Admiration for Outlaws: Mexico's Drug War as Seen Through the Eyes of Children Stephen Woodman - Al Jazeera
go to original December 11, 2016

A gang member hurling a grenade at a police officer (Stephen Woodman/Al Jazeera)

One image captures a fierce shoot-out between rival drug cartels, with several lifeless bodies slumped on the street in pools of their own blood. Another shows a gang member hurling a grenade at a police officer. A third features a collection of Kalashnikov and Armalite assault rifles, the weapons of choice for Mexico’s cartel hitmen.

These are not photographs, but children’s drawings depicting the harsh realities of Mexico’s decade-long drug war. They uncover the mental scars borne by a generation exposed to extreme violence, many of whom distrust government forces and admire narco-culture.

Elementary school students produced the drawings as part of an investigation into the effects of the conflict on children in northern Jalisco, an impoverished area plagued by violent crime.

More than 500 children between the ages of eight and 13 participated in the study, which was led by Maria Teresa Prieto Quezada, an educational psychologist at the University of Guadalajara.

The investigation involved surveys and interviews, as well as drawing. Most subjects portrayed themselves as victims or traumatised spectators of the drug war, a conflict that has claimed more than 170,000 lives since December 11, 2006 [PDF], when then-President Felipe Calderon deployed troops in an ill-fated attempt to stamp out organised crime.

Prieto Quezada’s most disturbing find was that many of the children respected drug traffickers.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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