Barrio 18

🇬🇹 On October 22, 2025, Guatemala passed a new anti-gang law aimed at giving the government more resources to fight the groups, which are now considered terrorist organizations. The law designates the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs as terrorist groups, increases prison sentences for gang members convicted of crimes, and orders the construction of…

This article focuses on Hispanic street and prison gangs, which – along with other gangs – constitute a significant and iconic phenomenon of contemporary political discourse in the United States, as well as social and economic life in this country. In the XXI century, the prison systems of most countries continue to be characterised by…

The president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, inaugurated a renovated maximum-security prison this Tuesday after it was reclaimed from the control of gangs that ordered murders and extortions from there, and even had wild animals. ”Today begins (…) a new era in the Guatemalan penitentiary system,” said the president at the now-called Renovation I Maximum Security…