Capabilities of Police and Military Forces in Central America -- A Comparative Analysis of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras an d Nicaragua

A difficult transition to a new paradigm of Democratic Security and the subsequent process of military restructuring during the nineties led El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua to re-consider their old structures and functions of their armed forces and police agencies. This study compares the institutions in the four countries mentioned above to assess their current condition and response capacity in view of the contemporary security challenges in Central America. This report reveals that the original intention of limiting armies to defend and protect borders has been threatened by the increasing participation of armies in public security. While the strength of armies has been consolidated in terms of numbers, air and naval forces have failed to become strengthened or sufficiently developed to effectively combat organized crime and drug trafficking and are barely able to conduct air and sea operations. Honduras has been the only country that has maintained a proportional distribution of its armed forces. However, security has been in the hands of a Judicial Police, supervised by the Public Ministry. The Honduran Judicial Police has been limited to exercising preventive police duties, prohibited from carrying out criminal investigations. Nicaragua, meanwhile, possesses a successful police force, socially recognized for maintaining satisfactory levels of security surpassing the Guatemalan and El Salvadoran police, which have not achieved similar results despite of having set up a civilian police force separate from the military. El Salvador meanwhile, has excelled in promoting a Police Academy and career professional education, even while not having military attachés in other countries. Regarding budgetary issues, the four countries allocate almost twice the amount of funding on their security budgets in comparison to what is allocated to their defense budgets. However, spending in both areas is low when taking into account each country's GDP as well as their high crime rates. Regional security challenges must be accompanied by a professionalization of the regional armies focused on protecting and defending borders. Therefore, strong institutional frameworks to support the fight against crime and drug trafficking are required. It will require the strengthening of customs, greater control of illicit arms trafficking, investment in education initiatives, creating employment opportunities and facilitating significant improvements in the judicial system, as well as its accessibility to the average citizen.

Mapping Transnational Crime in El Salvador: New Trends and Lessons from Colombia

Since El Salvador’s civil war formally ended in 1992 the small Central American nation has undergone profound social changes and significant reforms. However, few changes have been as important or as devastating as the nation’s emergence as a central hub in the transnational criminal “pipeline” or series of recombinant, overlapping chains of routes and actors that illicit organizations use to traffic in drugs, money weapons, human being, endangered animals and other products. The erasing of the once-clear ideological lines that drove the civil war and the ability of erstwhile enemies to join forces in criminal enterprises in the post-war period is an enduring and dangerous characteristic of El Salvador’s transnational criminal evolution. Trained, elite cadres from both sides, with few legitimate job opportunities, found their skills were marketable in the growing criminal structures. The groups moved from kidnapping and extortion to providing protection services to transnational criminal organizations to becoming integral parts of the organizations themselves. The demand for specialized military and transportation services in El Salvador have exploded as the Mexican DTOs consolidate their hold on the cocaine market and their relationships with the transportista networks, which is still in flux. The value of their services has risen dramatically also because of the fact that multiple Mexican DTOs, at war with each other in Mexico and seeking to physically control the geographic space of the lucrative pipeline routes in from Guatemala to Panama, are eager to increase their military capabilities and intelligence gathering capacities. The emergence of multiple non-state armed groups, often with significant ties to the formal political structure (state) through webs of judicial, legislative and administrative corruption, has some striking parallels to Colombia in the 1980s, where multiple types of violence ultimately challenged the sovereignty of state and left a lasting legacy of embedded corruption within the nation’s political structure. Organized crime in El Salvador is now transnational in nature and more integrated into stronger, more versatile global networks such as the Mexican DTOs. It is a hybrid of both local crime – with gangs vying for control off specific geographic space so they can extract payment for the safe passage of illicit products – and transnational groups that need to use that space to successfully move their products. These symbiotic relationships are both complex and generally transient in nature but growing more consolidated and dangerous.

In memory of a professor killed in Guatamala (El Salvador demonstration)

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

In memory of nuns murdered in El Salvador (El Salvador demonstration)

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

El Salvador demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

"Jobs not War" sign at an El Salvador demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

"Jobs not War" sign at an El Salvador demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

El Salvador demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Guía teórica-practica de la NIIF PYMES para Los estudiantes de la carrera de Licenciatura en Contaduría Pública de la Universidad de El Salvador, Facultad Multidisciplinaria de Occidente.

Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad versión completa -- ¿Quién creó las Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad versión completa? -- Adopción en El Salvador de las Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad versión completa -- Utilidad e importancia de la Norma Internacional de Información Financiera para pequeñas y medianas entidades -- Surgimiento de las pequeñas y medianas empresas.

Nueva plaga del Cafeto en El Salvador "El Grillo Haitiano del Cafeto"

En fecha reciente se ha observado, en una finca de café cerca de Santiago de María, una plaga del cafeto que es, sin duda alguna, nueva para El Salvador. No se tiene aún conocimiento de que haya aparecido en otras regiones cafetaleras de la República y de acuerdo con los caracteres de una plaga del cafeto estudiada en Haití por Charles H. Arndt y Herbert L. Dozier, la que se ha observado en Santiago de María es similar a la plaga que se descubrió en Haití en 1931. Esta plaga del cafeto encontrada en Santiago de María es causada por un grillo. Para evitar confusiones con otra plaga del cafeto investigada en El Salvador por la Dr. Vera Wellborn y denominada "El Grillo del Café" (Resolución del problema de la enfermedad, de la Antigua),también causada por otra clase de grillo, se ha optado por llamar la nueva plaga El Grillo Haitiano del Cafeto.

Las coordinadas geográficas de las poblaciones de El Salvador

La falta de mapas exactos de la República de El Salvador presentó un obstáculo considerable para las labores de investigación del Instituto Tropical. Para crear esta base necesaria, el Instituto imprimió los mapas planimétricos en escala de 1:40.000, levantados por Prieto y Parker, apoyados en una triangulación radial, y basados en las fotos aéreas (Army Map Service USA) del año 1949. La elaboración de estos mapas fué encargada por el Departamento del Censo (Ministerio de Economía). El trabajo todavía no está completamente terminado porque falta poner los nombres geográficos de la mayor parte de la República. Pero aún así, este mapa prestará suma utilidad porque representa el primer mapa exactamente elaborado de El Salvador. Es tarea grata para el Instituto Tropical expresar sus agradecimientos sinceros a la estrecha colaboración prestada por el señor director del Departamento del Censo, Coronel Jorge Tenorio, y por los señores ingenieros Prieto y Parker.

Nueve especies nuevas de reptiles y anfibios descubiertos en El Salvador

Durante la segunda mitad del año 1950 el autor tuvo la posibilidad de estudiar, como el investigador huésped del Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Científicas en El Salvador, los reptiles y anfibios de El Salvador. Su colección Herpetológica ha sido completa desde entonces, esencialmente, por las actividades del doctor Adolf también investigar huésped del mencionado Instituto durante el año 1951. Una obra bastante detenida acerca de todos los reptiles y anfibios coleccionados por nosotros en El Salvador; una fauna completa de los reptiles y anfibios Salvadoreños está siendo llevada casi a término. Aquí solo se trata de las nueve especies y subespecies nuevas de reptiles y anfibios Salvadoreños descubiertos, dando el autor sus definiciones exactas.

Sphingidae de El Salvador: (Resultado del viaje de exploración Dr. Adolf Zilch 1951 en El Salvador Nº2)

Entre los miles de lepidópteros coleccionados por el Dr. Adolf Zilch durante su estancia en El Salvador se hallaban 204 sphingidae de 33 especies donde no se anota diferentemente los animales proceden de San Salvador. Todos fueron coleccionados mediante captura por luz, por ofrecerse precisamente buena ocasión para aquel método en el Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Científicas de El Salvador. Los faroles colocados alrededor del Instituto atraían con su luz resplandeciente masas de insectos noche tras noche y el Dr. Zilch los coleccionaba cada tres o cuatro horas en la pared iluminada del edificio. En los anales del Instituto de Biología de 1942, Carlos especificó para México 154 especies de sphingidae.