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How does race, gender, and class intersect the forced migration of Central Americans? This chapter addresses this question focusing on the case of female migrants from Honduras. It argues that women are caught in a cycle of violence connected to global migration, crime policies, and the asymmetrical relationship between the United States and Central America. Through the examination of declarations of female asylum seekers in the United States and conversations with attorneys who work on asylum cases, this chapter shows the racial and gender inequalities behind the cycle of violence as well as the subordination and oppression of Honduran women both in their home country and abroad.

This essay looks at the process through which women's grassroots movements in Medellín, Colombia, were effective in ensuring that a gender perspective was incorporated into the city masterplan with the aim of making Medellín a safer city for women. Drawing on interviews with activists of the Mesa de Trabajo Mujer de Medellín (MTMM), one of the largest networks among women's grassroots movements, and interviews with officials working at the Office of the Secretary for Women and the Department of Planning, I argue that women's grassroots movements are actors in the urban planning process in Medellín. Focusing on the MTMM's agenda for safer housing, I show how the house represents a process that involves women's knowledge, relationships and experience. Furthermore, I show how housing acquires political meaning, becoming the site of negotiations between the MTMM, state urban planning practitioners and the local government.

The response of youth gangs to ‘zero tolerance’ policing in Honduras are examined with respect to territoriality. Focusing on two main gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street Gang, the ways in which state authority is challenged are assessed from an analysis of body territoriality, the respatialisation of organisational structures across urban neighbourhoods, and the production of new enclosed spaces of gang territoriality. These redefinitions of group territoriality strengthen the emotional bonds and sense of belonging towards the gang, enabling the emergence of a transnational/imagined community.