Drug Dens Vs. Safe Houses: The Fight Over Ciudad Juarez’s Abandoned Houses Irene Caselli - The Guardian
go to original August 24, 2017

Community projects are helping turn abandoned homes into creative spaces for teenagers to hang out in (Melissa Lyttle)

At the age of 14, Alan has already been given the nickname El Botellas (Bottles) by his friends. The teenager dropped out of school and now drinks heavily, spending much of his time at a dilapidated home on the outskirts of the Mexico border city of Ciudad Juárez.

On a particularly hot Saturday afternoon, a former gang member turned community activist, Israel Ríos, appears at the house. “You are too young for this!” he scolds. Ríos promises to give the assembled kids English classes, despite El Botellas’ insistence that he is not interested in learning.

Through his work in many abandoned homes, Ríos has become something of a father figure to the young men and women of Parajes de San José, a rough neighbourhood on the edge of the desert. In fact, in a city with so few recreational areas, the tapias, as the abandoned houses are known locally, have become central to a new form of community work reclaiming these often dangerous, violent spaces, transforming them, and putting them into the hands of the young.

One in four houses in Ciudad Juárez have been left empty, according to Mexico’s National Statistics Institute – 115,000 in a city with a population of 1.3 million. Combined with the area’s high murder rates and its place as a key transit point in the drug and human trafficking trade, it has meant many abandoned homes have become drug houses, criminal hideouts or squats.

The abandoned home where Ríos meets El Botellas has become key to a new violence prevention program, Del Barrio a la Comunidad (From the Neighborhood to the Community). The project is inspired by the Chicago-born Cure Violence “interrupters” model, which invites former gang members to remain in their neighborhoods and help detect any upcoming danger – gang fights or feuds – and intervene preemptively.

When Del Barrio takes over a home, they transform it into a place where young people can safely meet, take part in graffiti workshops or play music. The group also helps to clean, decorate and find old furniture to make it comfortable.

Taking ownership of these abandoned areas helps young people interact with the rest of the community, according to Ríos. “Eliminating gangs altogether is impossible because belonging to one is necessary if you live in a neighbourhood like this one,” he says. “But what you can do is show people what these these kids can do. For example, they willingly clean up these areas and take care of them.”

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