Beyond gang life: the future for youth in Central America
Category: Human Interest.
Posted:01 August 2011
In the early nineties, as the Salvadorian civil war ended, a new form of armed violence began to take shape in the streets of El Salvador; a new form of warfare – between gangs and police, with communities caught in the middle; a form of war that has made the northern triangle of Central America one of the most violent regions of the world.
“After living for almost a year with members of the MS13 (the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang), I became convinced, day by day, that these ‘gangs’ are really urban pockets where excluded, marginalised and forgotten young people can finally have a place in society; a place they earn through weapons and violence, through frantic conflict with their opponent-peers.
I realised that the solution to this problem does not lie in more violence – the spiral of gangs and police ever more heavily armed. Rather, the solution needs to be found in comprehensive national strategies that create and strengthen opportunities for these young people to integrate in society, to choose a realistic alternative to the life of armed violence.”
Juan José Martinez, El Salvador.
Posted by: AOAV - 01 August 2011
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