Slum dwellers armed with shotguns have taken to Guatemala’s streets to hand vigilante justice to youth gangs as voters sick of crime increasingly back a hardline ex-general’s run for president.
Roving bands of masked men communicating over walkie-talkies and armed with sticks, machetes and shotguns patrol the poor Villa Nueva slum on the edge of Guatemala City at night looking for members of infamous “Mara” gangs.
Gangs like the infamous “Mara Salvatrucha” terrorize poor neighborhoods by beheading rivals, raping women and fighting rivals in daylight shootouts.
More than 30 bus drivers and their helpers have been killed in Guatemala since January for failing to pay extortion money.
Whoever wins the election will need to not only take on the gangs but clean up Guatemala’s corrupt police force. Police often take a cut of extortion money, former gang members and human rights investigators say.
“That is one reason the extortions are growing, it’s a business for the authorities,” said human rights expert Claudia Samayoa.
I wonder how our readers would respond if crime and corruption in our hometowns reached the level endemic to a significant portion of the world?
It hasn’t?
Probably about the same way.
But much better armed!
They would probably retreat to their own walled and fortified home compounds just as the wealthy in other parts of the world do. There are places like this here, as I once found myself in an odd neighborhood near Houston where every home had a walled and gated perimeter. The streets were filled with trash and junk. I wheeled the rental car around and got the heck out there.
If the police wont or cant protect you, then its up to the individuals. I hate that it may come to this, but since our impotent politicians wont protect the southern border, I predict this will happen here.
Please think about this the next time gun control issues come up, as it is already happening in parts of southern Texas. If guns are taken away from citizenry how will we protect ourselves, the government will not protect you.
I like the idea that this area has ALOT of hunters…With Guns, Bows, and many other devices to make the Gov work better.
In a Section of PTLD called St. Johns, the gangs were thinking of expanding. On the out areas, a group of gangs were met, with a Armed group of Civilians…They decided(the gangs) NOT to go into this area.
Maybe they should just hire some unemployed Blackwater mercenaries to provide security. Oh, I almost forgot… many of the Mara gang members are already in Iraq working as mercenaries… so much for that plan…
On a side note, the Iraq surge has worked so well that even CIA agents won’t leave the Green Zone, and many areas in the Green Zone are now off limits due to lack of full security. Wow, Iraq must have been REALLY scary before the wonderful achievements of the surge.
The only place anything similar happens in the US is in big cities. Out in the country the people have and are willing to use guns and gang violence is zero.
People everywhere need to learn to fight back. The cops cannot protect you. All they can do is scoop you into a body bag and then fail to find your murderer.
Sometimes the cops are the problem! Remember this story from Atlanta?
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=11099
Gun control???
There are extortion gangs in Guatemala and you think that means the dirty hippies are gonna start taking your guns??
If you have that level of paranoia of the government and obsession with guns, maybe it is a good idea that someone takes them away from you…
12. I do not have an obsession with guns, and said nothing about dirty hippies. I believe a certain amount of gun control is required and do not object to waiting periods and background checks. I will even go as far to say mandatory training should be required. But look what happened in New Oreleans after Katrina. They came and took away the weapons from everyone, and if you dont think that will happen if Martial Law were declared, think again.
Keep quiet, don’t flaunt it, but if some one comes around making like a bad ass then pop his bad ass, bury him in a swamp somewhere, and go on about your business. But that’s in the rural south, I wouldn’t know how to handle it in a big city, and do not intend to find out.
i know how those gangs are. i’m from Guatemala and have seen some crazy stuff go on down there. i’m fence-sitting this one. the country is so messed up. my cousin is currently in La Mara Salvatrucha. if it wasn’t for me coming to this country, i too, could perhaps be out there on them streets committing crimes. its the only way some of MY PEOPLE can live. the ONLY way for some. you have to be either in it or at least see it to know what is really going on.
No, Greg, it’s not the “dirty hippies”. It’s crooked politicians trying to use gun control as a red herring. Just as you do.
“I wonder how our readers would respond if crime and corruption in our hometowns reached the level endemic to a significant portion of the world?”
The majority of the readers will then start blaming those who are not white.
#16
I don’t think you know what a red herring is. Clearly the dirty hippies were the red herring part of my argument.
This news item seems “skewed” and I take that from reports several years ago of police forces going into slums and killing orphaned/throw away children? Now, slum dwellers are doing it? Why the shift? I can imagine several scenarios but would actually like to see some actually reporting on it rather than obvious propaganda?
Why do “slum dwellers” care what gangs of homeless/abandoned children are doing? Are these children in fact part of the slum dwellers or what makes the distinction? What are the cops doing/not doing? What social services programs address/fail to address the needs of this slum community: – – – – – and so forth.
#17 – We already do.