GangBorder

Nestled between street borders and mired in social oblivion, the gangs impose their law on the streets of Central America with violence. Programs like "I Change" in the prisons of the Savior try to help many young people to leave a complex and dangerous environment.

Nestled between the borders of streets and submerged in a permanent social oblivion, the gangs impose their law on the streets of Central American cities with extreme violence. The new programs like "I Change" in the prisons of the Savior try to help many young people to leave a complex and dangerous environment. Created in the early 1980s, Salvadoran immigrant groups escaped from the war. These young people form the groups that would take the name of "Maras" with two main slopes the "Mara Salvatrucha" (MS 13) and the Mara 18 (MS 18). The word "mara" comes from the ants marabuntas in allusion to the way they expand, invading and devouring everything they encounter in their path. The word Salvatrucha would be formed by El Salvador and trout, expression that defines the subject that is clever or clever to escape from the police. Its members are known as mareros

The Maras emerge as neighborhood protection organizations to prevent gangs from other places from taking control or control of the area. The Mara is a reference of identity for all the young people of the neighborhoods whose future image is to live and die in defense of the territory.

The essay is one of the pillars of Latidoamerica's work and arises from the interest in documenting the condition of young people in their daily lives in order to try to understand and understand the phenomenon of gangs, their violence and the conflictive social environment to give visibility to their past histories , present and future

Coexistence in this territory is difficult. The reason is the danger that exists in the streets. The Maras dominate the territory and establish its norms as in any war where two factions are positioned in the neighborhoods and fight for dominance and land. Coexistence can be hell, because they are hostile neighborhoods as dangerous as a war zone.
The new programs of the government of El Salvador known as "Yo Cambio" ( I Change) try to transform the violent attitudes of gang members into prisons through education or religion.