F.2: My Experience with The Gangs (“Maras”), In the Guatemalan Prisons

 

By Estefanía Valls Urquijo

 

I am writing this article out of pure human necessity, because in the war between MORALITY and HUMANITY, humanity is forgotten, we lose all sensibility and the capacity to value life itself. In these hard lessons of life, that we all experiment at different levels and that allows us to support the lives of the most helpless humans, who instead of living, merely survive, either because humanity around them never existed or because the damages they have done were done to them before. Because in the underworld, life is so worthless that if you think, you don’t exist. They started to die when they were born, but without the luck of living without thinking about death. All victimizers were victims before.

 

A few years ago, I had the priceless opportunity to discover meditation. During the class, one of the teachers shared his experience of bringing silence and inner peace to the jails in California. This was one of those moments in life when everything lines up and in an instant, we know what it is that we need to do. Maybe because it is an old idea from my childhood knowing the commitment of any good Christian: feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, help the ones without a roof and visit the sick and the people in jail. But who visits the incarcerated? Nobody. I thought, maybe someday I can do that. I had a calling, like some people call it. When I went back to Guatemala, I wrote to the director of the jail system and the following week I had the necessary permit to start teaching inside the jail. Still to this day, I ask myself how? The next week I was going to start teaching meditation and relaxation classes in Santa Teresa, a women’s jail. Why Santa Teresa? In 2013 I co-founded with a very well-known journalist from Guatemala, a movement for empowering women. (www.poderosas.org) When nobody used to talk about women working for women, we started that project that has changed countless lives and it is still growing.

 

In the Santa Teresa jail, I met a woman to whom I owe the clarity of my push for this forgotten humanity: Ashley Williams (owner of La Serigrafia de la Gringa). I suggest you research about her and support her; she is a true hero. She is a US citizen that, without speaking any Spanish and at the age of 18, decided to dedicate her life to fight for the rights of the forgotten in the ghettos of Guatemala and later in the jails working tirelessly making the biggest sacrifices even when it has cost her health, the most admirable sacrifices with total selflessness, something I have not ever seen before.

 

When we met she asked me, why are you here? You are the only white person not in trouble with the law or have family members in jail that I have ever met in here. I said, for the same reason as you, to help the ones that nobody helps. After a couple of years of seeing each other inside the jail, she proposed to me to teach in F2, one of the high security male prisons and the “home” of the Salvatrucha gang leaders. I went and I passed the test of the leader Jorge Yahir De Leon Hernandez, and for 3 years I taught meditation to a group of 25-30 inmates. If God exists, this is where I have felt him closer to me the most.

 

I go into F2 with 15 guards who are covering their faces. They go with me through two sets of metal security bars. Then I go thru the third one alone. Here, they make me feel more valued, more respected and more taken care of than in most of the circles I live in. The classes are one hour long, with a strict discipline, order and dedication from the participants. Ignorance and the lack of opportunity are the worst enemies for progress, stability and liberty.

 

Three years ago, I realized that to be able to make a true change in the life of gang members, inside and outside jail, it would have to be through the private sector. The jails in Guatemala are a very good business. For example, for what I understand, for each inmate, the Guatemalan government gives the penitentiary system Q5.00 (0.80 cents US) day and in turn, the penitentiary system only spends Q0.45 (0.072 cents US) on each inmate. They feed them tiny rotten tacos, moldy black beans, old tortillas, etc.

 

Who cares if the inmates eat or live? Nobody! Here, nobody asks, there is no accountability. Today, in the day of the anniversary of the holocaust, I think, if they only saw our terrified society and our forgotten jails, the world would know of the human horror that is still happening amongst ourselves. If you want to get to know a country, visit its jails.

 

Today, I had a meeting with Yahir in F2, where I a dare to say, the inmates have turned a jail into a rehabilitation center which is progressive and effective. Jorge Yahir De Leon Hernandez told me “we need to talk about what we are doing in here and we need to prove that we are capable of creating our own opportunities. Here amongst us we have talent and intelligence and the only thing we need is a chance to prove it. Prove that our work is respected so you can see that rehabilitation is POSSIBLE”.

 

F2, High level security jail is populated by killers, the scourge of our society. But watch out, each victimizer was a victim before. And since “eyes that don’t see…” I support this article with a series of pictures that show what I am going to explain, but I can assure you that the pictures are not able to transmit the wonderful energy that I find inside of F2, not even the words will be enough.

*I want to clarify that the camera with which these pictures were taken is not mine and I don’t know where it came from.

 

In F2 there is a serigraphy shop where they print the t-shirts that Ashley sells in the market in Guatemala. There is a bakery that supplies the needs of the inmates and the guards. There is a school, a school! Where the teachers are the inmates. They teach elementary level classes, basic and advanced English and reading lessons. There is a Dentist office. One of the inmates has learned how to do dental cleanings using a modern dentist chair which is new and in a clean space which is in order and well taken care. “How did you learn?” I asked him, and he responded “watching the dentists” and I then asked him, “did you know anything about medicine before you came here?” He responded that he had done a first-aid class and that there are doctors in his family, so he must carry it in his blood. The dentists that come are brought by the inmates. They also have a first aid clinic. They take blood pressure, x-rays and can do electrocardiograms. I know what you might be thinking: where do they get the money to pay for all of these services? And I ask where, where is the government who is the one that should be providing it in order to rehabilitate them and re-introduce them to society as citizens that do good and don’t destroy? Where does it start? The chicken or the egg?

 

The subject of the food in the jails is one of the most terrible ones, not only because the inmates depend on that food but also the guards depend on it. They are not allowed to have kitchens and we know what they get fed. I could spend hours explaining my “donations” to Santa Teresa, a jail originally built for 250 inmates and that now houses 1,700 of them and also between 45 and 70 children under the age of 4 that were born there, a place that does not allow marital visits, I ask myself, who are the parents?

 

In F2 they were able to get a permit for a kitchen. It is an extremely clean kitchen which is in perfect order and is well designed, where 4 cooks take turns to figure out how to feed over 100 inmates. They have a sitting area where they make fruit smoothies, they sell bread (that they make themselves). I have had to stay there to eat sometimes because the guards had locked the door for their lunch hour.

 

Jorge Yahir De Leon Hernandez; to whoever doesn’t know him, I suggest you read the great article “Peace in the streets starts in the jails” published by El Pais, a Spanish newspaper.

 

I met Jorge Yahir De Leon Hernandez almost 5 years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, there are leaders that are born, and others that learn how to be one. Jorge Yahir De Leon Hernandez was born one and has become the leader of the Salvatrucha Gang, the best organized underground army of the northern triangle.

 

Three years ago, Ashley and I decided to create a foundation for the rehabilitation and re-insertion to society of gang members. We were able to get funds and support from members of society and caring people that blindly trusted us and our ideal. The government approved it, something that I applaud. I never thought the proposal would be approved without a lot of questioning. This country, without a doubt, has assertive and positive leaders amongst its’ politicians. Whoever would like to know our mission and focus, can visit our page www.core.org.gt. When our foundation became active, we had a meeting with Yahir, who very wisely told us “we are already in jail, we are not coming out of here, but our young members, our children that live in the streets get no help, no jobs or education from anyone. We need to give them the opportunity to be able to get them out of the gang life and be able to be part of society.” From that, is where we came up with the idea of “Youth Day Centers” for the ones that belong to gangs. There, they will get health care, psychological help, education and a job. Nobody wants to hire a gang member to work in their businesses, so our proposal is to bring jobs to the Youth Day Centers. Companies that are willing to let some of their work be done at the centers. They get a high-quality product and the young gang members will know for the first time what is like to earn a legal and honest salary. We can help them open a bank account, they will have a name and a value as a human being.

 

We can talk and talk about this project. I have already met in the USA with politicians who I deeply thank for their time for me to be able to tell them about CORE. They have understood and support this solution for the violence that consumes our society. Why USA? Easy! Their wall at their border. All of our citizens that leave our country they do it because of the violence and extortions from the gangs. These gangs exist because they don’t have another way to survive. Because they don’t have family, identity or support outside the GANG.

 

Our idea: Invest in a space that gives them what the GANG gives them. Let’s make them respectable members of society and the millions they are investing in the wall will not be necessary.

 

Today, after many days of trying to find the law to study and learn it, it was sent to me. It is the Law Initiative number 5692 of the Guatemalan Congress, also known as the “anti-terrorism law”. The laws are made to be followed and to be adjusted to the time and circumstance where they are needed. With this article, I don’t justify the ones that live through violence and terror. Guatemala is crying blood. It is the honest people, that get up at 4 am to prepare their kids for school, that work from dusk to dawn who are the engine and the force of our country and who are the biggest and direct victims of the gangs. Daughters who are raped at the age of 11, extortions that leave them living in fear and misery, because they extort them until they leave them with nothing, even breath. But to find true and lasting solutions, we need to understand both sides. I justify the consequences of the lack of basic human rights like having a roof, food, health, education and work. After surviving, the feeling of belonging becomes basic. This has been the main reason of the existence of the gangs. They have given their members order and structure where the government failed to do it. We complain about the consequences, but we forget the reasons that cause the actions. The inefficiency of a sick and corrupt government that like them, started to die since the day it was born.

 

The good things have to be told, just like the bad ones that we are used to. If I am allowed to give my personal opinion, based only on my experience and after reading the new law, I would like to suggest that like the obligations and responsibilities are personal, I hope that his law manages to differentiate between the groups that are committing crimes now and the ones that are rehabilitating now. I know that the intention or interest of the Penitentiary system in accomplishing the rehabilitation and re-insertion in the jails has only made a very few examples of some jail that has implemented this program. The division according to the crime committed does not exist in Guatemala. What is the consequence of this? An intensive and efficient schooling of crime. So, I ask, does this have any logic? How to realize this mandatory nonexistent selection? Well, if our legislative engine does not have it, should I bother to explain it?

 

Again, it is my personal opinion, if it helps, that we should make the jails public/private. What is the concern? That they would become a business? Ladies and Gentlemen, they are already a business!!

 

Let’s not forget that the city of Guatemala is just a part of the country. If my experience here is what I have described above, I can’t even imagine the conditions in the rest of the country. We don’t get any news, because “it is too far.” We live in a country with very little communication. Everyone says “let them figure it out” the victims and the victimizers… and then we are surprised by the caravans of immigrants that are loaded with horror stories.

 

I am finished now because I wouldn’t stop talking about this topic if I don’t make myself stop.

 

Humanity/Morality, like Sahdguru says: Moral is dictated from the laws which are made to clarify the difference between good and bad. Humanity is dictated by nature, the soul and the conscience, and rarely makes a mistake.