CALEE: Julian Igualada

Video Transcript

Most of the gang members live for the now and they don’t think about the future. They don’t think about the tomorrow. A lot of them are high on marijuana. A lot of them are high on that sense on belonging to a group, a social group. They feel alienated from the communities here in El Salvador. They feel alienated from the government of El Salvador so they find that father, that mother figure in the gang, and they are willing to do anything for the gangs which are homicides, extort people for money. Even though they may know that are going to get cut up, or they are going to end up in the hospital, or they are going to end up dead.

It’s not in the gang to buy the cars, buy the houses, buy the jewels. They are in the gang to belong to a social group. They are in the gang because they want to be in the gang and they want to do what the gang ask them to do. One of the gangs’ strong hand here is violence. And they utilize that to their maximum. That is the major difference and that’s something that we are working really hard to ensure that we don’t have in the United States.