Extortion and Inner-Prison Gang Life in Guatemala

Guatemala has a raising crime problem: extortions. Provoking the establishment of a prosecutors office against extortions in July 2015. In this paper I want to understand the dynamics of extortions and its implications for prison gang life. Following Braid (2015) I argue that Guatemalan pandillas can be seen as providing ‘masculinization opportunities’ for urban poor young men, meaning proving them with personal empowerment, control and virtue over others along with financial stability. Guatemalan pandillas are however not only a street phenomena, but find a big part of their population incarcerated. While the pandillas of the outside are organized in small territorial clicas, they are organized on a wider national level on the inside of a prison, when still depending on their political economy. The current general prosecutor claims that eighty percent of extortions come from the inside of prisons. Although, certainly, not all extortions are committed by pandillas, they however do play a significant role for the functioning of the prison gang structure of pandillas. Hence, extortion money is likely to be used to acquire arms, but also to bribe prison guards for entering illicit objects into penal centers. Furthermore extortions are used to pay alimony to imprisoned members of pandillas as well as a monthly amount to the barrio (gang on a national level). The pandilla, thus, is providing men with masculinization opportunities not only to the young outside world, but keeps this role in the inner life of prisons, when further providing chances for power, money and prestige.