Latinnews Daily - 3 October 2003

Central American police chiefs are meeting in Guatemala to thrash out a regional plan to deal with the threat of juvenile street gangs, known as 'maras'. On the agenda is a detailed analysis of the different strategies being employed by the police across the region. By far the worst affected countries are Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. However, Hamin Gurdian, Nicaragua's police chief warned that 'there is a danger that this problem could spread to the rest of Central America to the same degree as in Guatemala and El Salvador.'