2006 Photo Contest, People in the News, 3rd prize
Photographer

Rodrigo Abd

The Associated Press

02 December, 2005

Minutes before attending the funeral of Jose Arrecis (15), Guadalupe (17), touches up her makeup next to a bullet punctured window in her house in the poverty stricken neighborhood of El Mezquital. Youth gangs (known as 'maras') in Guatemala City were originally formed by the children of indigenous farmers, who fled the countryside in the 1980s during ongoing civil war and squatted on the outskirts of the capital. The youths imitated the style of Guatemalans deported from the US for gang activity and soon became involved in organized crime, murder, extortion and drug trafficking. Gang violence has now become part of everyday life in Guatemala. In August, gang rivalries erupted in a coordinated series of battles in four prisons across the country, leaving at least 30 prisoners dead and dozens more injured.

About the photographer

Rodrigo Abd

Rodrigo Abd was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 27, 1976. His career began as a staff photographer at the La Razón and La Nación newspapers in Buenos Aires, Argentin...

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