Guatemala: Heartbreak and Hope

The Maras are tattooed warriors, the most dangerous gang members in the Americas. They boast thousands of members in a half-dozen countries and are willing to use guns and torture to control those around them.

That’s the way the story plays in big U.S. newspapers and news magazines.

That story feels different on the ground in Guatemala.

Maras are a U.S. export, Guatemalan Attorney General Juan Luis Florido said.

During the war, many Guatemalan refugees brought their children to Los Angeles, moving into Latino neighborhoods claimed by gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha, White Fence and 18th Street.

The children were jumped into the street gangs. Felonies followed. The U.S. started deporting Guatemalan gangsters in the 1990s.

They returned to their homeland with “this new way of expressing their anger, their frustration over the lack of opportunities here,” Florido said.

Prosecutors have been hard-pressed to respond. Corruption is one problem, including among prosecutors, Florido said.

Unlike their counterparts in the U.S., Guatemalan prosecutors not only file charges and try cases, but also act as detectives, gathering evidence and performing the heavy lifting in criminal investigations.

When he took office about a year ago, Florido created a special team to gather forensic evidence at homicides. Better evidence should mean more prosecutions and more convictions, he said.

Florido doesn’t promise miracles.

With just 170 prosecutors for a nation of about 14 million, there simply aren’t enough lawyers to make the justice system work. (In Snohomish County, Wash., population about 630,000, 50 deputy prosecutors handle the most serious crimes.)

Drug traffickers and other organized crime groups use the maras “to create this violent atmosphere, not only to keep busy the institutions that should be able to fight them, but also to create fear,” Florido said.

“Remember, these organized crime institutions live from chaos.”

The attorney general said his job is to not only fight crime, but to give Guatemalans reason to hope.

“If we kill that capacity to dream, we are killing a generation,” he said.