In Guatemala, Culture of Violence is Legacy of Civil War

In Guatemala, Culture of Violence is Legacy of Civil War

Editor's Note: This article is the first of a two-part series on the gang culture and violence in Guatemala. Read Part II.

GUATEMALA CITY -- The ambulance arrives with its siren wailing and a team of medics runs to the emergency room entrance. The doors of the vehicle burst open and a trolley is lowered down with a young man lying on it groaning. It is 2:19 in the morning and Gersen Armando Ramirez Santus, a tattooed gang member, has just been shot twice in the chest on the crime-teeming streets of this city.

Guatemala is a nation still traumatized by a 36-year civil war that ended 10 years ago. A land of stunning natural beauty, with live volcanoes and jungles jeweled with ancient Mayan temples, it is struggling with the legacy of a prolonged conflict that led to the deaths of at least 200,000 people from the late-1980s through the late-1990s.

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