AFP, Tegucigalpa.- ‘Territory 100% of Jesus Christ’, proclaim large signs placed on the fenced and walled houses of a neighborhood in the northeast of the Honduran capital. Actually, we are in one of the strongholds of the Barrio 18 gang.
The signs were put up by evangelical churches in a campaign against violence in the Estados Unidos neighborhood and three other neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa, torn by the war waged by the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs over territories to trade drugs or extort the neighbors.
Pastor Efraín Amador recently organized a walk, to the rhythm of drums and kettledrums, with some 300 children dressed as tigers, pandas, bees and flowers. Some adults were disguised as Roman soldiers or biblical characters calling for peace.
Two days earlier, at night, Amador gathered 14 young people –some of them ex-gang members, like Feliciano, formerly of the 18– in a large hall of the El Cordero church, in El Sitio, another of those four neighborhoods in the capital gripped by the gangs.
“If you’re an active gang member and say: ‘Up to this point, I’m going to give my life to Christ,’ then you have to walk straight, straight, because if they (gang members) look at you reeling, they break (kill) you,” says Feliciano –fictitious name–, a 29-year-old brunette with straight hair with a shiny crest.
The only way to get out of a gang, he says, is to convert to the faith in a church. ‘Defection’ is tantamount to the death penalty.
Clicks to earn gang members
Feliciano, who wears a striking purple and white checked shirt and formal pants, is now the pastor’s right-hand man.
“One can change the course of a neighborhood or a country,” Pastor Amador said at the meeting, arguing that if something had been done on time, the gang problem in Honduras would not have grown so much, currently considered the most violent country in the world
Together with his wife, he runs a youth organization model that imitates the structure of gangs or maras, but whose objective is to keep them away from crime and violence.
The gangs are organized into small cells – cliques, in their slang – that control a certain area. The evangelical cliques form prayer groups and promote motivating activities such as the children’s walk.
Respect for evangelicals
As dangerous as this work is in the midst of bloodthirsty gangs, pastors and other activists (Catholics also have initiatives underway) are protected by the ‘mareros’ respect for religious symbols.
“They respect me. I had a cell of about 25 marijuana users and gang members that I met in the street, in the open air. They could be smoking marijuana but when they looked at me they put out the cigar, put away the guaro or the stones and listened to me”, says Feliciano, in an armchair in a church office.
Paying attention to the children’s walk, José, a 28-year-old worker with dark skin and curly hair, reflects on his neighborhood: “We are a neighborhood labeled as violent. Only God can heal this.”
“Getting closer to God is the only thing left in these marginalized neighborhoods,” agrees Marvin Rodríguez, 48, although he acknowledges that this year “the situation has improved with the Military Police” which, despite rejection by humanitarian groups, created the government to try to regain control of the colonies taken over by the gangs.
In the United States neighborhood, territory of the Barrio 18, the military police installed themselves in an old two-story building with 25 troops who patrol aboard imposing olive green trucks.
In El Sitio there are many businesses, especially grocery stores and stalls selling fruits, vegetables, grains or clothing. It is a booty in dispute between the two gangs because it is a good place for extortion.
Frequently, even in broad daylight, shootings break out, terrifying residents. The other two neighborhoods where the evangelicals work, La Trinidad and La Sosa, belong to the MS-13.
“But one can change course. Many gang members, even leaders, have been restored in the church and are now an example”, the pastor repeats energetically as he walks happily with the children.
Photo: Sign hanging from a window in the United States neighborhood of Tegucigalpa (Honduras), controlled by the Barrio 18 despite the strong military presence and the intense work of the evangelical churches.
Post Visitors:35