MEMORANDUM **

Blanca Irma Linares-Pena, a native and citizen of El Salvador, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ order dismissing her appeal from an immigration judge’s decision denying her application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We review for substantial evidence, Ramos-Lopez v. Holder, 563 F.3d 855, 858 (9th Cir. 2009), and we deny the petition for review.

Substantial evidence supports the agency’s finding that Linares-Pena failed to show past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution by gangs in El Salvador on account of her membership in a particular social group. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 & n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 812, 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992); see also Molina-Morales v. INS, 237 F.3d 1048, 1052 (9th Cir. 2001) (purely personal retribution is not persecution on account of a protected ground). Accordingly, LinaresPena’s asylum claim fails.

Because Linares-Pena failed to meet the lower burden of proof for asylum, her claim for withholding of removal necessarily fails. See Zehatye v. Gonzales, 453 F.3d 1182, 1190 (9th Cir. 2006).

PETITION FOR REVIEW DENIED.