The Use of the Military for Law Enforcement Activities in Central America

Faced with the violence, criminality and insecurity now threatening peace and democratic governance in Central America, the region’s governments have decided to use the Armed Forces to carry out actions in response to criminal actions, looking to improve their performance. Although public demand for including the Armed Forces in these functions takes place within a legally legitimate framework, it is motivated by tangible circumstances such as increased levels of violence, delinquency and crime. Despite being coupled with the perception of institutional weakness within the security and judicial system (particularly police) and the recognition of prestige, efficiency, discipline and severity in fulfilling the Armed Forces’ missions, these arguments are insufficient to legitimize the use of the military as a police force. Within this context, this paper reflects on the implications or consequences of the use of the Armed Forces in duties traditionally assigned to the police in the Central American region with the goal of contributing to the debate on this topic taking place in the Americas. To achieve this end, first we will focus on understanding the actual context in which a decision is made to involve the Armed Forces in security duties in the region. Second, we will examine the effects and implications of this decision on the Armed Forces’ relations within their respective societies. Third and finally, considering this is already a reality in the region, this paper will provide recommendations. The main findings of this research, resulting from the application of an analyticaldescriptive and historically based study, are organized in three dimensions: the political dimension, by implication referring to the relationship between the ultimate political authority and the Armed Forces; the social dimension, by implication the opinion of citizens; and other implications not only affecting the structural and cultural organization of armies and police but also the complementary operational framework within a context of comprehensive response by the State. As a main conclusion, it poses there is an environment conducive to the use of the Armed Forces in citizen’s security, in view of the impact of threats provoked by criminal structures of a military nature currently operating in Central America. However, this participation creates an inevitable social and political impact if implemented in isolation or given a political leading role and/or operational autonomy. This participation poses risks to the institutions of the Armed Forces and the police as well. Finally, this paper identifies an urgent need for the Armed Forces’ role to be more clearly defined with regard to security matters, limiting it to threats that impact States’ governability and existence. Nonetheless, Central American States should seek a COMPREHENSIVE response to current crime and violence, using all necessary institutions to confront these challenges, but with defined roles and responsibilities for each and dynamic coordination to complement their actions.

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.

Beyond the Pay: Current Illicit Activities of the Armed Forces in Central America

The growth of criminal gangs and organized crime groups has created unprecedented challenges in Central America. Homicide rates are among the highest in the world, countries spend on average close to 10 percent of GDP to respond to the challenges of public insecurity, and the security forces are frequently overwhelmed and at times coopted by the criminal groups they are increasingly tasked to counter. With some 90 percent of the 700 metric tons of cocaine trafficked from South America to the United States passing through Central America, the lure of aiding illegal traffickers through provision of arms, intelligence, or simply withholding or delaying the use of force is enormous. These conditions raise the question: to what extent are militaries in Central America compromised by illicit ties to criminal groups? The study focuses on three cases: Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. It finds that: Although illicit ties between the military and criminal groups have grown in the last decade, militaries in these countries are not yet “lost’ to criminal groups. Supplying criminal groups with light arms from military stocks is typical and on the rise, but still not common. In general the less exposed services, the navies and air forces, are the most reliable and effective ones in their roles in interdiction. Of the three countries in the study, the Honduran military is the most worrying because it is embedded in a context where civilian corruption is extremely common, state institutions are notoriously weak, and the political system remains polarized and lacks the popular legitimacy and political will needed to make necessary reforms. Overall, the armed forces in the three countries remain less compromised than civilian peers, particularly the police. However, in the worsening crime and insecurity context, there is a limited window of opportunity in which to introduce measures targeted toward the military, and such efforts can only succeed if opportunities for corruption in other sectors of the state, in particular in law enforcement and the justice system, are also addressed. Measures targeted toward the military should include: Enhanced material benefits and professional education opportunities that open doors for soldiers in promising legitimate careers once they leave military service. A clear system of rewards and punishments specifically designed to deter collusion with criminal groups. More effective securing of military arsenals. Skills and external oversight leveraged through combined operations, to build cooperation among those sectors of the military that have successful and clean records in countering criminal groups, and to expose weaker forces to effective best practices.

Out of Challenge, Opportunity: Central America's Electric Sector & Key Issues and Recommendations for Enhanced Regional Electric Integration

Taken together, the six nations of Central America count a population of roughly 40 million people and an energy market equal in size to that of Colombia, sufficient to benefit from economies of scale. The region has traditionally been a net importer of hydrocarbons, and hydroelectricity has dominated electric generation. But more recently, thermoelectric generation (diesel and fuel oil) has greatly increased as a percentage of the regional generation market. Progress has been made across the region’s electric sector, beginning with reforms in the 1990s and the 1996 signing of a regional treaty aimed at the development of a regional energy integration project – the Central American Electrical Interconnection System, or SIEPAC. A fundamental SIEPAC goal is to set up a regional electric market and a regulatory system. Indeed, after many years of development, SIEPAC is poised to open a new chapter in Central America’s electric infrastructure and market. But this new era must contend with critical issues such as the need to consolidate the regional electric market, political issues surrounding the venture, and security concerns. Moreover, local conflicts, in different degrees, have become priorities for policymakers, and these are possible barriers to completing the project. The goals of the SIEPAC project and of deepening the broader electric integration process are possible if national and regional decision makers understand that cooperative decision making will produce better results than separate national decision making. Enhanced regional understanding and cooperative decision making, combined with an effort to reorient the terminology and dialogue vis-à-vis energy efficiency in Central America, form the core recommendations of this paper.

Gravity collapse structures in the Central Precordillera fold-andthrust belt, Argentina

Several landforms found in the fold-and-thrust belt area of Central Precordillera, Pre-Andes of Argentina, which were often associated with tectonic efforts, are in fact related to non-tectonic processes or gravitational superficial structures. These second-order structures, interpreted as gravitational collapse structures, have developed in the western flank of sierras de La Dehesa and Talacasto. These include rock-slides, rock falls, wrinkle folds, slip sheets and flaps, among others; which together constitute a monoclinal fold dipping between 30º and 60º to the west. Gravity collapse structures are parallel to the regional strike of the Sierra de la Dehesa and are placed in Ordovician limestones and dolomites. Their sloping towards the west, the presence of bed planes, fractures and joints; and the lithology (limestone interbedded with incompetent argillaceous banks) would have favored their occurrence. Movement of the detached structures has been controlled by lithology characteristics, as well as by bedding and joints. Detachment and initial transport of gravity collapse structures and rockslides in the western flank of the Sierra de la Dehesa were tightly controlled by three structural elements: 1) sliding surfaces developed on parallel bedded strata when dipping >30° in the slope direction; 2) Joint’s sets constitute lateral and transverse traction cracks which release extensional stresses and 3) Discontinuities fragmenting sliding surfaces.  Some other factors that could be characterized as local (lithology, structure and topography) and as regional (high seismic activity and possibly wetter conditions during the postglacial period) were determining in favoring the steady loss of the western mountain side in the easternmost foothills of Central Precordillera.

Production and presence in the countries of Central America in Scopus on the theme of Documentation in Social Communication (1986-2013)

Describes and analyzes the results obtained after analysis of the publications present in Scopus data base and used that tool rankings generated by the research group Scimago on the production of the different countries of Central America on the issue of documentation the means of mass communication. Performed a comparative about different countries in the region and the scientific analyzes. Finally, and given and data analysis, a number of recommendations are made to improve the production and the presence in indexed database.

“Never Give up:” The Strengths and Strategies Used Among Undocumented College Students From Central America to Access and Persist in U.S. Higher Education

The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths and strategies that undocumented college students from Central America used to access and persist in United States higher education. A multiple-case study design was used to conduct in-depth, semi-structured interviews and document collection from ten persons residing in Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. Yosso’s (2005, 2006) community cultural wealth conceptual framework, an analytical and methodological tool, was used to uncover assets used to navigate the higher education system. The findings revealed that participants activated all forms of capital, with cultural capital being the least activated yet necessary, to access and persist in college. Participants also activated most forms of capital together or consecutively in order to attain financial resources, information and social networks that facilitated college access. Participants successfully persisted because they continued to activate forms of capital, displayed a high sense of agency, and managed to sustain college educational goals despite challenges and other external factors. The relationships among forms of capital and federal, state, and institutional policy contexts, which positively influenced both college access and persistence were not illustrated in Yosso’s (2005, 2006) community cultural wealth framework. Therefore, this study presents a modified community cultural wealth framework, which includes these intersections and contexts. In the spirit of Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) and critical race theory (CRT), the participants share with other undocumented students suggestions on how to succeed in college. This study can contribute to the growing research of undocumented college students, and develop higher education policy and practice that intentionally consider undocumented college students’ strengths to successfully navigate the institution.

Eficacia del programa "Por mi salud bucal y la de mi futuro bebé" en la higiene oral de gestantes que acuden a un centro de salud materno infantil de la provincia de Chiclayo, 2015

Tesis de pregrado

Programa Opinión Universitaria (9 mayo 2016) : Investigaciones realizadas por el Centro de Investigaciones y Desarrollo en Salud, CENSALUD.

El investigador y director de CENSALUD Saúl Díaz, las investigadoras Amy Morán y Karla Castillo hablan de las investigaciones realizadas por el Centro de Investigaciones y Desarrollo en Salud, CENSALUD, sobre la enfermedad del Chagas y la inocuidad en los alimentos.

Re-evaluation of central America drug market where to start?

Atral is a Portuguese Pharmaceutical firm devoted to the production of finished drugs. Due to domestic market hurdles, Atral is now, more than ever, focused in the world. The Central America region seams alluring due to its context alignment with firm’s resources bundle. As Atral should approach one regional country at a time, the purpose of this thesis is to find out the most suitable country to approach now. Hence a tailored scoring model was applied, based on contexts analysis and importance of benchmarking indicators to both firm and industry. Upon analysis of the highest scored country, the most appropriate entry modes were assessed.

Diseño de un programa de higiene y seguridad ocupacional para la pequeña empresa panificadora del municipio de San Salvador: caso ilustrativo.

Los Programas de Higiene y Seguridad Ocupacional tienen un propósito único, que es desarrollar las actividades sin tener accidentes, daños o riesgos ocupacionales; tomando en cuenta la rápida expansión y cambios que sufre la tecnología actualmente, no sólo podríamos eliminar la tragedia humana y la muerte, sino que también la desmotivación que sufren los trabajadores. Como grupo de trabajo, inspirados por las necesidades existentes, se decidió realizar un Programa de Higiene y Seguridad Ocupacional para las pequeñas empresas dedicadas a la panificación en el Municipio de San Salvador, Departamento de San Salvador; utilizando como caso ilustrativo la Panificadora Única, identificando como objetivo central la necesidad de conocer la situación actual del sector pequeñas empresas panificadoras, para determinar las causas y consecuencias que inciden en los accidentes y enfermedades de trabajo, así mismo los resultados de la investigación sirvieron de base para la propuesta del Programa de higiene y seguridad. Por tanto, Panificadora Única, no es la excepción; en efecto existen panaderías en las cuales es notoria la ausencia de una efectiva administración de los elementos relacionados con la vida, salud y la integridad física de los trabajadores. Como parte de la metodología, se realizó encuestas dirigidas al sector pequeñas empresas panificadoras y a los empleados de Panificadora única, cuya herramienta fue el cuestionario, complementado con entrevistas personales a los encargados de la dirección dentro del caso ilustrativo, permitiendo con ello el conocimiento y evaluación de la problemática existente en Panificadora Única. Con base al diagnóstico realizado, se concluye que los trabajadores y empresarios del sector panificador no tienen idea de la importancia de mantener un buen ambiente de trabajo libre de riesgos y enfermedades, por lo cual la recomendación derivada, es diseñar un Programa de Higiene y Seguridad Ocupacional, con el fin de contribuir al fortalecimiento del sector, logrando con ello la realización de un mejor esfuerzo organizacional en la conservación y defensa de la vida y la salud de los trabajadores que laboran bajo la influencia de riesgos potenciales.

Diseño de un programa de seguridad e higiene ocupacional para la mediana empresa del sector construcción de viviendas en el municipio de Santa Tecla, departamento de La Libertad. (caso ilustrativo).

Los Programas de Seguridad y Higiene Ocupacional tienen un propósito único, que es desarrollar las actividades sin tener accidentes, daños o riesgos ocupacionales; tomando en cuenta la rápida expansión y cambios que sufre la tecnología actualmente, no sólo se podría eliminar la tragedia humana y la muerte, con estos programas; sino que también la desmotivación que sufren los trabajadores. Como grupo de trabajo, nos inspiró las necesidades existentes, por lo que se decidió realizar un Programa de Seguridad e Higiene Ocupacional para las medianas empresas dedicadas a la construcción de viviendas en el Municipio de Santa Tecla, Departamento de La Libertad; utilizando para ello como caso ilustrativo a la constructora Pastore Orantes y Asociados ( POASA de C.V.), identificando como objetivo central la necesidad de conocer la situación actual del sector construcción, para determinar las causas y consecuencias que inciden en los accidentes y enfermedades de trabajo, así mismo; los resultados de la investigación sirvieron de base para la propuesta del Programa de Seguridad y Higiene Ocupacional. Por tanto, POASA de C.V.; no es la excepción, ya que existen empresas constructoras en las cuales es notoria la ausencia de una efectiva administración de los elementos relacionados con la vida, salud y la integridad física de los trabajadores. Como parte de la metodología, se realizó encuestas dirigidas al sector de las medianas empresas dedicadas a la construcción de viviendas y a los empleados de Pastore Orantes y Asociados, cuya herramienta fue el cuestionario, complementado con entrevistas personales a los encargados de la dirección dentro del sector y además del caso ilustrativo, permitiendo con ello el conocimiento y evaluación de la problemática existente en el mismo y también en POASA de C.V. Con base al diagnóstico realizado, se concluye que los trabajadores y empresarios del sector contracción no tienen idea de la importancia de mantener un buen ambiente de trabajo libre de riesgos y enfermedades, por lo cual la recomendación derivada, es diseñar un Programa de Seguridad e Higiene Ocupacional, con el fin de contribuir al fortalecimiento del sector, logrando con ello la realización de un mejor esfuerzo organizacional en la conservación y defensa de la vida y la salud de los trabajadores que laboran bajo la influencia de riesgos potenciales.