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Honduran police arrested a Nicaraguan man Jan. 9 in connection with a December plot to assassinate Honduran President Ricardo Maduro. Police found an assault rifle, a grenade launcher and 40 rounds of ammunition when they arrested Jose Leonidas Alvarez, who reportedly is a small-arms expert affiliated with Nicaragua's Sandinistas. Honduran authorities allege that youth gangs contracted Alvarez to kill the president. They did not mention Mara Salvatrucha (MS) specifically, but this confederation of small territorial gangs is their likely suspect.
Concerns about MS also were raised in a Jan. 5 Boston Herald article, which outlined efforts of local police to crack down on the gangs. In the article, police officials linked MS to al Qaeda, an assertion that has been circulating in Washington for some time now, backed by little proof -- and despite evidence to the contrary from the U.S. Justice Department. Considering that many MS members are heavily tattooed and thus easily spotted, many of their members are barely teenagers, and most are Catholic, it seems unlikely that al Qaeda would seek to cultivate such a partnership.
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