Still Standing: Proactive Resilience Mechanisms in the MS-13 in El Salvador

Abstract Recent work on resilience in illicit organizations emphasizes the need to examine how groups anticipate and prepare for disturbances. This study investigates how proactive resilience mechanisms enabled MS-13 in El Salvador to survive the collapse of a secret deal with state actors. Using wiretap logs, we map the gang’s telecommunications and apply network metrics and models to analyse shifts in interaction patterns. Our findings show that overlapping proactive resilience mechanisms with bridging functions guided MS-13 towards a retrenchment strategy while maintaining intergroup cohesion. These results highlight the role of anticipation and preparation in shaping how illicit organizations withstand crises and reorganize to adapt.