Reëxamining Victimhood in Guatemala

While Corzo was working on the book, he learned that Walter Barahona, the brother of one of the gang’s leaders, José Luis Barahona, was being held in a prison known as Little Hell, in a department on Guatemala’s Pacific Coast. On a Sunday morning, in early March, 2019, Corzo drove to the facility. The idea, he told me, was simply to ask Walter if he could share any information about José Luis. For most of his life, Corzo had assumed that the gang leader was dead. But, in the years after their arrests, the kidnappers had filed legal appeals, and their sentences were later commuted. It was only during a visit to Guatemala, while working on the book, that Corzo learned from an aunt that Barahona might still be alive.

Unsurprisingly, given its nickname, Little Hell can be a fearsome place to visit. The inmates wear civilian clothes and aren’t held in actual cells; many of them run their own shops and stalls inside the prison, and can roam freely. Inmates dressed in orange, called zanahorias, or carrots, serve as guides for visitors. Once inside, Corzo asked one of them where he could find Walter Barahona. “He’s not here,” the zanahoria replied. “But his brother is.”