¡A Nosotros, nos Tienen que Respetar! (They Have to Respect us!): Gangs, Inter-Generational Conflict, and Graduated Governance in Urban Nicaragua

Abstract

Gangs are often associated with violence and chaos, but they can also be institutional vectors for the imposition of particular forms of social order, based on their members’ status as locally hegemonic “violence experts”. This “gang governance” is often exclusive and volatile, however, and its underlying logic can easily change. Instances of the latter are frequently connected to generational turnovers within gangs. An obvious question in this regard is how old and new gang members interact with each other, especially in circumstances where the rules and norms upheld by the latter become detrimental to the former. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighbourhood in Managua, Nicaragua, this article explores the conflicts that emerged between different generations of gang members following the gang’s transformation from a vigilante self-defence group to a predatory drug-dealing organisation, and what these might mean for the notion of gang governance.