Maras go South

INTERVIEW / Laura Etcharren

Soon to launch the book “Esperando las maras. El estado embrionario en Argentina” (Expecting the maras) sociologist Laura Etcharren warns of the perils of staying blind to the presence of maras in embryonic state in the South Cone.

In an exclusive interview given to Comunidad Segura, the sociologists and specialist on maras (as the central american gangs are known) discusses the reasons she has to believe that this form of youth gang from Central and North America has now reached the continent's southernmost nation.

In your view, maras differ from pandillas because they are linked to organized crime, although there is no such consensus among specialists. Why make the distinction?

Researchers and social scientists adhere to certain criteria when they chose their topic of research, and adopt different variables. It is necessary to focus on social issues in order to create a theory. The difference you mention has to do with the modus operandi of the pandillas and maras. While the first dispute control over neighborhoods and base their existance on the retail of drugs, the maras cross over borders and grow based on the power that comes from narcotrafficking.

So it is just a question of terminology?

The word mara is in a sense a trademark. We'll use the word maras to describe pandillas whenever the maras have links to organized crime, death squads, narcoterrorists. All those groups that eliminate whatever comes in between them and their objectives.

A pandillero (member of a pandilla) does not have a structure that is comparable to a marero. Pandilleros may be co-opted by mareros to carry out jobs that narcotraffickers would not do themselves for fear of risking their lives. They are two distinct universes, with their specific goals and scope of action.

In Spain the government of Catalonia gave the Latin Kings  the status of a cultural association, a club, would that be conceivable in Argentina?

The Latin Kings, much like the Ñetas, have at first presented themselves as expressions of youth culture, one that was rid of the violence presence in their countries of origin (Puerto Rico and Ecuador). Some of their members however, over time, and faced with the need to grow in the world of crime, have turned to terrorist groups.

In  Argentina, with the exception of a few urban groups, the majority of the youth gangs are associated to criminal activities, and as such it would be madness to declare them to be cultural associations – even so it would also be important to know what standards were adopted in such a move and of course, above all, what is it that is being described as culture.

In your opinion, what are the greatest weaknesses of the Argentinean police, and how could they be improved on?

Argentina is a nation that is close to collapsing in all its sectors and security is no exception to the rule. So much so that bad government implies in, among other things, a police force that is not trained adequately to protect the welfare of its citizens.

Could you explain this further?

The lack of training and corruption inside the police force leads to chaos. Police officers are turned on the streets as simply as apples spilled out of a barrel.They are not trained by specialists and in place of making the most of whatever human resources are available, and give fledgling officers time to develop intellectually and physically, they thrown on duty without even an evaluation of whether they are apt to be put on command of a barbaric situation. Great amounts of money are spent and still we live in a grave state of insecurity, with inept law enforcement and no advantage taken of the human resources available.

By saying that youths are at the heart of the problem, do you not risk being misterpreted by the media and society for seeing youths as perpetrators while they are in fact victims? How could this be avoided?

I do not see youths as the heart of the problem. What I do say is that the pandillas are made up of, in the majority, youths age 12 to 18. In some cases, up to 23 years of age, approximately.

Pandilleros cannot trully be described as victims. Argentina's benevolent laws, as well as similar laws in countries in the region impel them to reproduce such homicides outrageously. To be a victim of the system is, nowadays, cliché. However, just as not all police officers are corrupt, it is also true that there are those youths that are enslaved by the system and who do not become murderers to escape poverty.

And what of the maras?

Its different. In the world of the maras no one is going to kill for weed, or a watch. On the other hand, when the maras look for a pandillero, its to do just that. To ask of the pandillero what he  or she would for a pandilla in a new structure. The mareros have a long history in the area of crime. The youths, - and those who are no longer as young- drawn into organized crime are conscious of the path they are taking and of the lives they are leading. That is why you hear things like: “the pandilla is my family,”or “to live and die for the pandilla”.

Does the media play any role in all of this?

As far as Argentina is concerned, the media misrepresent the phenomenon of the maras basing their  explanations commonplace and incoherent arguments. It is not based on papers written by specialists, but comes out of the need to say something new.

What should be done, in your view,  in order to stop this phenomenon from growing even more?

In Latin America, societies are subject to the levels of awareness of the governmental authorities. Countries like Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina are going through a critical period, that resutls in the embryonic presence of maras and proliferating pandillas. If we do not become aware of the issue and continue to be oblivious to the topic, we will suffer dire consquences.

What to do, then?

We must put our thinking hats on and get our heads together as specialists in the field of security. The topic must be approaced from an interdisciplinary perspective and we must be more rigorous in enforcing the law. Failing to do that, the state of lawlessness will contribute to the development of the maras,  now in embryonic stage in Argentina (and in other nations) but ready to grow and become more potent associated to narcoterrorism.

From Comunidad Segura:

Dossier Central America's Maras

Gangs reflect pre-historic societies, street organizations the future

Read Further:

Laura Etcharren's Blog (In Spanish)

Translated by Lis Horta Moriconi