Sombra Negra: The Real-Life Vigilante Group That Targets MS-13 Gang Members
Giles Clarke/Getty ImagesA masked gunman patrols the streets for suspected gang members.
El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha gang is better known as MS-13. Formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s, many members were deported for vicious crimes. However, several of them continued their criminal activity back home. The gang terrorized a nation plagued by a high poverty rate and a virtually helpless police force — until real-life vigilantes stepped up to help.
Spanish for “Black Shadow,” Sombra Negra was first formed around the early 1990s as a direct result of El Salvador’s authorities being glaringly overpowered by MS-13. Frustrated by the situation, Sombra Negra started targeting gang members for execution — especially MS-13 members.
Sombra Negra members come dressed in black with bandanas over their faces. They patrol the streets in unlicensed vehicles and tinted windows. And one of their main missions is to capture MS-13 members — and make them “disappear.” As Sombra Negra has grown more powerful over the years, so have the legends of their brutal retribution against the gang members.
ELMER MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty ImagesTwo unidentified members of the MS-13 gang.
From sexual torture to dismemberment, the paramilitary group of vigilantes became more of a death squad than a traditional band of crimefighters. In El Salvador, it seemed, only extreme measures would stop MS-13.
“Most of the victims were blindfolded, their hands or thumbs tied behind their backs, and they had received tiros de gracia (a coup de grâce), shots to the base of the skull at close range by weapons such as assault rifles and machine guns,” a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services report said.
From home invasions to sudden killings in the streets, Sombra Negra carries out their mission with a ruthless abandon and describes it as a “social cleansing.” And some authorities are grateful. Even El Salvador’s head of National Assembly Guillermo Gallegos has admitted: “Morally I support this type of expression because people are tired of the way of delinquency.”
In the end, it’s worth noting that many people have mixed feelings about real-life vigilantes. While they may sympathize with their motives in some cases, they may also find some of their choices reckless or even unnecessarily dangerous. But there’s no question that all of these vigilantes have left a huge impression on the world — for better or for worse.
After learning about 11 real-life vigilantes who took justice into their own hands, read about the group of dads who beat up a sex offender spying on a teenage girl. Then, take a look at history’s most unmerciful revenge stories.
