America´s Hispanics – Gangs: The dark side

Latino gang members live dangerously

IT IS POSSIBLE to admire Gangs to Grace, a Chicago church ministry working to save Latino gang members from lives of violent crime, and still regret that it needs to exist. Some unhappy trends have combined over the past 30 years to transform many street-corner toughs into footsoldiers for transnational criminal organisations. The National Gang Intelligence Centre (NGIC) estimated the number of gangs in America in 2011 at 33,000, with a total of 1.4m members. It is thought that close to half of them are Hispanics. This blights Latino communities in specific ways.

The headquarters of Gangs to Grace, a church-owned sports hall in the Humboldt Park district of Chicago, is surrounded by the territories of such groups as the Latin Disciples and the Latin Kings. On a recent midweek evening, four volunteers, all Puerto Rican members of a large Latino Pentecostal church, New Life Covenant, explain their plans. They know of gang members who want to leave the life and hope to intercede with gang leaders to make that happen. It would sound almost naive if the four volunteers were not all former gang members themselves, some with fearsome local reputations and extensive prison records.

Ismael Hernández, 42, recalls a time when dealing in crack cocaine or marijuana could get someone killed, but a certain etiquette was often observed. Back then there were still Puerto Rican gangs, defending their turf against white or black rivals. If those rivals were seen out with their children or their mother, “we’d give you a pass.” Now, he says, heroin is everywhere and men are shot in cars in front of their kids.

Robert Lombardo, a criminologist at Loyola University, was a Chicago policeman for over 30 years. Street gangs and organised crime used to be separate problems, he recalls. Gangs turned to drug-dealing in 1980s once they had realised that control of the streets could be profitable. By the 1990s places like Humboldt Park were “the Wild West”. The streets look more peaceful now: too much attention is bad for business.

NGIC studies describe street and prison-based gangs forging close links with Mexican and Central American criminal organisations such as Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel, cutting out mid-level wholesalers. Drug-selling gangs are diversifying into prostitution, human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants. Gangs are “rife” in many public schools, the NGIC says. The Gangs to Grace ministry sees these trends in the neighbourhood. Perhaps 80% of pupils in local high schools are in a gang, the volunteers suggest.

In public debate, America often sounds like a citadel under siege. In truth, the border with Mexico has never been so secure. Since 2001 tens of billions of dollars have been thrown at new fences, sensors, drones, radars and guards. But Mexican and Latin American security and intelligence folk are intensely frustrated that their northern neighbour, with 300m guns in circulation, will not spend political capital controlling their flow southwards. The Mexican government estimates that 70% of weapons seized from their country’s criminals in recent years were traced back to America.

Net migration from Mexico has been at or near zero since 2010 after years of large inflows. Much of this is to do with more economic opportunities in Mexico and limited demand for low-skilled labour in America. A 2014 spike in child arrivals from Central America was partly the result of criminals adapting to new market conditions. Children from Central America only need smuggling to the border, where they can present themselves to patrol agents. The immigration court system may take years to deal with them.

Back in Chicago the church volunteers see some positive signs, including better relations with police. “Growing up, cops were horrible. Now they are more willing to help,” says Roberto Hernández, director of the Gangs to Grace ministry. He sees crime as part of a broader crisis. “There’s guys that can’t read. They are on the minimum wage, they look at their pay cheque and they say, I could earn that in 30 minutes,” he says. The head of New Life Covenant Church, Wilfredo De Jesus, acknowledges that some local gang members might make $3,000 a week dealing drugs. “I tell them they are going to have to take a cut in pay to live right.” But at least they will be more likely to live.