A broken system
Citizens’ security is the region’s biggest problem. Time to improve criminal justice
PEDRO RODRÍGUEZ, head of Nicaragua’s youth-affairs police, grabs the shoulder of 17-year-old Axel Matus and gives it a shake. “He was one of our worst cases,” he says. In most of Latin America, a youth with Axel’s background—gangs, drugs, knife-fights, joblessness—would cringe at such attention from a burly police commander. But Axel stands bolt upright and admits: “My life was utter chaos.”
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "A broken system"
From the July 12th 2014 edition
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