San Pedro Sula, Honduras—Jovel, 27, a worker of JHA-JA (Jovenes Hondureños Adelante Juntos Avancemos, or Honduran Youth Advance Forward Together) and founding member of “Generación X,” or Generation X, a non-profit agency that works towards gang prevention and the re-integration of ex-gang members into Honduran society, shows off his letter of discharge from prison.

As an ex-gang member in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, one of Central America’s most gang-infested regions, his work is to help youth who are leaving the gangs (or “maras” as they are called in Central America) with finding work, removal of tattoos and starting a new life.

Jovel has also worked with the investigation of human rights violations in La Ceiba Prison, where in 2003, 69 gang members were rounded-up from all around the country, concentrated in a single cell block and killed.

Many of them were his childhood friends. Jovel’s work was to identify the bodies and inform the families of the fallen youth who were taken from their native San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba.

Jovel continues to live in San Pedro Sula and lives to fight the phenomenon of extra-judicial killings against youth that at their highest numbers reached a staggering 557 in 2003, down to 264 in 2007.
– Josue Rojas

Check out the New America Media article: After Deadly Prison Blaze, Warnings on Honduran Anti-Gang Crusade

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