Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 2011 Miami Herald Media Co. Contact: http://www.miamiherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262 Author: Francisco Villagran De Leon Note: Francisco Villagran de Leon is the outgoing ambassador of Guatemala to the United States. NARCOTRAFFICKING MOVES INTO CENTRAL AMERICA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting in Guatemala this week for talks with the presidents of Central America, Mexico and Colombia on security assistance to Central America that will focus on the most serious problem facing the region: drug trafficking. As Mexico has interrupted transit routes across its territory and along its coasts, drug cartels have been moving into Guatemala and countries to the south. A particularly heinous manifestation of this shift in activity was the killing of 27 people in northern Guatemala last month, a crime for which Mexico's "Zetas" openly took credit. The toll of this relatively new problem is already multidimensional. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras now have among the highest crime and homicide rates in Latin America. The economic costs add up to as much as 8 percent of GDP annually, as crime and violence deter investment, divert resources, and generally drag down economic growth. Democracy also suffers, as citizens lose faith in their criminal justice systems, their political leaders, and the future itself. All this in turn feeds the relentless stream of emigrants who forsake home and family to face danger and discrimination as undocumented immigrants in the United States. Guatemala and other Central American countries are trying to fight back, with support from the United States and other countries, as well as from the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other institutions. Probably the best known initiative in this area is the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a U.N.-Guatemalan collaboration aimed at improving the legal sector's ability to investigate and prosecute crimes. Other efforts range from intelligence sharing to community policing projects and even life-skills training to keep adolescents out of gangs. These efforts are beginning to pay off, but more must to be done to help Guatemala and Central America: * First, current levels of international security assistance must be scaled up. In 2011, the U.S. pledged $200 million for all seven Central American countries. More support is needed from other Latin American countries, Europe, and multilateral institutions. Increased information sharing, training, and other forms of technical assistance are critically important. * Second, Central America's drug war must become a regionwide effort, with all countries working under a common strategy. This is the welcome focus of the International Conference in Support of the Central American Security Strategy, which Secretary Clinton is attending. * Third, more assistance must be focused on strengthening government institutions, especially public prosecutors' offices and other law enforcement and judicial agencies. Weak states cannot effectively confront the violence and corrupting power of narcotraffickers. * Finally, as recommended this month by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the United States must face head-on its role as a drug consumer by opening up a national dialogue on drug policy options, including a serious look at alternatives to drug prohibition. One question that inevitably arises when discussing security assistance to Latin America is the proper role of the military. It is critical to acknowledge that significant political changes have occurred in Guatemala and Central America during the last two decades. Democratic governments and stronger civil societies are now the norm. The armed forces are clearly under civilian control, and all important political actors, both liberal and conservative, share a commitment to keeping it this way. It would be a mistake to exclude the military from international security cooperation in Central America. As former U.N. CICIG head Carlos Castresana of Spain has said, "the paradigm has changed" in Guatemala and the rest of Central America. It's no longer the state that perpetrates violence. Rather, drug traffickers and gangs threaten Central American citizens and the stability of their governments. The objective of security assistance must be to strengthen the state and help it mobilize all its resources, not only to reduce crime and violence but to ensure the survival of Central American democracy itself. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt