Support 

Gang-Entangled Communities. 
In marginal communities, the churches’ capacity to 

affect broad change correlates with their external 

alliances with international development organizations. 

Yet in gang-controlled communities current 

partnership models are hindered by hostile conditions, 

contested rituals, and limited capacity, all of which 

make the employment of formal development 

strategies impractical. One surmises that achieving 

sustainable transformational development will take 

time, that outside support will be essential, and that 

stakeholders, including even small Pentecostal 

churches, will have to work together. Along these lines, 

I believe there is a way forward if we can commit to 

finding better ways to support local initiatives when 

there is limited access. Ignoring or applying existing 

protocols will not achieve desired results. The challenge 

is to define transformational development policies, 

advocacy, and support resources that specifically suit 

gang-entangled communities.  

The first decision transformational development 

practitioners face when confronted with gang-entangled 

communities is whether to engage. The trend has been 

that as gang control and violence increase, external 

development agencies withdraw. Gang-entangled 

communities thus become progressively more isolated 

from external support systems. For example, Médecins 

Sans Frontières (MSF) temporarily suspended its 

operations in El Salvador after one of its teams came 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 48 

under attack from armed gangs (Rentería 2021). As 

evidenced by this incident, when organizations are 

affected by gangs, they are left to consider their policies 

and procedures on their own, without the benefit of any 

gang-specific strategy. Decisions by international 

organizations to engage in El Salvador are being made 

in offices isolated from gang-affected communities. At 

the moment each organization must negotiate its own 

gang-entanglement strategy.  

The magnitude of the gang problem in many 

communities of El Salvador also affects how NGOs 

operate. For example, Homies Unidos (a peer-based 

NGO) had its funding suspended because formal 

evaluations could not be carried out by independent 

observers (Wolf 2017, 236). Gang suspicion of 

outsiders hinders many formal funding protocols. 

Whether it is the gangs that restrict access, or the staff 

of donor agencies who decline to visit gang-controlled 

communities, the net effect is increasing isolation. 

Increasingly, only local institutions remain active in 

these communities, but it seems unreasonable to expect 

them to address gang issues on their own. Development 

specialist Alan Fowler points out that micro-level 

development empowerment approaches must be 

combined with macro-level institutional support. Myers 

reinforces this point by stating: “Every community is 

part of a family of social systems that are regional, 

national, and finally global” (Myers 2011, 189). Local 

church leaders, community members, and 

transformational practitioners need support from the 

international development community. Identifying 

better ways to support local initiatives that are 

inaccessible because of gangs is a critical first step.  

The next step in identifying a better way to address 

gang-entangled communities is adjust the lenses 

through which we assess the problem. By applying 

Offutt’s social entanglement theory, we can better 

understand who we are engaging and what the 

challenges are. In the case of the after-school program 

in San Martín we see how development practitioners 

use a generic standard of living index to determine if the 

program meets their criteria. Based on these criteria, 

the program has begun a phase-out process, despite the 

fact that the program is very valuable in preventing 

young people from joining the gangs. Appropriate 

transformational development strategies in El 

Salvador’s marginal communities require us to view 

gangs as a form of poverty. Communities entangled by 

gangs may not always appear to be materially poor, but 

they lack freedom, peace, and employment prospects. 

Also, the economy in marginal communities in El 

Salvador is heavily reliant on remittances from family 

members who have migrated. This can skew the 

perception of need, because those resources are 

externally generated; migrating parents may solve their 

immediate financial needs, but may also expose their 

children to gang recruitment and does not create 

prospects for future employment. The effects of 

poverty in gang-entangled communities go beyond the 

financial. Transformational development assessment 

criteria must integrate physical, social, psychological, 

and spiritual effects of gang entanglement.  

Finally, with a degree of optimism, we can attest to 

the importance the local church plays in any long-term 

transformational strategy. But how churches go about 

identifying kingdom principles in gang-entangled 

communities is critical. The moral question of when to 

engage or disengage from gang members is complex. 

For example, Polígono (a Catholic development 

agency) terminated its micro-enterprise program 

directed at gang members. The program was 

controversial because some believed it incentivized 

joining the gangs. Young people witnessed how much 

support and resources were directed at gang members. 

Building healthy relationships is a challenge in the best 

of circumstances. Determining when to engage or 

disengage from gang demands is an ethical matrix only 

the truly vested can decipher. It brings me back to the 

words of the school director in San Martín: “They know 

when you are on their side.” This statement is not about 

being pro-gang or anti-gang. It is about an awareness of 

the person and context one addresses. Any moral or 

ethical guide for navigating gang entanglement must 

emerge through the diligent pursuit of truth from 

kingdom-minded stakeholders. A kingdom mindset for 

San Martín must be fleshed out by those who live and 

work there. The international development community 

can help facilitate this process, but local participants 

must be centrally involved. 

The gang situation in El Salvador foreshadows the 

prophetic vision of children turning on their parents. 

Many aspects of transformational development work 

are tested by the social reality of gangs. The experiences 

in San Martín highlight the importance of long-term 

relationships, support systems, and right-fitting 

strategies. Insular empowerment strategies are not 

enough to mitigate gang influence. A more robust and 

collective approach is necessary. The larger 

development community has the unique challenge of 

increasing support in less accessible communities. 

These are just a few of the important elements to 

consider in gang-entangled communities. Many other 

macro-level transformational development policies and 

procedures need to be examined in light of this social 

phenomenon. The hope is that by integrating the broad 

development community into the conversation of those 

who live and work in gang-entangled communities, we 

will find the best ways forward.  

 

 

 

 

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Bueno, Gangs and Development 49 

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Huezo Mixco, Luis R. 2020. “Empoderados en el 

Espíritu. Una Aproximación al Pentecostalismo en 

El Salvador Moderno.” In Mansilla, Miguel Ángel 

and Mariela Mosqueira, Directors. Sociología del 

Pentecostalismo en América Latina. Santiago: RIL 

Editores, 213-243.  

Martin, David. 1990. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion 

of Protestantism in Latin America. Oxford: Basil 

Blackwell. 

Martínez, Carlos and Roberto Valencia. 2018. “Mara 

Salvatrucha: ‘Fue un error haber aceptado dinero 

de los partidos político.’” Elfaro. April 15. 

https://elfaro.net/es/201804/salanegra/21718/Mara-

Salvatrucha-%E2%80%9CFue-un-error-haber-

aceptado-dinero-de-los-partidos-

pol%C3%ADticos%E2%80%9D.htm.  

Myers, Bryant L. 2011. Walking with The Poor: 

Principles and Practices of Transformational 

Development. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. 

Offutt, Stephen. 2020. “Entangled: Evangelicals and 

Gangs in El Salvador.” Social Forces 99(1), 424-45.  

Offutt, Stephen. (Forthcoming). Evangelicals and 

Gangs in El Salvador. New York: Oxford 

University Press. 

Pastor. 2021. Name omitted for safety. Interviewed by 

author on November 3 and December 22. 

Program Coordinator. 2021. Name omitted for safety. 

Interviewed by the author on August 18, 

September 24, October 29, November 3, and 

December 23. 

Reno, R. R. 2019. Return of the Strong Gods: 

Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the 

West. Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway. 

Rentería, Nelson, with editing by Diane Craft. 2021. 

“Doctors Without Borders suspends work in El 

Salvador after attack.”  Reuters, January 31. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/doctors-

without-borders-suspends-work-el-salvador-after-

attack-2021-02-01/.  

School Director. 2021. Name omitted for safety. 

Interviewed by author on September 9, 17, 23, 

October 29, November 2, 6 and December 2. 

The Economist. 2018. “El Salvador's violent gang 

members are finding God in prison.” YouTube, 

May 22. https://youtu.be/7deancj6lzw.  

Vásquez, Manuel A., Marie Friedmann Marquardt, 

and Ileana Gómez. 2003. “Saving Souls 

Transnationally: Pentecostalism and Gangs in El 

Salvador and in The United States.” In Manuel A. 

Vásquez and Marie Friedmann Marquardt. Eds. 

Globalizing the Sacred, 119-44. New Brunswick: 

Rutgers University Press. 

Wisner, Ben. 2015. “Community Resilience to 

Disaster.” In James Write. Ed. Encyclopedia of 

the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd. Ed, 354-

360. Elsevier. 

Wolf, Sonja. 2017. Mano Dura: The Politics of Gang 

Control in El Salvador. Austin: University of Texas 

Press. 

World Bank Group. 2021. “Poverty & Equity Brief, 

Latin America & the Caribbean: El Salvador.” 

April. 

https://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/po

verty/987B9C90-CB9F-4D93-AE8C-

750588BF00QA/AM2020/Global_POVEQ_SLV.

pdf.  

Youth Pastor. 2021. Name omitted for safety. 

Interviewed by author on September 24, 25. 

 
 

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Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 3(2), Winter 2022  

Bueno, Gangs and Development 50 

 

 

David Bueno is executive director of Water for the 

World, and serves on the board of Fundación 

Esteban. He has lived and worked in El Salvador for 

more than 30 years. His work focuses on sustainable 

socio-economic development.  

 

Author email: david@water4world.net  
 

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