Central America: confronting the drug gangs

[AdamG]

El Salvador holds its breath after day without murders

Scepticism in barrios, where residents say people are still disappearing despite truce between powerful gangs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...ers-gang-truce

[davidbfpo]

An article from 'Open Security' which covers more than El Salvador, notably Mexico and looks at the low profile, tentative success of the state talking to gangs - with the key features being better conditions for those in jail (as in Spain, Italy and the UK IIRC) and a wise retired soldier.

It opens with:

Talk of a pact with criminals is beyond the pale in Mexico’s presidential election campaign. But the tentative success of a deal with gang leaders in one of Central America’s most violent countries suggests the time may have come to explore a new style of negotiations aimed at reducing appalling levels of violence.

A month later, for the first time in years, the country recorded a day without a violent death; the official hope is now that the murder rate will fall in 2012 by 50 percent. The gangs have even agreed to halt forced recruitment of young people.

Citing Interior Minister David Munguía Payés, a retired general:

My hope is that they [the gangs] don’t commit serious crimes, like they are committing at the moment, because in reality the gangs aren’t going to disappear in the next 15 or 20 years. You will die, I will die, and still there will be gangs here in El Salvador. At best they just won’t be as violent as they are now.

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/ivan-br...als-with-devil

Brave men, maybe women too, on both sides to do this. Less violence is essential for public safety and civic life.

[davidbfpo]

There are several threads on this problem, so I have created this thread - as the IISS Strategic Comment covers several countries. It opens with:

Central America is the world’s latest drugs hot-spot: up to 90% of the South American cocaine bound for the US now transits the region, most of it passing through the so-called 'northern triangle' of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

(Ends with)The countries of the northern triangle face a complicated crisis, requiring them to act on multiple fronts, improving the justice system and governance as well as security forces. Ultimately, they cannot effectively confront one of the most severe security crises in the world with one of the lowest rates of state revenue. The recent tax reforms in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are likely to have more impact on fiscal deficits than on security. Insufficient external help and deep institutional fragilities mean that more ambitious tax reforms offer these countries the best chance to improve security.

Link:http://www.iiss.org/publications/str...he-drug-gangs/

Curiously the new Mexican President has mooted legalisation, see Post 342:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=5370&page=18

[AdamG]

The Duffleblog weighs in
http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/06/is...-war-on-drugs/

This new offensive, emerging just as the United States military winds down its conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and is moving to confront emerging threats, also showcases the nation’s new way of war: small-footprint missions with limited numbers of troops, partnerships with foreign military and police forces that take the lead in security operations, and narrowly defined goals, whether aimed at insurgents, terrorists or criminal groups that threaten American interests.

The effort draws on hard lessons learned from a decade of counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq, where troops were moved from giant bases to outposts scattered across remote, hostile areas so they could face off against insurgents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/wo...anted=all&_r=0


And just for reference sake, from 2010

http://www.talkingdrugs.org/us-speci...king-in-mexico