The two main street gangs in Central America are known as 'Mara Salvatruchas' (MS-13) and 'Barrio 18' (M18). For over thirty years, these gangs have grown and raged against each other, with occasional truces that are brokered by leading gang members, the government, and the church. Both gangs use violent means to control key drug and arms selling markets and oversee multi-billion dollar businesses. Their methods of control lead to many deaths and have decimated much of Latin American society since the gangs were first created in the early 1980s.
These overcrowded, 12x15 cages pictured here were designed to be 72-hour holding cells for suspected gang members, but many of the individuals are held far longer and often afforded no legal representation. Some of those I spoke to had been imprisoned for 18 months.
