Guatemala: Yes to life. No to violence
Program trains youth in Guatemala to become multipliers of peace. Their mission is to promote the prevention of gun violence in their communities, schools and churches. Every year, approximately one hundred volunteers are recruited and trained.
When he was 14 years old, Sergio Limatu (depicted in the picture wearing glasses), witnessed the murder of a class mate. “I was outside of a church with a few friends when a girl walked by who said to him: ‘If you aren’t going to be mine, you won’t be anybody else’s’. Two minutes later, two young guys came by and shot him. He was killed by four bullets”, he explains. Apparently the girl was a member of a pandilla (the word for youth gangs in Central America). The only child of a single mother, all the teen wanted was to play soccer.
Limatu tells us that seeing his class mates die and walk around with fire arms was part of his daily routine at high school in Guatemala. “Whenever we went out in groups, we would encounter pandilleros who were waiting to rob us. Sometimes going out and coming back. So we were prepared to fight, until a colleague brought a fire arm. He said they had guns, so we should have guns too.”
Today, at the age of 20, Limatu says that after his friend’s murder everybody wanted vengeance, but when he saw his friend holding the gun he realized that you can't fight violence with more violence. “If I want to have a future, I have to do something different.” That’s when he decided to become a volunteer at the Safe Schools Program of the Educational Institute for Sustainable Development (Iepades).
Safe Schools is a program geared towards high school students that aims to change the culture of violence that the country is currently experiencing. According to Iepades data, more than five thousand people are killed by violence every year in Guatemala. More than 80% of these deaths are caused by fire arms and most of the victims are youth under the age of 25.
“Young people express a great desire and longing for inclusion and participation,” states Carmen Rosa de León-Escribano, director of Iepades. Through the project ‘youth and children for peace’, the non-governmental organization shows boys and girls the impact of gun violence and trains students to be multipliers of peace by promoting special training sessions on the theme. “We use arts, sports and debates in which everybody participates and learns,” Carmen Rosa explains.
That’s how Limatu first came into contact with an alternative that seemed much more interesting than using a fire arm to defend himself. “Iepades came to my school to organize debates on how to prevent gun violence. I joined as a volunteer in 2007 and last year I was hired as a facilitator to organize debates in schools.”
Distributed over three strategic geographic areas – urban environments, border regions and indigenous communities –, the program recruits 100 youth a year to become multipliers of peace. The mission of these youth is to promote the theme of gun violence prevention in their communities, neighborhoods, schools and churches. Everything is done by volunteers. “The idea is to fight the “adult-centered” culture, because a young person will pay more attention and get more excited about participating when he listens to another young person,” explains Carmen Rosa.
In addition to youth, the program also trains police officers and teachers and improves educational facilities by installing cameras and implementing police surveillance around schools to create a safer environment for youth.
Gun violence = pain + suffering
Limatu states how witnessing the murder of a friend motivated him to participate in actions such as these. “Just as there are certain youth who will provide guns, there should be youth who can provide an alternative. I offer an alternative for the future and the present. I affirm that a gun doesn’t bring anything positive, only pain and suffering,” he concludes.
In one of his presentations, Limatu asked a group of teens between the ages of 13 and 14 what the purpose of a gun was. “To kill,” They replied. “When you read the morning news, what do you see?” he asked. “Deaths,” the students replied.
“Violence is part of our lives. When we see someone get shot, we rush over to see what happened, not to help, but to see how many times he was shot,” he regrets. Limatu also asked the group how much someone’s life was worth. When the class didn’t respond, he answered his own question. “A person’s life is priceless.” And the debate continued.
After leading discussions for three years, the facilitator has noticed a great deal of progress; a lot of young people are saying that violence is bad and that guns have nothing good to offer, not even toy guns. Today, with the work he does, Limatu tries to prevent cases like the death of his friend.
According to data by Iepades, there are approximately 400.000 legal fire arms in Guatemala and 1500 guns are stolen every year. Further data also shows that approximately 70% of the fire arms used in crimes are illegal guns. The percentage of guns registered to women in the country is less than 2% of the total. However, 500 women were murdered by guns in 2008.
In an attempt to control the situation, a new Guns and Ammunition Law (Decree 15-2009) was implemented in April 2009; this law achieved some important changes, including a restriction on purchasing fire arms. Before, a person was allowed to buy up to 500 units of ammunition per day. This number has now been reduced to 250 a month.
Imported guns or guns used by the State have to be marked with a clearly visible inscription of "GUA". Carrying a visible fire arm is no longer allowed and the minimum age for carrying a fire arm is 25 years.
Yes to life, no to violence
On March 12, Limatu participated in an event during which 1500 fire arms were destroyed. He was joined by boys and girls who are also saying no to fire arms. “There is a mentality in Guatemala that says you need a fire arm to be safe. But that’s not true because a fire arm endangers the life of people,” notes Limatu.
Iepades has been active in Guatemala for almost two decades, building peace and social justice. The NGO works together with communities and municipalities to manage local security from a democratic perspective to assist victims and support their rights.
Translated by Alexandra de Vries
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Related Documents:
Firearms Act 2009
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