Chatter

Yesterday's coordinated series of prison riots in Guatemala, which involved rival criminal gangs Mara Salvatrucha/MS-13 and Mara 18 and left thirty-one dead, apparently were orchestrated by cell phone.

"The gangs maintain constant communication," [Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann] said. "They have a Web page and not only synchronize in Guatemala, they synchronize with El Salvador, Honduras and with the United States."

He said cellular phones and messages passed by prison visitors helped maintain contact among the gang members.

If there's a common attribute of all of the transnational bad guys that have emerged since the end of the Cold War, it's that they know how to talk.