On April 26, the Perry Center held the webinar, “Systems Analysis of the Salvadoran Gangs.” It presented the just published book: Adversarial System Analysis of the Salvadoran Gangs. Two of the three authors, Dr. David Spencer, WJPC Professor of Practice, and Mr. Herard von Santos, WJPC alumnus, discussed how the book came about, the methodology used to conduct the research and the major conclusions.

The discussion covered the focused on a holistic look at the gangs covering all aspects relevant to the organization. The study received total cooperation from the Salvadoran military, police, security ministry and the U.S. Embassy. Numerous interviews were conducted, visits were made to the task forces combating the gangs, and full access was given to police, justice and military intelligence and files on the gangs.

Moderated by consultant Roman Ortiz and attended by over 300 participants, this webinar included simultaneous interpretation into English allowing for a robust participation from throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.