Discourse on Violence in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua: National Patterns of Attention and Cross-border Discursive Nodes

This paper addresses the common perception that youth gangs and organized crime have seized Central America. It explores the ambiguity and plurivocality of the discourses on violence, emanating from a variety of hegemonic and less powerful publics. The paper looks closer at theories on Central American violence in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua and argues that one needs to differentiate the diagnosis. The author finds that the national discourses on violence differ from country to country and that there are border-crossing discursive nodes such as the Mara paradigm, the perception of grand corruption and gender-based violence.

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