La Carpio, Even Police Fear Entering The Area
La Carpio, the residential community west of San José, is one of the most conflictive areas, where poverty and delinquency fuel the time bomb can go off any minute. While the different gangs battle to take control of the area, defenceless citizens are asking for police intervention, which for the most part is absence on any given day.

La Carpio has become the largest settled community in the country and also one of the most dangerous. So dangerous that even police don't go into the area.

Located a few minutes west of the Hospital México, there is only one road in and the same road out of the settlement, which is populated by some of the poorest, living in squalid conditions. The majority of residents of the area are Nicaraguans.

Life in this barrio is a lot different that other barrios. Violence, drugs and poverty combine into a fatal combination that affects everyone that lives in the area in one way or another. Residents complain that they completely unprotected.

Anything can and does happen in La Carpio.

Murders have been common. Gang rivalry is common. Protests are common. The area is ruled by gangs made up of youngsters, the majority minors, each marking out its territory. The "la cueva del sapo" controls the southern part of La Carpio, while "la tercera" controls the northern portion. Both are mortal enemies. And in between there are smaller gangs that work with either or both to terrorize the area.

Police action as been sporadic. One of those actions came last Friday when the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Fuerza Pública descended on La Carpio to detain the leader of the "la cueva del sapo", one William Rodríguez Flores, considered one of the most dangerous criminals in the area and the country, wanted for the murder of a member of the rival gang.

Five hours later, police withdrew their operation with empty hands as they failed to capture the man. Residents are dumb founded how police, in an intensive five hour campaign, could not apprehend the man and then two hours after the operative ended, Rodríguez came out of hiding place and life was back to normal in La Carpio.

The area had once been ruled by four main rival gangs, but now there are only two, as members of the other two gangs aligned themselves with the remaining.

Police admit that they are facing a "war zone" every time they go into the area due to the large number of firearms and firepower the gangs have at their disposal. Police are concerned that a confrontation with the gangs can lead to massive violence and deaths.

The large number of undocumented living in the area problem makes things even worse, as police are unable to control the movement of people and the reluctance of many to come forward and make formal charges.

What makes matter even more complicated is the growing number of people, undocumented foreigners, moving into the settlement on a regular basis, which makes it even more difficult to capture the leaders of the gangs, who without contempt carry on their daily business of drug trafficking, murder and robberies.