Editor's Note: This article is the second of a two-part series on the gang culture and violence in Guatemala. Read Part I. GUATEMALA CITY -- A few days after arriving in Guatemala City, we receive an offer to meet with members of MS-13, the notoriously violent international gang with active factions in countries across Central, South and North America. Photographer Angela Catlin and I came in October 2006 to document the escalating violence and lawlessness in a nation desperately struggling to overcome the legacy of a 36-year civil war that ended some 10 years ago. To coincide with the 10th anniversary of "peace" in Guatemala -- a nation described recently as a "failed state" by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Anders Kompass -- we set out to spend three weeks in Guatemala City interviewing gang members, human rights activists and victims of violence.
Victims of Gang Violence Pile Up in Guatemala
