Latin America Meets to Cope with Youth Gangs
Representatives from police and security organizations from Latin America and Spain started a seminar in the city of Old Guatemala Monday to analyze the problem of local gangs (maras).

The event organizer, Juan Denis Ventosa, from the Spanish Security Office, told Prensa Latina how important it was to share experiences on this complex issue, of concern to the whole continent.

Denis pointed out that in Spain there are also organized violent groups, and that all countries directly affected are represented in the seminar, and each will give information on the programs to fight them.

Besides sharing experiences on how to fight gangs, delegates will try to establish international actions through forums and meetings in order to widen the field of action to other measures, to prevent and fight gangs.

Gangs involve more than 300,000 young people and children, who have grown up in an environment of violence and marginalization, and the get tough policies used by the police in countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have proven ineffective.

All the delegates agreed that special attention to young people and adolescents is required, to improve the environment, give them opportunities for employment and study, so they can find alternative life styles.