Gangs & Prison deaths

It feels a bit disjointed to be writing about gangs while still in the complete calm and quiet of the New York suburbs. Yet in nine days I'll be back in Guatemala, where gang violence and the dysfunctional jail system are among the country's most pressing problems.

The report on Tuesday about 35 gang members who were killed by a rival gang in simultaneous prison attacks was so shocking that it crossed the "international news border" and appeared on CNN and other networks.

Today's follow-up involves a new twist on the story: that the prison guards themselves provided the weapons in exchange for bribes.

Guatemala Gangs: Guards Supplied Weapons

By Will Weissert, Associated Press

Escuintla, Guatemala - Members of a violent Central American gang on Tuesday claimed they routinely pay prison guards to provide them with weapons, and they blamed a rival group for starting coordinated riots at seven prisons that left 35 inmates dead.

Interviewed as they recovered from gunshot and stab wounds, members of the Mara 18 blamed Monday's near-simultaneous uprisings at Guatemalan prisons on the rival Mara Salvatrucha gang. Gangs are known as "maras" in Central America.

Herman Ivan Aguirra, 19, a two-year member of the Mara 18 gang from Guatemala City, said he and other prisoners were exercising when Mara Salvatrucha members seemingly came out of nowhere wielding knives, guns and grenades.

"They hit me hard," Aguirra said. "There was blood everywhere, people dying, people screaming."

Later in the article, family members of the prisoners stated in simple words the enormity of the gang problem in Guatemala:

"There is no security anywhere. Not even prisoners are safe," said Ingrid Hernandez, who said police told her that her son, 19-year-old Eswin Rolando Hernandez, had been fatally stabbed and shot.

"This is a war and the gang members are winning," said Rolando Gamez, 41, who was trying to determine whether his 17-year-old son, Gerardo Gamez, was among the victims.

Read the entire article

This terrible event reflects not only the growing gang problem in the country, but also the precarious state of the judicial system.

Not surprisingly, one of the quick and easy "solutions" proposed by the Interior Minister, Carlos Vielmann, is to build bigger and better jails.

Guatemala seeks new jails after fatal gang clashes

Aug 16, 5:31 PM (ET)

Guatemala City (Reuters) - Guatemala wants to build new maximum-security prisons to prevent the kinds of clashes between grenade-tossing gang members that killed at least 33 inmates this week.

Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann said he would ask Congress on Tuesday for permission to build the prisons as part of a tough new security law.

"We have said for a long time that the penitentiary system has not received the necessary attention and that it is about to collapse," Vielmann told reporters on Monday.

But, as the same article points out, the roots of the crisis run deep and a band-aid solution is not the answer.

Easily available weapons, rampant poverty, and a culture of violence left over from a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996 all help make Guatemala, with a population of around 12 million, one of the world's most violent countries. Some 10 people are murdered in the Central American country every day.

Critics said that even with a new law, it would be hard for cash-strapped Guatemala to find the resources needed to build and run hi-tech prisons.

Read the entire article

So what's the answer? Check back tomorrow!

Tags: Guatemala, gangs, prisons

Posted by elcanche at August 18, 2005 06:19 PM