Latin America: Untold Fears

Latin America: Untold Fears

By: Meyuri Pillay

The twin issues of Crime and Politics regularly make the headlines, but when young people from vandalized communities express their fears for safety how often do we take notice? Latin America has some of the most shocking statistics related to violent crime on the planet. These days Latin America struggles to uphold the values that were once considered important in making us realize the truths that are so often shadowed with denial.

Xiana Garcia, a keen youngster from Guatemala City, Mexico, traveled to South Africa in search of informed minds and receptive ears. She won a competition by writing an essay that told the story of Mexico and the constant struggle of the youth in everyday life. The Mexican youth are facing a growing epidemic of drug addiction and gang violence where they are often confused and mis-lead by both their peers and the community at large into precarious situations. Gangsterism is rife, offering a sense of belonging in their difficult lives; many of these youngsters come from poor backgrounds with broken homes and have a constant need to prove themselves.

Movies often portray Latino-gangs as rough, powerful groups, commanding respect from members by incorporating six-on-one beating sessions that render a couple of scratches and bruises. The reality of the situation however paints a grimmer picture where by the initiation requires the potential candidate to steal, rape and murder to prove their loyalty to a cause that is likely to claim their own lives. Parents in these communities struggle to find ways to keep their children in schools and with a growing amount of young people being recruited into gangs and partaking in criminal activities, communities are often paralyzed by fear. “We don’t come out of our homes after dark, the roads and paths are unsafe and dangerous especially for women.” Xiana is one of the Latin American youth delegates and wants more youngsters to hear that Mexico is not all about drugs, poverty and gangsterism; instead Mexico is a country that holds much hope for the future of its people and its youth.

“Like Mexico, in South Africa the poor are separated from the rich and able from the unable,” says Xiana, and so often these discriminations may very well lead to crime. Criminal offences and neglect often occur in the poorest of areas within the poorest of families.

The United Nations Habitat Program aims to help change these circumstances by saving public spaces and allowing these communities to regain their place of comfort and activity. The program welcomes ideas from similar communities all over the world that will unite to find solutions that would hopefully initiate the beginning of a prosperous future for these communities.