• Events A 15-year-old boy died and a young man was seriously injured when they were shot in Villaverde in a new incident between gangs

  • Events The number of arrests of Latino gangs for violent acts doubles, 40% minors

The president of the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM), Enrique Villalobos, denounced that the phenomenon of Latino gangs is affecting pre-adolescent boys who have joined these groups since they were 11 years old.

That is why Villalobos

asked the administrations to ensure a future with viable alternatives for young people to prevent them from becoming gang members

and called for preventive policies from a community approach.

These statements were made in the study commission of the Madrid Assembly that analyzes this issue.

He also pointed out that the gang problem is now located in Carabanchel, Centro, Ciudad Lineal, Puente de Vallecas, Latina, Tetuán, Usera and Villaverde and that they have not detected it in Vicálvaro and Villa de Vallecas.

«

The center of our concern is age.

It is affecting the pre-adolescent age, boys from 11 to 13 years old and we are talking about a low age », he explained.

The president of the FRAVM indicated that most of the responses of these kids when joining these gangs has to do with the feeling of security.

«

They are very conditioned with the sensation of feeling a threat and the group protects them.

That is why family is so important.

For a group of young people to work, it has to develop in a safe environment.

The mission of the society is to make that environment safe.

And they cannot feel a threat and that is why the associations are so important, "he said.

Villalobos also gave as an example that when he was young there were more than 300 scout groups and now there are less than a hundred.

In addition,

he regretted that in Madrid there are 371 betting establishments and in Barcelona 51

and that public and youth hostels have disappeared.

"There used to be a dozen public youth hostels and now there are only four. One of them, the one in Casa de Campo, was converted into a center for supervised minors. If we do not offer young people a viable alternative and other options to have social skills, they can fall back into bad dynamics, “he concluded.

In addition, Sonia Alda Mejías, a professor in the Department of International Relations of the Comillas Pontifical University and a Security Specialist in Latin America, participated in the commission, at the request of the Popular Parliamentary Group, in order to report on the Latin American typology at the origin of the phenomenon.

She asked that the problem of the criminal act be observed more than in the profile of the perpetrators and considered that the phenomenon of violent youth gangs, which she prefers to call gangs, is a multidisciplinary problem.

"

I have been overwhelmed by the police deployment.

It's like a battle against 0.03 of the young.

So you are not answering the problem.

It is very good that citizens see themselves safeguarded but holes are being covered without seeing the problem that exists of social marginalization ", she concluded.

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  • Vallecas

  • villaverde

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  • carabanchel