These Former Gang Members are Fighting to Keep Young Mexicans Out of Cartel Life Paul Imison - VICE News
go to original November 13, 2015

At a high school in Ecatepec — one of Mexico's most violent municipalities on the outskirts of the capital — an initially rowdy classroom of teenagers soon settles down to listen with rapt attention as former gang member Williams Cucuiy tells them his story.

"Within a gang, I felt accepted," the 24-year-old says. "My Dad had beaten me, the kids at school beat me, but around my buddies, I was safe."

Cucuiy spent his formative years as a member of a group called Bad Boys in Inglewood, California, before he was convicted of reckless driving and deported back to Mexico in 2010 where he again became involved in gangs and crime.

"Going around with a gang gave me a sense of loyalty and self-respect," he tells the teenagers. "But it also turned me into somebody I didn't want to be."

In recent years, armed violence in Mexico – social, economic, drug-related and political – has made international headlines. Over 150,000 homicides and at least 22,000 unsolved disappearances have shaken the country since former president Felipe Calderón declared a military-led crackdown on organized crime in 2006 that has been continued by his successor President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Yet while the headlines focus on fugitive drug lords, the more dramatic violent events, and the infiltration of cartels into politics, the principal perpetrators and victims are often ignored.

Read the rest at VICE News

Photo: Annick Donkers

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