Read Online This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha by Samuel Logan - Free Book Online Page B

for a pretty boy, except for one thing: his dark eyes held no remorse.
    When Denis told Brenda about the time he cut out a kid’s throat, he began by explaining that it had happened in the fall of 2001, when he had planned the murder of Joaquin Diaz, a twenty-year-old Latino who he believed was a chavala , a rival gang member. Joaquin hadn’t seen it coming, Denis said. As was customary among street gang members, those targeted for death were lulled into a false sense of confidence. It was a tactic they called “rocking the cradle,” and it has been employed by organized crime for decades.
    Joaquin sold marijuana from time to time, and Denis thought asking to buy some would be a legitimate reason for them to meet up. The two met on a chilly evening in Alexandria, Virginia, at a fast-food restaurant where Joaquin’s girlfriend worked. Denis and another friend sat in a booth, with Joaquin on the other side. After a few minutes of idle conversation, Denis began to tease Joaquin, jokingly acting like he was going to punch him, threatening to jump him and deliver a beat-down. It was a macho act Denis liked to do in jest. But Joaquin didn’tthink it was funny and got up and left. I don’t need Denis’s money that bad, Joaquin thought as he hurried out the door. Shouting for him to stop, Denis got up and followed him outside. Joaquin was startled and broke into a run.
    Denis ran after him, shouting that he was just kidding, that everything was cool. He kept shouting as he followed Joaquin across the parking lot. Joaquin decided that maybe Denis was kidding after all, so he slowed down to a walk and turned around. Denis caught up with Joaquin and calmed him down. Denis tried to convince him that he just wanted to hang out and invited Joaquin to a nearby house party. Reassured, Joaquin agreed to hang out, but he wasn’t going to stick around that long. Just enough time for Denis to get too drunk or stoned to care. Then he would leave.
    Joaquin and Denis talked casually as they walked a half mile to the apartment of a local leader from Denis’s street gang. They walked up the stairwell, and as they approached the door, the sound of people talking and laughing mixed with thumping music and the smell of marijuana and cigarettes. When they entered the living room, where a number of his friends were hanging out, Denis introduced Joaquin to his homies in the room, asked someone to get him a beer, then told Joaquin to sit tight. Denis turned and walked down the short hall to a back room, where he knew the leader, known as Fiel, would be hanging out. He needed Fiels’s support to kill Joaquin.
    In the back room, far out of earshot from an unsuspecting but slightly nervous Joaquin, Denis explained to Fiel that he had a chavala he wanted to kill. Fiel said it was cool but suggested Denis take some help. He knew the young killer could handle it, but didn’t want the murder to get out of control.
    He left the room and headed back toward the living room to round up his crew. Denis was getting excited. He had received backing to make a hit in the name of his gang—a luz verde , or green light. All gang members considered a luz verde serious business, but most tried to avoid being the one to pull the trigger. Fewer than two in ten actually request a luz verde on someone. It meant taking the life of a specified target. If they were assigned the task, a member either killed the target or received serious discipline for not carrying out the hit.
    When asked if they would kill for the gang, most homies puff up and give a resounding affirmative, but secretly they hope they don’t have to follow through. Denis was different from most members in hisgang. Fiel knew that Denis was a seasoned hit man. He would carry out the hit and come back to celebrate the next day. The willingness to kill was what separated Denis and a limited number of hard-core members in his gang from the rest, who tried to avoid violence.
    Denis stepped into the living