Thursday 09October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
LATIN AMERICA:
Once Again, Governments
Promise to Tackle
Violent Crime
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY (IPS)
- Violent crime in Latin
America claims more than
100,000 lives a year --
more than any single
disease -- and the
average homicide rate is
27 per 100,000
population, making this
one of the most violent
regions in the world.
This reflects a severe
crisis that requires
coordinated multi-sectoral
actions, agreed
high-level officials
from 34 governments who
met Tuesday and
Wednesday in Mexico in
the "first meeting of
public security
ministers of the
Americas", organised by
the Organisation of
American States (OAS).
In the final declaration
signed by the ministers,
they committed
themselves to mounting a
more coordinated effort
against violence,
harmonise laws,
strengthen prevention
policies and educational
and awareness-raising
programmes, modernise,
purge and
professionalise police
forces, and engage in a
broad sharing and
exchange of experiences
with civil society
groups involved in
prevention and other
areas.
"The ministers had a
flash of genius -- they
discovered that there is
a public safety crisis.
They also committed
themselves to what has
been obvious for years:
that security policies
must reflect a balance
between immediate and
long-term measures,
especially involving
education and
prevention," political
scientist Sergio
Fernández, an expert on
drug trafficking, told
IPS.
According to
Inter-American
Development Bank
estimates, violence
costs Latin America as
much as 15 percent of
its combined annual
gross domestic product
(GDP).
For its part, the World
Bank reports that 75
percent of all
kidnappings worldwide
are committed in Latin
America, a region that
accounts for just eight
percent of the world’s
population.
The World Health
Organisation’s (WHO)
"World Report on
Violence and Health" put
the average global
homicide rate in 2000 at
8.8 per 100,000
population a year.
Although the Latin
American average is 27
murders per 100,000
people, the situation in
several cities is
alarming, with as many
as 120 homicides per
100,000 people, says an
OAS report distributed
at the two-day meeting
in Mexico.
In Central America, the
average climbs to 36 per
100,000, with 55 per
100,000 in El Salvador
in 2006, 45 per 100,000
in Guatemala and nearly
43 per 100,000 in
Honduras.
In the Caribbean, the
most violent country is
Jamaica (49 per
100,000), while
Venezuela (45 per
100,000) and civil
war-torn Colombia (37
per 100,000) share that
dubious distinction in
South America.
The main victims of
violent crime in the
region are young people,
with murder the leading
cause of death for
people between the ages
of 15 and 29, and the
homicide rate for this
group standing at 83 per
100,000 population.
The region not only
suffers from extreme
violence due to
homicides, the great
majority of which are
the result of criminal
activities, mainly drug
trafficking, but from
many other day-to-day
common crimes like
violent robberies,
kidnappings, sexual
abuse, criminal youth
gangs or domestic
violence, said OAS
Secretary-General José
Miguel Insulza.
He told the meeting in
Mexico that
security-related issues
have become one of the
principal threats to
stability, the
strengthening of
democracy, and prospects
for development in the
region, and that swift,
vigorous action is
urgently needed.
"The very integrity of
the state and democratic
institutions in our
region is seriously at
risk given the scope,
power and impact of
crime," said Insulza.
The ministers and other
officials signed a
lengthy declaration in
which they pledged to
"Foster and strengthen
long-term government
security policies, with
full respect for human
rights."
Another commitment was
to "Strengthen, within
the context of those
policies, the capacity
of our states to promote
citizen security and to
respond effectively to
insecurity, crime, and
violence, by adapting
their legal framework,
structures, operational
procedures, and
management mechanisms,
as necessary."
With respect to
prevention, they pledged
to "Promote educational
programmes, in
particular in schools,
and raise awareness
among the different
players in society
regarding the prevention
of crime, violence, and
insecurity."
They also promised to
work to incorporate
greater transparency and
accountability among
police, and to improve
their living and working
conditions.
"Encourage and
strengthen citizen and
community participation
in the implementation of
public security plans
and programmes" and
"Encourage and
strengthen social
responsibility as well
as a culture of
comprehensive prevention
of crime, violence, and
insecurity, with the
participation of
citizens, the community,
the media, and the
private sector" were two
other points in the
final document.
Fernández, who works as
a consultant on security
issues, urged society to
closely monitor progress
towards the commitments
assumed in Mexico.
"For years we have been
hearing promises from
our governments, while
reality shows us that
the security situation
is going from bad to
worse -- all you have to
do is read the
statistics or have a
conversation with any
citizen of Latin
America," he said.
Opinion polls invariably
show that public safety
is one of the two or
three most pressing
concerns of people in
this region, only
surpassed sometimes by
poverty and
unemployment, said
Insulza.
Latinobarómetro, an
annual public opinion
survey carried out in 17
Latin American countries
by the Chilean
non-profit of the same
name, shows that public
perceptions of
insecurity doubled
between 2003 and 2007 in
Latin America and the
Caribbean.
In 2007, 63 percent of
respondents said their
country was "very
unsafe" and 73 percent
said they felt constant
fear of becoming a
victim of crime.
"This plague kills more
people than AIDS or any
other known epidemic;
destroys more homes than
any economic crisis; and
threatens state
institutions, "said
Insulza. "Ridding
ourselves of it, or at
least substantially
reducing it, is an
absolute priority."
The head of the OAS also
said governments had to
acknowledge that the
scope and intensity of
violent crime and the
shortcomings or
weaknesses of the
region’s institutions in
fighting the phenomenon
"drastically affect the
quality of life of the
population and generate
a generalised climate of
fear, which poses a
direct threat to the
soundness of democracy."
"The causes of the
phenomenon have to do,
in first place, with
organised crime --
mainly drug trafficking
and related criminal
activity -- and the
corruption it
generates," he said,
adding that no country
in the region completely
escapes from the scourge
of violent crime.
Other major factors are
socioeconomic, said
Insulza. Although
poverty alone does not
explain the phenomenon,
there is a clear
correlation when it
interacts with other
factors like inequality,
marginalisation and
exclusion, which affect
a significant portion of
the population, he
stated.
Violent crime leaves an
annual death toll of
more than 100,000 in the
region, while hundreds
of thousands of people
are injured or otherwise
affected.
Another human cost of
violent crime mentioned
by the report
distributed by the OAS
at the meeting are the
nearly four million
people who are in
prison, many of whom
have been convicted,
while others are caught
up in interminable legal
proceedings, and yet
others have served their
sentences and remain in
jail due to ineffective
judicial systems. |
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