Hawkish Stances Needed to Fight Crime in Central America

Part of Central America's failures in preparedness and vigilance stems from a lack of trust in government enforcement measures, both police and military. There is quite a history of past abuses and a thought process that any armed force was dangerous to liberty in general. The issue begs the question as to how will these countries provide safety and security for the people?

By Jerry Brewer
The Mexican drug cartels' armed challenges and reign have been and are vicious fights with ever-increasing volatility and escalating death rates. With numbers showing over 50,000 killed in this quagmire of reaction versus action, the displacement of the narcoterrorists was inevitable against Mexico's strong arm of military armed force and US assistance and support.

Collateral damage is now a key area of focus as Mexico's large broom-like sweep forces even more multifaceted challenges to a seriously bruised and battered northern cone of Central America and points further south.

Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are being hit hard by the expansion of transnational criminal organizations (TCO) into their regions in an attempt to find and hold more permissive operating environments. These northern triangle nations are experiencing murder rates "two to four times higher than Mexico," with UN statistics as a guide, identifying Honduras as "the most violent country on earth."

How did such short range vision and wide spread criminal impunity allow violent crime to flourish and organize into virtual mobile paramilitary-style armies of assassins?

The failure to forecast and act against impending threat and country vulnerability has been an intense failure by government and homeland intelligence services. Proactive and tactical engagement and containment was thus immediately lost by enforcement officials and military forces. This, much like a tossed match to the ground turning dry land into a raging inferno.

Part of Central America's failures in preparedness and vigilance stems from a lack of trust in government enforcement measures, both police and military. There is quite a history of past abuses and a thought process that any armed force was dangerous to liberty in general. The issue begs the question as to how will these countries provide safety and security for the people?

Costa Rica and Panama are examples of nations that have essentially done away with their military. Guatemala's government reduced its military in the 1990s by two-thirds. hese acts of neutering a homeland's security forces and military has obviously allowed stronger forces to seek refuge and strongholds on foreign soil as the heat is turned up on them from neighboring nations aggressively proactive in seeking to kill or capture them. Former Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom said it best when he announced to reporters, "drug gangs are invading Central America."

Panama is a critical choke point and gateway from South America into Central America. Panamanians stand landlocked as the hub from drug source countries and guerrilla-style paramilitary insurgents to the south and smuggling routes to the north. Within this isthmus nation there are mixed emotions about remilitarization as unwarranted, with some calling for a neutral stance that addresses better education, rehabilitation, delinquency, and lesser prevention methods.

The question that must be asked is, with Panama's vast natural resources and global position of importance within the Americas, how can they not have a strong military and police presence to strategically defend their homeland? How can this issue even remotely be described as unwarranted? The slaughter to the north may hold some of the true answers and telegraph continued fluidity in movement throughout the region.

The differences in enforcement methods by either police or military are obvious enough. But in the case of policing within many of these Central American nations it is fact that no local, county or state police agency within South or Central America, as well as the US, was ever created to handle such a strategic and tactical threat by superior military arms and espionage strategies. Moreover, there can be no reasonable expectation of any police force within those circles having or acquiring on its own the resources necessary to effectively fight insurgents and groups such as these that are so well trained and financed, short of military assistance.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas are reported to be continuing to traverse Panama and trudging into Central America. The insurgents have threatened to abduct high profile Panamanian officials, this in retaliation for the apprehension of rebels by authorities. The guerrilla insurgents continue to move north in support of narcotrafficking, arms sales, and other criminal enterprises.

As effective strategic and tactical enforcement interdiction continues to evolve and to sweep through Mexico and most points south, those in the path will fare in direct proportion to their homeland's capabilities and preparation to stand successfully. Local organized street gangs that number in the thousands throughout the region are also active and innovative in seeking alternate criminal enterprise revenue. Security measures will require a firm hand by enforcement-designated officials that will meet vicious resistance. (1/24/12)

Note: This article was reprinted with permission of the author. It was originally published at MexiData.info. Jerry Brewer is the Chief Executive Officer of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.