the daily life of the Northern Triangle through a lens

Documenting the consequences of the violence in Central America was the purpose of the Spanish photojournalists Edu Ponces and Pau Coll, members of the organization NOISE photo. His images, now converted into a photographic exhibition, show how non-war violence impacts countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

“It has been a risky job, without a doubt. When you work with criminal violence it is,” she explained to the voice of america Edu Ponces, who has practiced journalism in Central America on different occasions and knows the region well, a place where the daily life of people is marked by violence.

“The violence exerted by organized criminal groups” affects “a wide variety of people,” including children, women, members of the LGTBI community and migrants, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

gang violence

The Cojuetepeque prison was one of the places photographed by the team of photojournalists. It is a maximum security prison where members of rival gangs are locked up. The images show the living conditions of the prisoners, many of whom entered the jail when they were minors.

“There one has to gain access from the authorities and whoever is in charge inside the prison. They accept it because they are interested in giving their version and denouncing what they are living in there” explains Ponces about the process of making the photographs.

The photojournalist explains that one of the things that most surprised him on the ground was the attitude of the families affected by gang violence towards the deceased:

“Many times people asked to be photographed. One feels that sometimes people do not want a dead relative to be seen, and many people asked me: ‘Please, take a photo’ They are families who are in places where that happens regularly and nobody does anything,” says Ponces.

violence against women

“Gender-based violence, often under-reported and statistically invisible, is one of the main factors that drives women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people to flee their homes in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,” says UNHCR in a report at the end of 2021, in which it “urges that more effective action be taken” in the region.

The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), in addition, underlines in its 2022 world report, that countries like Guatemala are experiencing “challenges” in the protection of groups such as women.

“In many cases they are alone with their children,” says Ponces about women who suffer violence. “It’s very cruel in many cases. The cruelest thing I’ve seen there has been the violence against women,” she adds.

Violence in the lives of children

Central America is one of the areas that has a younger population index and, in turn, registers high crime figures. That is why in many cases violence affects the daily lives of Central American children; Some are even recruited by gangs as children.

“The violence that minors experience and what they see in their daily routine in a neighborhood or gang community in El Salvador has a lot to do with what they are going to do next,” says Ponces, who photographed children playing in places with strong presence of maras, observing a coffin, living in a women’s prison, or witnessing how the police communicate that their father has been arrested for an alleged case of homicide, among other situations.

“We were interested in showing where a Salvadoran child grows up who may later become a gang member,” adds the photographer.

Violence and migration

Insecurity is one of the main reasons why people decide to flee the region “In Central America, thousands of people must decide between leaving their country or risking death. To find a safe place to live, they feel the need to leave their homes and put their lives at risk by embarking on dangerous journeys,” says UNHCR.

The main recipient is the United States, a country that has been facing constant waves of migrants from the Northern Triangle for years. Recently, some US lawmakers called on the administration of President Joe Biden to expand Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

RUIDO photo photographers portrayed Central Americans in different phases of the migration process. To achieve this, they were working on the wall that separates Mexico from the United States and in temporary shelters in Tijuana. They also photographed undocumented migrants residing on the streets, where many of those who manage to enter the country end up.

“A country like the US has to understand that the immigration that arrives is people fleeing violence (…) That is very interesting for us to see migration in a different way,” Ponces points out.

stand up to violence

Some of the photographs taken by Edu Ponce and Pau Coll can be seen in the exhibition Face to face with violence: stories of resilience in Central America, a project that combines the image and the genre of the interview and that has been developed under the coordination of the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP).

“Today there are practically more violent deaths and homicides in countries where there is no war than in countries at war. This is very present in Latin America,” he explains to the VOA Sabina Puig, graduate in Politics and Administration from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and coordinator of the work area “Violence outside of war contexts” at the ICIP.

Puig adds that the region “concentrates a third of the homicides in the world” and explains that one of the objectives of the exhibition is “to illustrate with day-to-day photos how violence impacts people’s lives.”

On the other hand, Puig stresses that “despite all the dangers”, there are people “who stand up to this violence through education programs, reintegration, the promotion of social policies and the reception of refugees”, among other projects.

The exhibition was inaugurated in October 2021 in Barcelona within the framework of the II World Congress for Peace, and it can currently be seen in the city of Sant Boi del Llobregat until September 30.

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