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