Discussions on Development: Gangs, Violence, and...Culture?

A few weeks ago I had to write a legal brief for a client who applied for asylum. Part of the brief involved researching “country conditions,” to explain why the applicant wasn’t willing to return to his country of origin.

In this case, my client is from Guatemala, and left the country fleeing from gang members. So I started doing research on gangs in Guatemala, including crime rates, prosecution rates, etc. I’ve written about violence in Guatemala before, so parts of this weren’t too shocking. Others were.

In my research, it was interesting to learn how a couple of the main gangs started, mainly Mara Salvatrucha. They began in the streets of Los Angeles, and spread to Mexico and Central America after immigration legislation allowed illegal aliens with a criminal history to be deported. This meant that thousands of gang members began to be deported to their country of origin, and they began spreading gangs in those territories, frequently coming back to the United States, or establishing connections on both sides. These gangs have now created loose affiliations with “narco-traficantes,” aka drug dealers. Small Central-American countries with little police enforcement, and absolute corruption and impunity, create great corridors for drugs that are making their way from South America into the United States: bring drugs into El Salvador and Guatemala, where you can bribe the local police, and smuggle them in to Mexico, and onward to the U.S. (You can check out organizations like International Crisis Groups for more info on this situation.)

Here in South Orange County, we seem to be having a gang problem of our own. It won’t be a huge shocker to know that gangs are made up of Hispanic men, mainly from Mexico and Central America. A news article was published early this year in a local paper of San Clemente, commenting on the “racial backlash” resulting after a gang-related shooting. As I tend to do, I started reading the comments, and as always, was pretty blown away by some of them. For example:

• “Screw Mexican gangs. Stupid kids would not join a gang if they had decent parents. Send these fools back yonTJ.. Take your drugs and violence back to your filthy Mexico.”
• “And what is the likelihood these gang-banging scum are either illegal invaders or the byproduct thereof! How much more is America going to tolerate? It's past time for "backlash" against these criminals and this illegal invasion we are being subjected to and injured by!”
• “The dereliction of duty, bordering on treason, on the part of those we pay and entrust to uphold our laws is turning this country into a clone of the lawless, violent, and corrupt third world countries the illegal aliens left behind before invading ours.”
• “As long as we turn a blind eye to the truth lies will be passed on to our children. This is our town a white town with waves and sunsets not gangs and guns what happend to slinging fists instead of bullets to bad we don't call it what it is a problem that needs to be dealt with what is rascism but a excuse for the deeds done by scum it will never change til we stand up as a people a community and change it unit and take back what's yours or it will be gone tommorow. Los Angeles was once a nice place to live. Stop being afraid of being called a racist it's called realist because it's what's really going on. Pray for peace but prepare for war” (I decided to leave grammar mistakes in. Their mistake, not mine!)

These are but a few examples, obviously there are tons of “insightful” comments.

But these comments got me thinking. Is it racism to want to live safely? These gang members are Hispanic, and although I don’t have the facts to back it up, most of them are probably here illegally. What’s the right answer? Community understanding, or protection of your home and neighborhood? People have a right to be upset when their communities are no longer safe, through no fault of their own.

What is it about our Hispanic community that makes our young men vulnerable to gang recruitment? Is it parenting? Lack of quality jobs? Lack of education? Is it social? Economic? Political? Cultural?

Probably a little bit of everything.

The point I want to make with this post is that this problem is real. It is real in Mexico, it is real in small Central American countries like Guatemala and El Salvador. Those lands are foreign to many, and maybe that’s why there has been little interest in finding and fighting the root causes of these gang problems. Why should we care? But as we can see from recent news, these issues are affecting cities here, in our home, that used to be safe havens from crime.

So what do we do? Do we put the blame on a whole ethnic community and tell them to leave? I think the more reasonable solution, but by no means easier, is to work towards combating the root causes that have created this crisis. Given the current financial situation, I know we can’t go out there and find jobs for everyone, but perhaps supporting small local community organizations that are trying to provide these men with educational and technical skills, even the self esteem to believe they can be more than a gang thug. If you’re asking, why should I support someone who’s here illegally, living off of my tax dollars, I’d say: why not? We’re all human beings. We all deserve a right to earn an honest living. National borders are becoming more porous, not less. Why should we care less about an individual simply because of political boundary lines? I'm not saying we should financially support gang members, I am saying we should help them figure out how to earn a decent living so they don't think joining a gang is their only option.

I think I’ve gone off topic...but the reality is that they’re all interrelated, and it’s difficult not to lump all of these issues together, because you can’t have one without the other.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Discussions on Development: The Right of Indigenous Communities to Hit the Airwaves

I read this article today, and it really upset me. So I wanted to share it.

What upsets me, is that there are people trying to make things better in Guatemala, people and organizations that go to great lengths to write and promote legislation that would create equality and fairness, and I'm not just talking about this specific issue--this is just one example.

These bills get introduced, and the Guatemalan congress completely fucks it up. Pardon the language.

Why do they have to be so damn corrupt? Why can't they help Guatemala change, for the better? Why can't they promote safety and equality? Why can't they care about anyone but themselves and the interestes that are lining their pockets?

What would be so terrible about indigenous communities having community radio stations where they can empower women, promote education and awareness? Ok, that's a dumb question: if you educated indigenous communities, you wouldn't be able to keep them down. I get it.

This is the exact reason why Carlos Castresana resigned from the CICIG in 2010: the government's inability to act and cooperate with proposed laws that would strengthen the rule of law and help combat the corruption and impunity that reign in Guatemala (for a country with one of the highest murder rates per capita, it has a 2% prosecution rate--prosecution, not conviction). The government's response to his resignation? "Sometimes were are limited, legally, or in respect of governance or financing in how we can respond to their requests." Bullshit.

Related articles (to the CICIG and Carlos Castresana):

Guatemala: Suicide or Murder?

News Updates

CICIG Update

Guatemala CICIG Updates

Cristina and the Barreda syndrome

I apologize if my repeated posts about this woman are boring or uninteresting to some, but I truly believe that her story is worth writing about, or in my case, translating about. I think this case has brought Guatemala to a crossroad, and there are some exceptional women in that country who are trying to make sure they make the right turn, by not keeping silent. There are a couple blogs from the original writer who brought us this story that I have been wanting to translate, but they take more time in skill due to her exceptional writing, so they will come with time. But today, I came across the following opinion piece, and felt is was worth translating and sharing. The subject is something that I've wanted to blog about for over a year, and I just haven't made the time to do so: why are women in our culture (by "our" I mean Hispanic) so frequently victims of domestic violence? And why do they remain in relationships marred by domestic violence? As a volunteer with several legal nonprofits, I have worked with women who were victims of domestic violence in order to help them apply for immigration relief (through VAWA and U-Visa petitions), and the degree and frequency of violence that so many of these women put up with has always scared me. Alas, I should save my "opinion" piece for my own blog entry...

The Robert Barreda Syndrome

(As published on September 22, 2011, in El Periodico)

In Guatemala, things have to change and the aggressors have to know that their only place is in jail.

Sylvia Gereda Valenzuela

Since 2001 I have worked and investigated the subject of femicide and aggression against women in Guatemala. I find it interesting that we have such an aggressive male population, that has caused more than 6 thousand women to die in the most cruel ways: tortured, severed in their private parts, raped, and mutilated.

In those days, Ciudad Juarez was a site of murders that moved the world. Ten years later, Guatemala left Mexico behind.

I got to know the case of Mindi Rodas, the woman who’s husband ripped off her face, nose and mouth with a knife and after a long battle for justice was murdered.

I got to know the case of Claudina Vasquez, a young woman who was going to be an attorney, that was first raped and then put on her knees to die with a bullet to the temple.

Towards the middle of this decade, while I was going through my masters in sociology, I completed a thesis about femicides in Guatemala, and then I had to course through the morgues, see puddles of blood that wet my shoes, the bodies of dozens of women that arrived cut in pieces and their faces bruised. That year, when I started my television project of Informe Especial (Special Report) on Canal Antigua, I decided to go back and check the pulse of this silent drama. I didn’t even have to take a step to realize that the problem had surpassed us.

In July I started to investigate the disappearance and murder of Cristina Siekavizza, where the principal suspect is her husband Roberto Barreda. A story already known by everyone, but where the aggregate of influence peddling, abuse of power by Barreda’s parents, Beatriz De Leon and Roberto Barreda, has been an important factor in keeping this case without any punishment and allowing the two minors to disappear along with their psychopath father, according to those who have declared to know the case: the judge Veronica Galicia and Norma Cruz.

I have found myself with more than three dozen messages and letters from women commenting that the story of Cristina has made them understand the dangerous drama in which they are submerged. Many, for the first time, seeing the criminal extremes that Barreda allegedly reached, are daring to break the cycle of violence and raise their voice.

“My sister that was married for 33 years with a psychopath, controlling and feticidal that followed her with a gun, hit her, etcetera. Today she has separated from him and she is getting fucked over. He left her in the street, even though he has millions in accounts in the United States and he uses his best friend as a figurehead. She gave him her whole life, since she was 19, she never finished her career nor did she ever work. He told her that he was never going to giver her anything, over his dead body.”

“He would get home late, drunk, aggressive, he would smack me around.”

“He left with some girl that was 20 years younger than him, got her pregnant. When I confronted him about it he grabbed me and hit me, he slapped me and insulted me.”

“I knew that he lived in bars and whore houses. On three opportunities he transmitted venereal diseases to me. He would threaten me that if I left him he would leave me in the street and ruin me forever, I have never worked.”

Norma Cruz, president of the Fundacion Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation), told me on one occasion that Guatemalan woman has started to talk about what she called the “Barreda Syndome,” many of the attacked women are seeing in Roberto Barreda, a man that appeared to not be aggressive but that was a despot at home, their own husbands. En the case of Barreda, nobody saw the alleged murderer of his spouse coming. But when everyone reacted, Cristina had ceased to exist and her children had disappeared.

I have always believed that we all came into this world with a mission, that no life is in vain, just like no death is in vain. Cristina has moved more hearts and sentiments with her death than she did with her life, this is a sign that her spirit continues still today and it can be the point of inspiration so that many women who have been attacked start to talk and ask for help from prosecutors, support groups, or organizations in defense of women.

For my part, these stories of terror that have hit so many guatemalan women hurt me to my core, and they motivate me to commit myself with what I will soon start as a new life project, to save thousands of women, teenagers, and girls who are victims of violence. If I can be sure of something, it’s that today, more than ever, I will not lower my voice and I ask the women that they don’t either. In Guatemala, things have to change, and the aggressors have to know that their only place is in jail.