Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and 95 percent of those killings go unsolved. This film gets access, after weeks of negotiation, to the Maras gangs who run drug trafficking, prostitution, and extortion rackets across the country. In the favela of Villanueva, Pedro leads a Barrio 18 cell at 32, an age most of his members never reach since few gang members survive past 25. Interviews with police officers describe a force so underfunded that some buy their own ammunition, while ordinary residents describe arming themselves or joining armed civilian patrols to fight back directly. Gun sales have risen 20 percent in a single year as the state's authority visibly erodes. Shot on location in Guatemalan neighborhoods controlled by the gangs, the film mixes street-level footage with testimony from gang members, police, and civilians caught between them, building a picture of a country where the line between criminal and vigilante keeps blurring.