Angelika Albaladejo
In an attempt to understand the different sources and dynamics of violence, the Center for International Policy and the Latin America Working Group Education Fund traveled to El Salvador late last year. We interviewed journalists, analysts, government officials, judges, police officers, citizens, activists, humanitarian workers, diplomats, and academics. Our report, coming in a series of posts over the next week will lay out El Salvador’s current security situation and provide recommendations for U.S. policy.
With the volatile debate over the United States’ immigration policy and shifting U.S. foreign policy and assistance to Central America, civil society advocates and other interested individuals in Central America, Mexico and the United States need the tools to understand and impact this public discussion. For this reason, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) published a new advocacy guide in English and Spanish.
In Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean, historically unequal power relations between men and women have been further exacerbated by a hyper-masculine security approach that relies on the armed forces and militarized policing to combat organized crime and drug trafficking.
The Honduran National Police are currently in a standoff with the Ministry of Security after Police Chief Ramón Antonio Sabillón was dismissed last week, allegedly for opposing government-backed militarization of public security and a purge of the police force. His removal signals militarized policing is here to stay in Honduras.
Last week, eight U.S. lawmakers called for cuts to the planned U.S. security assistance package to Colombia for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 in response to continuing reports of human rights violations, violence and impunity in the country.
Last month, the White House called out Bolivia for “failing demonstrably” to comply with international anti-drug agreements for the seventh year in a row. Out of the 22 nations labeled major players in the global drug trade, Bolivia, the only country that permits nationwide legal coca cultivation, was also the only one denied U.S. State Department-managed anti-narcotics aid for the second year in a row.