The infamous 18 are El Salvador's biggest gang. They battle with the rival MS13 for control of the drugs market. They charge 'renta' to local businesses and kill those who don't pay. They are teenagers, the orphans of civil war, born in the heat of battle and unfazed by death. As we enter the desperate, death-defying world of the 18, we begin to see the political ingredients of one of the fastest developing gangs in the world.
"That son of a bitch walked into our territory and had to die", says 16 year old Walter. He's from a part of El Salvador where kids live in cardboard box houses. Now serving time in the city's juvenile prison for murder, Walter speaks of the gang as a family, replacing the parents who died or were deported during the civil war. "When I killed him, I felt like a maniac but also great", Walter declares, "because I defended our gang. If I die? Fine", he says, unflinching. 'Death', like '18' is one of the favoured tattoos of the gang.
Initiation to the gang is brutal. "You're surrounded by ten people and they start punching and kicking you", says Viejo, reported leader of the 18. From this high security prison he confesses "at first I felt angry, but then I felt good because I was approved into a group that wanted me". A combination of poverty, loneliness and fear will bring you here. "My parents sent me to the US", says Luis, a former member, "I was really sick and lonely. Some boys gave me food and weed. I didn’t realise that they were all gang members who had gone through the same problems as me".
Both the 18 and the MS13 were created in Los Angeles. When a million people fled to the US in the aftermath of El Salvador's Civil War, they set up gangs to defend themselves as a minority. "In the 90s we were deported", explains Viejo "we brought back our 'modus vivendi'. We came to win in the post-war period". Returning to a war-ravaged and poverty-stricken country, "all you could do was break the law", says Viejo.
"Poverty contributes to it", admits El Salvador’s mayor, "but it doesn't determine whether a young person will become violent or delinquent". In 2003, the government implemented 'law hard hand' to control the gangs. "If two or three people were together and had tattoos they could be arrested", explains Cezar, a journalist, "It became a major human rights violation".
"The gang is an answer for young people who are violated by the state, beaten up by its policies", says a human rights worker. "The enemy doesn't come here because there'll be gunshot", threatens a member of the 18, barely 14 years old. "The 18 want to kill me", admits Viejo "because now that I'm 31, I can't remember anything good about the gang". Along with the MS13, the 18 is the biggest 'multinational gang' in the world. "If Christ had been born here he’d have been high-risk", says Padre, a local Priest, "born poor and with 90% chance of going into a gang". A fascinating insight into the gang warfare, which continues to ravage El Salvador.
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 Official Selection, NYILFF, 2008
Official Selection, Mediterranean Film Festival, 2008
Official Selection, El Ojo Cojo, 2008
Official Selection, Bahrain Human Rights International Film Festival, 2009
Official Selection, Latin American Film Festival, 2009
Small Planet
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| Making the film |
'Children of a rape' tells the story of El Salvador’s two big gangs, mainly made up of teenagers. The 18 and the MS13 have turned the country into a war zone, as they relentlessly clash over the control of the drugs and weapons market. Yorgos Avgeropoulos manages to access both gangs and follows the life of kids who kill without a second thought. In their words, actions and tattooed with their gang’s symbols bodies is written the contemporary history of a country which was raped by the 12-year-long civil war, a war which might not yet be over. |
| The Producers |
Yorgos Avgeropoulos was born in Athens in 1971. He has covered news stories of great interest and importance, working as a journalist for most of the major Greek TV channels. As a war correspondent for many years, he has traveled extensively in Bosnia, Croatia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Palestine. The work of Avgeropoulos has been recognized by state organizations and NGOs and he has received much acclaim and many awards.
Exandas has been participating in international festivals for many years and has been awarded the 'Best investigative and documentary Greek TV programs' award seven times as well as the Faro D' Oro (The Golden Lighthouse) Prize at the XII International Prize for Mediterranean Documentary and Reportage, Cagliari - Sardine, Italy, 2007. News stories and documentaries presented by Exandas have also inspired university research and have been discussed in conferences.
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