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Inside the bloody rivalry between the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs.<br>
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A police officer paints over a graffiti associated with the Mara Salvatrucha gang in the Montreal neighborhood in Mejicanos, El Salvador, in an operation to take back gang-controlled neighborhoods, December 9, 2015. Violence in El Salvador has increased over the past year after a 2012 truce between the Barrio 18 and rival gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) started to unravel. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
The interior of a "destroyer house" is seen during a patrol to erase graffiti in the Montreal neighborhood in Mejicanos, December 9, 2015. The country averages about 15.5 homicides per day as gangs battle for control of drug trafficking and extortion operations, making it one of the world's deadliest nations. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A police officer paints over a graffiti associated with the Mara Salvatrucha gang in the Montreal neighborhood in Mejicanos, December 9, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
The interior of a "destroyer house" is seen during a patrol to erase graffiti in the Montreal neighborhood in Mejicanos, December 9, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A shirt used as a scarecrow is seen near where police investigators are working at a crime scene involving four suspected members of the MS-13 gang, who were executed in the town of Nuevo Cuscatlan, November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Army soldiers interrogates a suspected gang member during a patrol operation after residents flee the Amaya community, due to threats from suspected gang members, in San Salvador, October 13, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Policemen detonate a hand grenade after it was thrown at a police station by suspected gang members in Apopa, El Salvador September 23. 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A woman kisses a suspected gang member as he is arrested during an anti-gang search operation in San Salvador June 21, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
The bodies of members of the Barrio 18 gang are seen on the ground before being loaded on to a coroner pick up truck in the town of San Pedro Perulapan June 11, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Blood is seen in a crime scene after a bus driver was killed by suspected gang members during a suspension of public transport services in San Salvador July 27, 2015. In July, gangs ordered bus drivers to strike in a conflict that has killed six people and left thousands of commuters stranded on the streets of the Central American capital, police and bus company officials said. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
People try to board a government transport during the second day of a suspension of public transport services in San Salvador, El Salvador July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Members of the 18th Street gang are presented to the media after being arrested, for threatening residents of San Valentin apartments, after a raid in the town of Mejicanos, on the outskirts of San Salvador, January 21, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Members of the Barrio 18 gang and seized police uniforms, weapons and ammunition are presented to the media after a police raid at La Campanera neighborhood in Soyapango April 30, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A woman reacts as she touches the feet of her son's body, as the bodies of members of the Barrio 18 gang are carried out of a crime scene after a confrontation with the army, in the town of San Pedro Perulapan June 11, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Members of the Barrio 18 gang wait to be admitted upon their arrival to the San Francisco Gotera penitentiary April 21, 2015. Salvadoran government transferred 1,177 inmates, members of the Barrio 18 gang from Izalco jail to San Francisco Gotera in a effort to curb gang violence activity, according to local media. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Barrio 18 gang graffiti is seen in an abandoned house after residents fled Tunalmiles village due to gang threats, in the town of Izalco, May 5, 2015. Around 30 families were threatened after four villagers were killed by Barrio 18 gang members in April. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Members of the Barrio 18 gang wait to be admitted on their arrival to the San Francisco Gotera penitentiary during an inmate transfer April 21, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A police investigator works at a crime scene where five suspected gang members were killed in the town of Chalchuapa April 7, 2015. The five suspected gang members were killed by armed men after they were taken from their homes during the night, simulating a police raid and executed, according to local media. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Relatives of Josue David Penalba Rivera react as police secure a crime scene in San Salvador June 1, 2015. Rivera was shot by suspected gang members after they told him to leave the taxi he was traveling in, local media reported. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Women wash the blood off a sidewalk where a taxi driver had been killed by alleged gang members in Cuscatancingo October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
An imprisoned member of street gang Mara 18 poses for a photograph at the Izalco prison, May 20, 2013. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
Imprisoned members of street gang Mara 18 sit next to handmade knives and cell phones they were keeping illegally at the Izalco prison, May 20, 2013. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
A jailed gang member poses for a photograph at the maximum security jail of Izalco in Sonsonate March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
A board with pictures of jailed gang members is seen at the maximum security jail of Izalco in Sonsonate March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
Residents walk past graffiti on the walls of a building showing the letters "MS" which stands for the street gang Mara Salvatrucha at a neighborhood in Ilopango January 20, 2014. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
Red Cross volunteers help Claudia at the Red Cross in Apopa, on the outskirts of San Salvador July 6, 2013. Claudia was raped and battered by alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang and then thrown into a ditch left for dead. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
Gang members flash gang signs during an event to sign a truce in the municipality of Ciudad Delgado, in San Salvador May 29, 2013. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
Gang members who are also inmates pose for a photograph at a prison in Quezaltepeque, on the outskirts of San Salvador June 2, 2012. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
A man shows injuries after a gang attack as he refused to pay extortion money to transit a road in San Jose Guayabal November 5, 2014. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Residents flee the San Valentin apartments, due to threats from the 18th Street gang, in the town of Mejicanos, on the outskirts of San Salvador, January 21, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Salvadoran police officers mourn during the funeral ceremony for their colleague Wendy Yamileth Alfaro Mena in Zacatecoluca April 22, 2015. The police officer was killed by suspected members of the Barrio 18 gang and was the first policewoman to be killed by gangsters, according to local media. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A police officer stands guard at the cemetery during the funeral of a fellow police officer who was killed by alleged gang members in San Juan Opico, January 12, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A gang member arranges weapons to be handed over to authorities as part of a truce between gangs in San Salvador May 27, 2013. REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez
A member of the 18th Street gang is presented to the media after being arrested, for threatening residents of San Valentin apartments, after a raid in the town of Mejicanos, on the outskirts of San Salvador, January 21, 2015. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas