the yellow chrysanthemums are used to decorate homes and buildings across the country next vice are far from out. and you hear me you know here's we're going to you and i last year's german chancellor will bring you an angle amount off and you've never had to have a surprise yourself with what disposable who is medical really what moves for them want. to talk to people and follows her along the way maurice and critics alike join us for metal soft spots.

one of mahler's one of the most dangerous countries in the world. around the capital guatemala city gangs of young people known as moderates spread fear and terror among the population. 1000 hours a day sit down behind you pull out a gun and shoot you in the head you've been doing a lot of is on. the gains control entire neighborhoods engaging in extortion prostitution and drug trafficking the women taking off they come and demand money when we pay they disappear again these are. after weeks of negotiations we've been allowed into their world. view of them with the bush years boys are death and the kids are. with the police

failing to stop the games. citizens are taking matters into their own hands. the crimes often turn around on the front door of the room he doesn't want to mala faces an ongoing fight against the merciless violence of the modern us i'm. glad. we're 2 french filmmakers who've come to be in the way of just south of guatemala city to find a way inside the world of the modest. this is a poor area plagued by game crime. after long negotiations one gang member agrees to meet with us. yet i labelled

home but the day my spoke with a colleague yesterday and he told me that they wanted to kill him just because he was getting on their nerves trust sort of the bit. pedro was a husband and father and the local leader of barrio 181 of the most brutal used games in the country. pedro was his neighborhood with an iron fist. and the goal of the game going to is done mostly i need the money today you have to pay on time you will send someone to collect the money was simply no police right. because you know that if something happens to one of my guys it will be your fault of the fire and that means you die you know that. right. but.

the local butcher hasn't paid his protection money on time. the youngest employee christiane is being sent to collect it it's his 1st assignment. so i go to the shop and put the money in the bag. yeah and you have to go to 3 places today in the 1st to the one grocery store then to the other one and finally the butchers and then you come back. we get into a car with tinted windows and follow christiane from a distance as he makes his way through the neighborhood. his 1st stop is one of the stores. they get me to see guns runs in yemen

the store keepers then expecting christiane without a word he puts the money in a bag and hands it over. on to the next door. you know i'll have a box of matches so they're going to do. that to the butcher was behind on his payments every day give me a piece of meat and put the money in the same bag. and then it's as. if it is a piece of meat you say number yeah i'll have 5 like that and put the money in the bag. just as your. teaching has its own symbols they nabl members to create a common identity and distinguish themselves from enemy gangs they're proud to show their affiliation.

but those at this and saying don't do these tattoos represent a bout of you know 18 percent i was about to go to wherever we go we represent our gang. it's not what these dots here mean those we know that there is this in this spider's web is also. it shows that we're spreading out further and further . and this one is lovely the loca is it's you know the handcuffs i mean you've been to prison get this and. many of the top gang leaders are serving life sentences their status is illustrated by facial tattoos. but prison doesn't put a stop to their life of crime. from their cells the mob bosses order murders throughout the country. want to follow as one of the poorest

nations in latin america. the small republic has 17000000 inhabitants. until january 2020 the country was led by former comedian and t.v. star jimmy moralists. his agenda fighting corruption that he's been saving for the opening. 11 on. america but morales didn't keep his election promises. instead the president himself was accused of illegal campaign financing. 2019 he found himself in the sights of a un anti corruption task force. what are they said the investigators expelled from my country. what amal is riddled with corruption and violence. the murder rate is 20 times higher than in most european countries.

in the in the way of us and habitants feel the wrath of pedro the local boss of the party or 18 getting. his lieutenant christiane has returned from the weekly protection money roundup. he collected 900 calories from residents. the equivalent of about $110.00 euro us. christiane receives a 10 euro share. pedro 20 with the remaining 80 going to the senior gang leaders from. protection rackets are the main source of income for the madrassas ahead of drug dealing and prostitution. is so low they move their money. in here in my neighborhood alone in mind that we collect around $5000.00 can't sallies per week and that's only in my neighborhood. in the other parts of the favela gang takes in between 708-0000. sometimes more than 150 grand in

a week when i mean. in 2019 extortion rose by almost 40 percent across the country. the victims are mostly the poorest citizens who have no choice but to give in to the gangs. if people don't pay you kill them so yes i. grew up in poverty the 4th child in a family of 13 when he was just a boy he left home and moved to the capital in search of a better life. he quickly found himself part of barrio 18 and he spent 20 years fighting his way up the game's hierarchy. hello those then you simply say i started when i was 12 doing small jobs like being a lookout and. yet i spent more time with the gang

and then they made me a soldier. from there i became what i am today. i did my 1st mission when i was 14. that's good news for me. how many people do you remember killing. i've lost count. that honestly i don't know. i stopped counting after 18 months on the. music after 18 murders a gay member is given the title seek out your hit man. to the end peter shows no remorse in front of the camera he may be a father of 4 but remains committed to the task. because how do you feel when you kill someone who has a family because if you. create. a

great but we don't have any other option. of course we feel for the family but it's our duty. we can refuse to do it even if there's a family needed even if i have a family myself orders are orders. if pedro refused an order he'd be killed himself it's a life of constant fear including for his wife. always horse the mom is a wife and a mom what do you think of your husband's work. but mine well it's very bad it's horrible who are we to take away someone else's life. but it's his work i can only watch listen and keep my mouth shut. that's just how it is. neil as his wife i'm afraid something will happen to him and i'll end up

alone. pedro is 32 years old which is not far short of a miracle. rarely 2 gang members survive past the age of 25. the moderates have their roots in the united states in the 1970 s. and eighty's with civil wars raging in honduras el salvador and guatemala young people there have very few prospects. many fled north to california where criminal gangs were at the peak of their powers. and they were happy to recruit these new migrants into their ranks. at the end of the 1990 s. when the situation in central america had become more stable the u.s. government sent back criminals and undocumented immigrants. some of those deported then imported l.a.

style game life into their home countries. well. and in many places in guatemala it is a day who now control the streets. in 21000 the country saw more than 3500 homicides with the police and the judicial system unable to contain gang related violence. at the entrance to the last 5 it is a makeshift fortified building the local police headquarters. 54 officers work shifts here day and night to protect 75000 residents it's an impossible task. the many lives of sleep and work and 3 shipping container shacks.

marco antonio has been stationed here for 6 years. in this most of these houses for us policeman. much time to spend here. we work 11 full days and then have 6 days off so we spend more time here than we do with our families. i mean yes. every time we go home we thank god because some of us don't make it home they go to work and they never come back. yeah yeah yeah. it's hard to deal with but that's the way it goes. the guatemalan fight against getting crime has a high price in 2018 alone $78.00 police officers were killed in the high risk comes with a good salary the equivalent of $565.00 euros per month twice the upper salary in

guatemala. and it's the money the officers desperately need for equipment. you. need not a 125 for the want you to see where to go and 90 from a nice. place. that you. at the end of the month the police station becomes a market place for weapons and other accessories. a former arms dealer sells the officers everything that isn't provided by the authorities. the judge oh well it was a careful look. there are no. good no make the money will. use combatants they buy all over again for me bulletproof fasts belts holsters for their guns. including ammunition to all of us busy all more users with their own money yes. even for their uniforms would put us.