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south america
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271 total results foundAuthor: Ramos, Alejandro Title: Illegal Trade in Tobacco in MERCOSUR Countries Summary: This study examines the background to the illicit trade in tobacco in each of the four MERCOSUR countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) based on primary sources, such as interviews with law enforcement agents and customs agencies and, where possible, with participants and former participants in the illicit trade, and through secondary sources of information including journalistic, legal and institutional report. Details: Montevideo, Uruguay: ciet Uruguay (Centro de Investigacion de la epidemia de tabaquismo), 2009. 73p. Source: Internet Resource; Working Paper Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Illegal Tobacco Shelf Number: 118540 |
Author: Cafferata, Fernando Gabriel Title: Privatisation of Security in Latin America: Review Summary: The privatisation of security in Latin America has recently gained the attention of scholars, politicians and policymakers alike. Until a few years ago, this issue had not been studied in depth, and therefore little time-series statistics or systematic historical data exist. Nevertheless, as insecurity has been growing exponentially in the region, the privatisation of security has captured the public’s attention. The state’s inability to address rising crime rates and the increasing concerns of citizens generate a growing demand for the services provided by private security companies (PSCs). Most of the literature on the subject revolves around a series of common issues that are the main theoretical and empirical findings of this document. Only eight documents examine the privatisation of security in Latin America. Of these, the first complete, in-depth analysis – and the most accurate so far – was produced in 2009 by FLACSO-Chile’s Citizen Security Program. Most of the other documents were produced at the initiative of the Organization of American States (OAS). Between them, these two organisations have produced more than 60% of the regional documents and more than 75% of the country-specific documents on PSCs. From the survey of the literature presented here, we identified eight “further research” areas. Of these, accurate parameter estimation regarding the number of PSCs, private security agents and weapon possession by PSCs is the most vital area of research to start with as well as the most difficult one in which to gain traction. Details: Santiago, Chile: Global Consortium on Security Transformation, 2010. 29p. Source: Internet Resource; GCST Working Paper Series, no. 3 Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Crime Prevention (Latin America) Shelf Number: 119457 |
Author: Aguiar, Jose Carlos Title: Stretching the Border: Smuggling Practices and the Control of Illegality in South America Summary: The Tri-Border Region in South America spreads across the frontiers of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. It encompasses a trans-border urban conglomerate of about 600 thousands inhabitants in the three countries. Through the years, it has been a frontera porosa (porous border) where trafficking boomed after Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner declared Ciudad del Este a free-trade zone in the 1960s. The city soon became a shopping paradise for counterfeit cigarettes and spirits. Yet, since the 2000s there are signs of some reordering in the region. In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States government encouraged national states to control the flows of people and goods at the region. Allegedly, illegal activities are headed by international networks, which would finance religious extremism around the globe. The governments have accordingly launched a number of plans to improve surveillance, such as the Integrated System of Migration Registration (SICaM in Spanish) in Argentina in 2005 and the 'sacoleiro law' in 2009, an attempt to regulate smuggling in Brazil. Paraguay has also embarked in 2009 in the renewal of the customs office at the international bridge. These policies reveal programmes of increasing state intervention to halt trafficking in electronics, drugs, weapons and humans, and any kind of undocumented border crossing. This article poses the concept border synergy to capture the mobility of goods and values across boundaries, which entails a double connotation, that of the border as the national limit between countries, but also the one defining legal and illegal domains. This argument is based on ethnographic material gathered at the Tri-Border Region during a period of three years. Participant observations, interviews and visual recording were among the research techniques applied. The informants include local entrepreneurs and sellers, social workers, religious leaders, municipal and federal authorities, and smugglers. Polyphony guarantees here a dense ethnographic description. The results presented give evidence from an anthropological perspective on the trans-border smuggling across the national frontiers of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and the extent economic agents manipulate borders in region. The policies implemented to 'regulate' smuggling and halt illegal practices at the Tri-Border Region raise relevant questions regarding the study of border cities, transnational trade and illegality. Details: Santiago, Chile: Global Consortium on Security Transformation, 2010. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: New Voices Series, No. 6: Accessed November 2, 2010 at: http://www.securitytransformation.org/images/publicaciones/181_New_Voices_Series_6_-_Stretching_the_Border_-_Smuggling_Practices_and_the_Control_of_Illegality_in_South_America.pdf Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Border Security Shelf Number: 120164 |
Author: Karp, Aaron Title: Surplus Arms in South America: A Survey Summary: The data in this report is derived from country submissions when possible, and estimates when necessary. Estimates are extrapolated from each country’s identified procurement, highest modern personnel totals, and strategic doctrine. Except where noted, the military small arms and light weapons data presented here is not official, comprehensive, or conclusive; it is for general evaluation and comparison only. The complete methodology used here is described in Chapter 2 of the Small Arms Survey 2006. Small arms are state-owned handguns, submachine guns, rifles, shotguns, and light and medium machine guns. Firearms are civilian-owned handguns, submachine guns, rifles, and shotguns. Long at the forefront of international small arms issues, public debate and activism in South America have largely focused on matters surrounding civilian firearms, estimated here to total between 21.7 and 26.8 million. The reasons for this civilian preoccupation are principally linked to chronic gun violence. South America has 14 per cent of the global population, and roughly 3.5 to 4 per cent of the world’s civilian firearms, but it suffers from roughly 40 per cent of all homicides committed with firearms. Military small arms are rarely part of public debate, largely because of a strong culture of national security secrecy in South America. But military small arms policy has attracted much closer scrutiny in recent years, especially as military small arms and light weapons are diverted to criminals and guerrillas, fuelling insurgencies and civil violence. This report focuses primarily on issues surrounding surplus military small arms and light weapons in the region. Law enforcement and civilian firearms inventories and issues are recognized here as well, to ensure a balanced overall perspective. The region’s military establishments do not have a strong record of identifying or eliminating their surplus small arms, light weapons, or ammunition. South America holds some of the world’s largest military small arms and light weapons surpluses. Military inventories are not exceptionally large in absolute terms, but they are a major element in global surplus problems. Among the 12 independent countries of South America, there are an estimated 3.6 million military small arms as of 2007, 1.5 per cent of the global total. Of these, approximately 1.3 million, more than one-third, are surplus. Summary recommendations include: • The formal small arms and light weapons requirements of South American active-duty forces should be available to national civilian leaders and the public. • Inventories of military small arms and light weapons, including obsolescent small arms, and ammunition should be made publicly available. • Reserve forces should be kept at the lowest levels possible to avoid exaggerating military small arms and light weapons requirements. • Excess military small arms, light weapons, and ammunition should be destroyed under civilian supervision and public scrutiny. • Countries where surplus military small arms destruction is a special priority include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guyana, Paraguay, and Peru. • Older-generation man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS) should be destroyed. Storage of newer MANPADS should be made highly secure and accountable. • Countries where MANPADS destruction is a special priority include Argentina, Ecuador, and Peru. Details: Geneva: Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, 2009. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 7: Accessed February 8, 2011 at: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/F-Working-papers/SAS-WP7-Surplus-Arms-in-South-America.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Gun Control Shelf Number: 120719 |
Author: Amin, Mohammad Title: Crime, Security, and Firms in Latin America Summary: Existing studies show that crime is more rampant in the larger cities and that wealthier individuals are more often targeted. Using Enterprise Surveys data for 14 Latin American countries, we find that one- third of the firms surveyed suffer from one or more incident of crime annually, which is roughly similar to the percentage of households affected. Crime-related losses average 2.7 percent of annual sales for all firms in the sample, which is more than the reported amount of bribery, losses due to power outages, and firms’ expenditure on research and development. We also find that the relatively well-off large firms are more likely to be victims of crime than the small firms, but losses due to crime as a percentage of annual sales are bigger for small firms. In short, crime in the region is regressive. Last, larger cities are more prone to crime than the smaller cities. However, we find that what matters for crime is the relative size of a city within a country; its absolute size is irrelevant. Details: Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009. 4p. Source: Internet Resource: Enterprise Note Series No. 2: Accessed April 6, 2011 at: http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/Documents/EnterpriseNotes/Note2.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Commercial Crimes Shelf Number: 121253 |
Author: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy Title: Cocaine Smuggling in 2009 Summary: This report presents statistics and information on cocaine smuggling in 2009. For the second year in a row, the amount of cocaine departing South America continued to decrease. Nonetheless, drug trafficking organizations continued to move large quantities of cocaine. Data from the US Government interagency Consolidated Counterdrug Database that documents the movement of cocaine suggest a 12-20 percent decrease in the amount departing South America toward the US in 2009. However, production-based flow estimates, which calculate the amount of cocaine available to depart South America, showed a more modest 3 percent decrease. Estimates of potential cocaine production in the Andean region, expressed in metric tons, showed a significant decrease of 14.5 percent in 2008—the most recent year for which data was available. Furthermore, the purity of bulk cocaine shipments dropped to a record low of 76 percent, indicating extensive use of cutting agents to bulk up the cocaine in South America prior to departure and mitigating the impact of the decreased production on the gross volume of product available for export. Details: Washington, DC: Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2010. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 22, 2011 at: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/pdf/Cocaine_Smuggling_in_2009.pdf Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 122147 |
Author: Dominguez, Manuel J. Title: The Institutionalization of Drug Trafficking Organizations: Comparing Colombia and Brazil Summary: Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) have emerged as important informal institutions in Latin America. This thesis looks at: 1) the emergence of DTOs within Colombia and Brazil, 2) how DTOs meet the criteria for being informal institutions, and 3) what sustains DTOs. In both cases, drug trafficking was shaped by expansions and shifts of drug production within the Andean region from the 1960s onward. DTOs in Colombia emerged in the mid-1960s and 1970s while DTOs in Brazil took root with the introduciton of the drug trade in the region in the late 1970s to early 1980s. DTOs in Colombia and Brazil qualify as informal institutions based on structural composition, stability, behavioral control, and social cohesion. Sustainability in the Colombian case study is attributed to the DTOs’ capacity to learn and adapt to U.S. and Colombian efforts while capitalizing on policy failures. Sustainability in the Brazilian case study is attributed to the DTOs’ capacity to become entrenched in favela (poor urban) zones. Analysis of the case studies reveals divergent paths and characteristics of DTOs. In particular, internal warfare coupled with an emphasis on illicit drug production in Colombia has led DTOs to focus on the control of rural land. In Brazil, meanwhile, the absence of internal conflict an the emphasis on illicit distribution (retail) in Brazil has resulted in the DTOs focusing on controlling points of sale and internal, informal governance within the favela zones. Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2010. 101p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed September 19, 2011 at: http://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=15886 Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Trafficking (Colombia, Brazil) Shelf Number: 122776 |
Author: Withers, George Title: Preach What You Practice: The Separation of Military and Police Roles in the Americas Summary: American citizens enjoy a legal concept that many nations do not. Domestically, the United States has a clear separation between the uses of its military and the uses of its law enforcement agencies. U.S. law generally restricts the military from use against its citizens. While this separation does not guide U.S. operations in battleground environments like Iraq and Afghanistan, it remains very strong at home. In Latin America, where democracies have struggled mightily to exert civilian control over their armed forces, the reality is different. Most nations lack a similar principle of clear military-police separation. The region’s circumstances hardly ever require armies to defend citizens from foreign invaders, but leaders often call upon them to defend some citizens – or the state – from other citizens. Today, many governments are calling on militaries to enforce laws and to combat domestic crime. Choices made in Washington can have a strong impact on this. The U.S. government is by far the largest provider of military and police aid to Latin America and the Caribbean. Arms and equipment transfers, training, exercises, presence at bases, and military-to-military engagement programs send strong messages about military and police roles. So do diplomatic interactions with the region. Instead of exporting the principle to which the United States adheres, though, these efforts often do just the opposite: encourage Latin American governments to use their militaries against their own people. This is a longstanding tendency in U.S. policy toward Latin America, though it rarely gets framed in terms of the United States’ much different domestic model. That is what this report will do. The following pages highlight U.S. practices that encourage Latin America’s armed forces to take on internal security roles that the U.S. military cannot legally play at home. They go on to point the way toward policy changes to end these practices. Section I reviews the U.S. experience with Posse Comitatus, an 1878 law that became a cornerstone of U.S. democratic stability by making U.S. citizens’ interactions with on-duty soldiers very rare, and causing the institutional character of the country’s defense and law-enforcement forces to diverge dramatically. Section II looks at Latin America’s far different history of civil-military relations, with a focus on the military’s use against citizens internally, in a climate of few external security threats. Section III lays out the United States’ persistent, century-long tendency to help the region’s militaries take on internal security roles; this tendency, it argues, continues with today’s “wars” on drugs, terrorism, and organized crime. Finally, Section IV offers recommendations for Latin American governments seeking to protect their populations while at the same time consolidating their democracies; for the executive and legislative-branch architects of U.S. policy toward Latin America; and for the United States at home, as it seeks to secure its citizens and borders against 21st century threats. These recommendations can be summarized simply. Militaries should not be used for internal security and law-enforcement roles, and the United States should not encourage such use, either at home or abroad. While exceptions may exist under extraordinary circumstances – and then, only with several safeguards and institutional reforms in place – the Posse Comitatus model works, and should guide future U.S. security interaction with Latin America. Details: Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, 2010. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2011 at: http://justf.org/files/pubs/1011pwyp.pdf Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Law Enforcement Shelf Number: 122902 |
Author: Washington Office on Latin America Title: Tackling Urban Violence in Latin America: Reversing Exclusion through Smart Policing and Social Investment Summary: The report discusses the relative effectiveness of strategies to reduce violence in four different Latin American cities: Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Medellín in Colombia, Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, and Santa Tecla in El Salvador. The four cities are attempting to improve citizen security by combining smart policing strategies and social investment in marginalized communities most affected by crime. In Rio de Janeiro, the government sent a new community police force into favelas long dominated by criminal gangs, and then began to bring in city services. These are new efforts, in a few targeted areas. While there are some complaints about police behavior, many residents report a sense of hope about the future. Time will tell whether government investment will be sustained enough to reduce crime in the long term. In Medellín, an ambitious effort by municipal authorities to increase policing and invest in marginalized hillside communities took place during a lull in the violent competition between criminal gangs. Dramatic reductions in crime were seen for several years. Competition between drug-trafficking groups then reignited, and violence levels have crept back up, but city efforts appear to have kept the violence from returning to earlier levels. In Ciudad Juárez, the government turned to social investment when police and military intervention failed to reduce alarming levels of violence. Social programs are just beginning, and implementation has been troubled and lacks cohesion. But authorities and community groups agree that this is the direction to pursue, only with more resources and better leadership. In Santa Tecla, a multi-year effort led by the city’s mayor has developed community councils and local violence prevention programs. Homicide levels, while still high, have dropped below those of neighboring communities. Among its findings, the report highlights: •The mano dura (iron fist) anti-crime approaches that have been employed by many governments in the region don’t work. Sending police or security forces into communities that have little or no state presence and have long been plagued by violence can often make the situation worse. This is particularly true when officers act with impunity. •Policymakers must take into account that social, political and economic exclusion are the context in which crime and violence take root. Therefore, comprehensive approaches that give attention to “reversing exclusion” by bringing in social services as well as law enforcement are in order. •Citizens whose daily lives are most affected by violence must be involved in designing and implementing solutions for their communities. This means that coordination between government agencies, community groups, service providers and residents is key to developing long-term plans that will achieve a lasting reduction in violence and improvement in residents’ livelihoods. Details: Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, 2011. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 29, 2011 at: http://www.wola.org/publications/tackling_urban_violence_in_latin_america_reversing_exclusion_through_smart_policing_and Year: 2011 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 122937 |
Author: Gutierrez Sanin, Francisco Title: Stupid and Expensive? A critique of the costs-of-violence literature Summary: This paper considers the impact of war and violence from a perspective of economic development. The author highlights conceptual issues that have often been disregarded in the costs-of-violence literature and outlines distinctions between bullionist, deadweight and distributive approaches. The paper examines key trends emerging from the existing literature and considers Colombia and Peru as case studies. The author concludes that a more careful approach to the data when assessing the costs of war could assist in understanding how and why war may on occasion lead to patterns of increased growth and welfare and how this could better inform policy interventions. Details: London: Crisis States Research Center, 2009. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Crisis States Working Papers Series No. 2, No. 48: Accessed November 9, 2011 at: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/crisisStates/download/wp/wpSeries2/WP482.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Costs of Crime Shelf Number: 123273 |
Author: Roque, Silvia Title: Youth and Urban Violence in San Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Praia Summary: Overall, despite the differences between Rio de Janeiro, San Salvador and Praia in terms of the incidence of youth violence, historical approaches and experience in dealing with the issue, Brazil, El Salvador and Cape Verde have all favoured an enforcement-based approach, focusing primarily on repression and law-enforcement mechanisms (police action, specific youth violence legislation, and prosecution, prison and socio-educational systems), instead of interventions aimed at the root causes of violent behaviour. However, recent changes in federal government approaches to public security in Brazil, coupled with state level changes, suggest the materialisation of a discourse shift in the field of youth violence, which has been in the making since the late 1990s. Another common feature in these countries is the incomplete availability of qualified information systems on violence and violent criminality, especially on organised crime and female involvement in urban violence. Civil society actions to prevent and combat urban violence are very diverse. In Brazil, especially Rio de Janeiro, NGOs, associations and grassroots organisations have a fairly long track record when dealing with the issue of youth violence, promoting initiatives and programmes mostly aimed at youth violence prevention, especially at the primary level. These initiatives and programmes have been based on skills training, sports, culture, empowerment and, to lesser extent, professional training and labour market integration. In San Salvador, despite the severity of youth violence, civil society approaches are less diversified and effective. Like any other violence-afflicted country in Central America, violence prevention and especially intervention programmes, namely those aimed at the perpetrators of violence, face greater disadvantages and less funding and support from the region’s crime-weary population. In Praia, the involvement of civil society in this matter has been slow. However, in recent years, the experiences of civil society organisations, sometimes in partnership with public institutions, have been singled out as good examples and as having had some direct impact on youth involved in violence in the Cidade da Praia. Responding to and effectively preventing youth urban violence requires a comprehensive approach which takes into account the intra-social forms of violence committed by and against youth, as well as the structural conditions which determine the marginalisation of youth. This includes prevention programmes which help young people in vulnerable situations, intervention programmes which offer alternatives for those attracted to violence, rehabilitation prospects for those who wish to leave violent groups, and those leaving prison and socioeducational systems. Capable and accountable law-enforcement bodies, protection and support mechanisms for victims of violence, adequate arms control policies, up-to-date data collection and analysis systems on youth and violence, and whole-of-government and multi-disciplinary approaches to violence are also key. Details: Brussels: Peace Studies Group, Initiative for Peacebuilding, 2012. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 9, 2012 at: http://www.ifp-ew.eu/pdf/201202IfPEWYouthViolenceRioSanPra.pdf Year: 2012 Country: South America Keywords: Gangs Shelf Number: 125228 |
Author: Bagrosky, Michael Patrick Title: The Triple Border Area: A Re-Conceptualization of the Problem and U.S. Policy Summary: The Triple Border Area (TBA) between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is major hub for international crime that generates billions of dollars annually and is the most important center for financing Islamic terrorism outside the Middle East. The primary criminal activities in the TBA are smuggling and money laundering. The proprietors of these illicit acts include local opportunists, multinational criminal organizations and Middle Eastern terrorist fundraisers. The first argument of this thesis is that the current concept, or view, of the TBA has been too fragmented. There are several different models and theories that address parts of this phenomenon, however, there is no single model that describes how the TBA works and no complete theory that attempts to explain the existence of this phenomenon. The second argument of this thesis is that the U.S.'s policy has been too narrow and the result of this narrowness has contributed to the perpetuation of crime in the TBA. To resolve this problem there needs to be a re-conceptualization of the TBA and U.S. policy. Details: Washington, DC: Georgetown University, 2009. 185p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed July 24, 2012 at: https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/553250 Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Money Laundering Shelf Number: 125748 |
Author: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Counternarcotics Assistance: U.S. Agencies Have Allotted Billions in Andean Countries, but DOD Should Improve Its Reporting of Results Summary: Hundreds of metric tons of cocaine flow annually from South America to the United States, threatening the security and well-being of U.S. citizens. South American cocaine production and trafficking is centered in the five countries in the Andean region. State, USAID, DOD, and DEA provide counternarcotics assistance to stem production and trafficking of narcotics in these countries. ONDCP oversees and coordinates this assistance. In this report, GAO (1) describes the U.S. strategic approaches to counter- narcotics assistance in the Andean countries; (2) identifies amounts allotted for such assistance by State, USAID, DOD, and DEA in fiscal years 2006 through 2011; and (3) reviews the agencies’ reporting on their performance. GAO reviewed agency and U.S. strategy documents, analyzed available agency data, and interviewed agency officials. What GAO Recommends -- The Secretary of Defense should ensure that DOD submits performance summary reports to ONDCP including the Inspector General’s attestation that the reported information is reliable to facilitate good management and oversight. DOD concurred with this recommendation. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2012. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-12-824: Accessed August 13, 2012 at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592241.pdf Year: 2012 Country: South America Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 126009 |
Author: Finlay, Brian Title: Beyond Boundaries in the Andean Region: Bridging the Security/Development Divide With International Security Assistance Summary: As a direct result of globalization and expanded economic opportunity, the last half century has yielded the most remarkable exodus from poverty in human history. Yet despite this remarkable improvement in the human condition, not everyone has benefitted equally. While much advancement has been witnessed across the Andean region-Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru-these countries continue to face significant security and development threats that threaten the foundations of progress, including the intersecting challenges of lack of public health capacity, illicit trafficking in arms and drugs, and terrorism. Details: Washington, DC: The Stimson Center and The Stanley Foundation, 2012. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 21, 2012 at: Beyond Boundaries in the Andean Region: Bridging the Security/Development Divide With International Security Assistance Year: 2012 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 126391 |
Author: Wilson, David A. Title: Violent Crime: A Comparative Study of Honduras and Nicaragua Summary: This thesis explains variation between contemporary Honduras and Nicaragua in terms of their levels of violent crime. The thesis is driven by an empirical observation: Nicaragua, a country that shares a border with Honduras and where the U.S.-backed Contras waged a civil war against the Sandinista government during much of the 1980s, is considerably less violent than Honduras, which did not undergo civil war. This variation conflicts with expectations in studies of security in Central America that countries that have experienced civil war will, during the post-conflict period, experience higher rates of violent crime than countries that have not. In contrast, this thesis argues that in Nicaragua it was precisely the conclusion of the civil war that drew attention from domestic and international actors who implemented changes that resulted in the demilitarization of internal security, the reduction of weapons in society, and the emergence of social movements that gave ex-combatants voice through non-violent means. Honduras, which did not experience civil war and a subsequent peace process, has seen the circulation of large amounts of weaponry and ongoing military participation in internal security, which has meant human rights abuses and low social capital. Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2009. 93p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 13, 2013 at: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=703242 Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Civil Wars Shelf Number: 128723 |
Author: Insulza, Jose Miguel Title: The Drug Problem in the Americas Summary: The Heads of State and Government of the Americas, gathered at the Sixth Summit in Cartagena, Colombia, entrusted the OAS with the task of preparing a study on the drug problem in the Americas. In keeping with the wishes of the dignitaries, that study will examine the results of current policy in the Hemisphere and explore new approaches for responding more effectively to the problem. Under the leadership of OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, this study aims to carry out a comprehensive analysis of policies applied in the Americas, and, based on the evidence found, highlight the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges in the implementation of those policies. The findings of the study will provide the basis for a scenario analysis with a view to examining new approaches. The Secretary General is coordinating with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the CAF (Development Bank of Latin America), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The CICAD Executive Secretariat is providing technical and administrative support for the study. Two tracks The study consists of two separate, but interconnected reports: An analytical report will survey the current drug policy landscape by drawing on existing expertise (governments, civil society, academia or think tanks) and synthesizing lessons learned and a spectrum of policy options. A scenarios report aims to map out potential outcomes of several sets of policy options when exposed to a broad discussion of stakeholders in the drug problem in the Americas The technical secretariat will compile and analyze the information for the study, which will be divided into the following chapters consistent with the different areas of the problem targeted by the study: a.The relationship between drugs and public health; b.The relationship between drugs and economic and social development; c.The security challenges as reflected in the nexus between drugs, violence and organized crime; d.Production and supply of plant-based and synthetic drugs, pharmaceuticals, and chemical precursors; and e.The alternative legal and regulatory approaches to the drug problem. Each chapter will provide baseline analysis of the current state of play in the region, examine best practices and promising new approaches being pursued by different countries, with the point of departure being the Hemispheric Drug Strategy, and outline challenges and obstacles to improved results. Based on the findings of the Analytical Report, an exercise will be undertaken to identify diverse approaches to the problem. To that end, potential scenarios will be developed, capable of providing the Heads of State and Government of the Americas with courses of action for tackling the drug problem. Details: Washington, DC: Organization of American States, General Secretariat, 2013. 110p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2013 at: http://www.oas.org/documents/eng/press/Introduction_and_Analytical_Report.pdf Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 128764 |
Author: Organization of American States. Scenario Team Title: Scenarios for the Drug Problem in the Americas 2013 – 2025 Summary: These scenarios are stories about what could happen in the future – not what will happen (forecasts) or what should happen (policy recommendations) but what could happen over the coming years in and around the hemispheric drug ‘system’, based on current trends and including relevant political, economic, social, cultural, and international dynamics. For the construction of these “Scenarios for the Drug Problem in the Americas, 2013 – 2025,” a team of outstanding individuals from security, business, health, education, indigenous cultures, international organizations, the justice system, civil society, and politics, including former and current government officials from across the Americas, gathered together for two meetings of intense conversation. They created four scenarios based on their own diverse experiences and understandings; on an Analytical Report prepared by a team of leading experts; and on a set of interviews of 75 leaders from across the Hemisphere, including current and former Heads of Government. These very different stories of the possible evolution of the current situation are intended to be relevant, challenging, credible, and clear in order to be useful in strategic conversations of leaders about the best ways to address the problems of drugs in the Americas. The purpose of the stories is to provide a common framework and language to support dialogue, debate, and decision-making among Heads of Government and other actors, within and across countries. They are intended to support an open and constructive search for answers to core questions of drug policy and strategy: What opportunities and challenges are we and could we be facing? What are our options? What shall we do to better respond to the drug problem in the Americas? Scenarios play a very particular role in strategic planning. Because they are stories – that is, fictions – and because they come in sets of two or more different, plausible stories, they offer the political advantage of supporting informed debate without committing anyone to any particular policy position. Scenarios enable us to deal with the reality that although we cannot predict or control the future, we can work with and influence it. More specifically, scenarios are used to support the formation of policy and strategy through the use of scenario-based dialogues. The purpose of such dialogues is not to redo the construction of the scenarios, but rather to use the scenarios as they are written to discover what can and must be done. The most fruitful dialogues of this kind involve a representative group of interested and influential actors from all across the whole system in question. (This system can be a government, city, sector, community, nation, or region, for example.) Diversity is important – not just friends and colleagues but also strangers and opponents. There are four key steps for this kind of scenario-based dialogue. First, the scenarios are presented through text, slide presentation, storytelling, or video. Second, for each scenario the group addresses the question, “If this scenario occurred, what would it mean for us?” and works out the opportunities and challenges the scenario poses. Third, the group deals with the question, “If this scenario occurred, what could we do? What options do we have?” Finally, the group steps back to the present and considers the question, “Given these possible futures, what shall we do next?” Details: Washington, DC: OAS, 2013. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2013 at: http://www.oas.org/documents/eng/press/Scenarios_Report.PDF Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addictions (Americas) Shelf Number: 128768 |
Author: Salla, Fernando Title: Democracy, Human Rights and Prison Conditions in South America Summary: Provided with every legal right, the arrest of individuals and the restriction of their freedom can occur in different situations: individuals that were sentenced by court, individuals suspected of perpetrating a crime, individuals waiting trial, migrants waiting deportation. Nevertheless, the sites of detention are only object of concern domestically or even internationally when prisons are used as an instrument against political rivals during authoritarian regimes that remove from the political arena the democratic rules. Every time there is a routine arrest, mainly of ordinary offenders, prisons become territories of little interest for the public opinion, they have little social visibility, little relevance to the media, little importance to public policies, and only find some room in the political debate when the seriousness of prison conditions reach such levels that can no longer be hidden or ignored. Although bad detention conditions are found even in countries with consolidated democracies, more serious violations, the extremely bad conditions of existence in such environments – unhealthy conditions, overcrowded cells, abuse, and torture – are found in the prisons in those countries with weak democratic organizations, few controls in the hands of civil society, and heavy social and economic inequalities South America can be presented as an example of such region where continuous violations of human rights in the prisons have a close relationship sometimes with the difficulties to run a democratic regime, with the continuous development of authoritarian regimes that were present throughout their history, and sometimes with the deep impacts of poverty and social inequalities. Between 1960 and 1990, several military regimes like those in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile were responsible for many iniquities, among which imprisonment, torture, and the death of political opponents. In the past twenty years, though, the region is in a considerable political stability. Although the authoritarian culture has not been totally overcome, democratic regimes predominate with free elections and continuous renewal of administrations in most of the countries. The new legal statute in these countries does not accept the existence of political prisoners or of prisoners of conscience any more. Nevertheless, currently ordinary prisoners are subject to conditions that hurt human dignity in the prisons, where essential principles established in local legislations are not respected, and basic provisions in international instruments of protection and promotion to human rights are violated. This paper attempts to point out and analyze the political, social, and cultural reasons presents in the contemporary world and that provide the grounds on which ordinary prisoners are subject to severe imprisonment conditions. It also tries to understand how democratic regimes accept the serious violations of human rights that are practiced and that hurt human dignity on a daily basis in such places. It also tries to promote a reflexion on that issue of deep social inequalities in these new democracies that promote disrespect to basic requirements for a dignified life for all citizens, and how such inequalities are related to mass imprisonment. And last but not least, considering the scope of values, perceptions, and sensitivities, it tries to understand how feelings of intolerance and of vengeance grow against these offenders, feelings that are translated into severe life conditions in prisons, into long periods of imprisonment, into harsher disciplinary regimes, just like the support to overdated punishment methods, death penalties, and public exposure of sentenced prisoners has increased. Details: Sao Paulo, Brazil: University of Sao Paulo, 2009. 155p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 23, 2013 at: http://www.udhr60.ch/report/detention_salla0609.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Human Rights Shelf Number: 129492 |
Author: Cherpitel, Cheryl J. Title: Prevention of Alcohol-Related Injuries in the Americas: From Evidence to Police Action Summary: This edited volume on alcohol and injuries provides an overview of the burden of alcohol in injuries in the Americas plus research and policy perspectives of the current state of knowledge on alcohols association with injuries, based on emergency room (ER) studies in the region. These include studies conducted in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States, over a number of years, using the same methodology and protocol (including probability sampling of injured patients). Therefore, the samples drawn from individual ERs can be considered representative of that ER. While alcohol is known to be highly associated with injury, studies in the Americas are relatively few and the magnitude and diversity of the association across country contexts has not been explored. This book focuses on epidemiologic evidence from ER studies in the region, including those recently supported by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in five countries, and addresses issues related to ongoing surveillance, intervention, prevention, and policy strategies aimed at reducing alcohol-related injury. This book is the first to focus on alcohol and injuries in the Americas, and draws on contributions from multiple researchers in the region with broad and long-term experience in this field of study. The terms emergency room (ER) and emergency department (ED) are used interchangeably throughout the book to refer to facilities that treat injuries of all levels of severity, as opposed to trauma centers, which are based within emergency service departments in the United States, and only treat the most severe injuries. The first section of the book provides an overview of alcohol consumption in the region and the role of fatal and nonfatal injuries in the burden of alcohol-related diseases. Alcohol consumption and patterns of drinking resulting in harmful outcomes, including injury, are discussed, as well as the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) estimates of the burden of injuries attributable to alcohol (from the 2010 Comparative Risk Assessment) compared to those for 1990, by gender. Alcohols role in violence-related injuries and those resulting from traffic crashes, which together are the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in the region, is also highlighted. The second section of the book addresses the epidemiological evidence of alcohols association with injury in the region, based on ER studies. Following a review of the literature on ER studies conducted in the Americas, a description is provided of the methodology used in these studies, and a recent study is highlighted as one example of the diverse political and health services contexts across these studies. Prevalence of alcohol-related injury is reported across countries by cause of injury, along with differences in alcohol-related injury by country-level contextual variables, including income, societal drinking patterns, and alcohol control policies. Relative risk of injury is estimated by cause of injury and amount of alcohol consumed prior to the injury event, and the alcohol-attributable fraction (AAF) is calculated, taking into account country-level drinking pattern and alcohol policy. Differences in the context of drinking and injury are examined across countries in relation to the number and type of alcoholic beverages consumed, and demographic predictors of alcohol-related injury are analyzed by country income level. Drinking pattern as a predictor of alcohol-related injury is also examined, taking into account individual usual volume of consumption and aggregate-level volume, pattern, and alcohol policy measures. The third section of the book focuses on identification of alcohol-related injury in the ER and intervention and policy strategies. Surveillance of alcohol-related injuries is discussed, along with assessment of alcohol intoxication based on blood alcohol concentration (BAC), using the ICD-101 Y90 codes, compared to clinical assessment, using the ICD-10 Y91 codes. Strategies to prevent alcohol- related injury targeted to high-risk products, settings, and populations are also discussed, along with implementation of screening and brief intervention (BI) in the ER setting. The volume concludes with a discussion of implementation and enforcement of various alcohol policies aimed at reducing the public health impact of alcohol-related injuries in the Americas, including their prevention and management, in concordance with WHO global strategy for reducing the harmful use of alcohol. Details: Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization; World Health Organization, National Office for the Americas, 2013. 200p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 29, 2014 at: www.paho.org Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Alcohol Related Crime, Disorder Shelf Number: 132025 |
Author: Inter-American Commission of Women Title: Women and Drugs in the Americas: A Policy Working Paper Summary: During the sixth summit of the Americas (April 2012, Cartagena), leaders of various countries of the Americas issued a mandate to the Organization of American States (OAS) to analyze current drug policies and explore new approaches, with a view to developing viable alternatives that would effectively regulate the production, trade, and consumption of drugs of illicit substances while alleviating the violence and harm associated with current approaches to this issue. Since then, the hemispheric response to the "World Drug Problem" has been a changing landscape, and many more leaders have since called for reform of international and national-level drug policies to include more effective and humane alternatives to dealing with this global crisis. Previous measures to suppress drug production and consumption have been extreme, and have often proved ineffective. Methods such as aerial fumigation to suppress cultivation or mass incarceration as a response to drug consumption and small scale trafficking, have taken governments and societies further away from their original objective of preventing drug misuse and guaranteeing universal access to health and treatment for addiction, as set out in the 1961 convention on narcotic drugs. These first UN conventions of 1961 and 1971, prepared primarily from a punitive and prohibitionist perspective, created and sustained a 'War on Drugs' mentality. The 'War on Drugs' - a rhetorical device coined under former US President Nixon's leadership - has been progressively abandoned by the majority of States in the region (including the United States), who now recognize a need for drug policy reform and a more realistic, evidence-based approach to the changing and growing phenomenon of illicit drugs and their related issues. This paradigm shift has generated a number of alternative proposals and responses to the complex issue of drugs, including the promotion of a public health approach that favours treatment instead of incarceration, the safeguarding of human rights, and the endorsement of human rights-based and harm-reduction strategies to address the violence inherent in the trafficking of illicit substances, as well as the stigma attached to their use. At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September 2013, Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala, among other States, spoke of the urgent need to explore alternatives to the "War on Drugs." Uruguay presented a proposal to create the world's first national, non-medical, regulated market for cannabis. This bill has since been signed into law, the regulation for which is currently being designed and is expected to take effect later this year. Uruguay's non-punitive response to drug use comes at a time when many transit countries, including Guatemala, have experienced a gradual shift in attitudes and approaches around mitigating the harms of the drugs trade on their local communities. In transit countries, the negative effects of the illicit drugs industry on human and economic development are most keenly felt, and exacerbated by punitive policies that tend to affect vulnerable members of society who might participate in the drug trade due to financial crises and coercion at the lower level of the commercialization ladder. Claims by the media, paired with the scarce data available suggest that in the last two decades, the participation of women in the trade of illicit drugs has increased significantly. Nevertheless, while this participation is visible in the news, it has been largely absent from the research and other activities of most governmental and inter-governmental bodies. In general, we know relatively little about the people that participate in the question of illicit drugs - be they men or women. As usually happens in other areas, we understand even less about women's participation and we tend to interpret it through assumptions and stereotypes that on the one hand, complicate an adequate understanding of the social, economic, and cultural factors that determine this participation and, on the other hand, produce negative effects for women in terms of increased social stigmatization of their participation. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Commission of Women, 2014. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Working Paper: Accessed May 3, 2014 at: http://www.oas.org/en/cim/docs/WomenDrugsAmericas-EN.pdf Year: 2014 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 132203 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Game Changers: Tracking the Evolution of Organized Crime in the Americas: 2013 Summary: Welcome to InSight Crime's 2013 Game Changers, where we have sought to highlight some of the year's most important and illustrative trends in the development of organized crime in the Americas. This year has been a year of contradictions. Large criminal groups that seemed untouchable appear to be on the ropes. Others waded through complicated peace and truce processes with incredible patience. Some of the more notable of these processes were initiated by the criminal groups themselves. At the same time, some dynamics in the underworld remained true to form and some new, ugly criminal economies have surged because of these dynamics. Amidst it all, weak states continued to face challenges from below and above, sometimes from those who simply feel they have no choice but to fight criminal groups on their own. These past 12 months could be termed the year of the negotiations. In Colombia, rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continued their historic talks with the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos. By many accounts, these talks are moving along well, but there is concern that even if the FARC leadership signs a deal, parts of the organization will desert and enter the criminal economy. In El Salvador, the truce between the country's two largest gangs showed severe signs of fraying, if not rupturing completely. Homicides surged at the end of the year, as the presidential campaign shifted into full gear. While the mediators claimed the candidates had sought gang support for their campaigns, the country's security minister sought to undermine the truce via public and private channels. Meanwhile, a few more lasting criminal "pacts" emerged, brokered, it appeared, by the criminals themselves. In Medellin, Colombia, remnants of the old guard, known as the Oficina de Envigado, brokered a cease fire with the now surging Urabenos criminal organization, bringing homicides to their lowest levels in 30 years. In Juarez and Tijuana, Mexico, the Sinaloa Cartel's apparent dominance over those trafficking corridors led to equally dramatic drops in homicide rates and other criminal acts, such as car-jackings. The emergence of the Urabenos as the singular, monolithic criminal organization to survive the government's assault on the so-called Criminal Bands or "Bandas Criminales" (BACRIM) may be the biggest development in Latin America's underworld. The Urabenos have developed a sophisticated criminal model, which includes a huge variety of revenue streams. They appear to have overcome the loss of numerous top leaders and have an understanding of when to fight and when to make friends, as noted above. However, the Urabenos, and other groups like them, have also ushered in a new era of drug consumption in the region. The consumers are no longer just in Europe, the United States and Asia. They are in small cities and even rural areas throughout the region. They are poor; they are middle class; and they are the elite. And they are getting their drugs from the local criminal groups who are servicing the larger ones, like the Urabenos, throughout the distribution chain. From Brazil and Argentina, to Costa Rica and Mexico, this new, local criminal economy appears to be at the heart of much of the region's violence. It is this violence that pushed civilians to take up arms in places like Guerrero and Michoacan, two embattled Mexican states where so-called "self-defense" groups have surged to try to replace an inept, corrupted and co-opted state. These groups appear to have a wide range of backgrounds: from the poor peasant farmers to the sophisticated rival criminal groups. Yet, the government seems powerless to deal with them, to the point where many authorities have willingly allowed them to break the law in order to ensure others do not. A similar tension between maintaining the law and ensuring justice is also on the minds of the Bolivians as they try to keep some portions of their coca crop in the legal sphere and eliminate those deemed illegal. The challenge is monumental and, as we have seen this year, virtually impossible. Meanwhile, Bolivia's neighbor Peru, is coming to grips with the fact that it is the largest coca producing country in the world. That reality, which is a return to the 1990s status quo, has meant an influx of foreign criminal groups. Finally, for the second straight year, we need to note what is happening in Honduras. The country continues to open its doors to foreign criminal organizations, even while its homegrown groups continue to gain power. This includes one known as the Cachiros, which the US Treasury Department said had accumulated up to $800 million in assets, or roughly five percent of the country's GDP. A newly elected government, which takes power in January, seems to have little idea of how to combat these organizations, much less the resources. Details: s.l.: InSight Crime, 2013. 141p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2014 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/gamechangers/InsightCrimeGameChangers2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 132877 |
Author: Organization of American States Title: An Exploratory Study on Drugs and Violence in an Intentional Sample of Women in Twelve Countries of the Americas Summary: Purpose To analyze the similarities and differences of the individual and collective experiences of women participating in an exploratory study in 10 Spanish-speaking countries of America, Brazil and the US (English, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin women), in respect to drug use, violence and sexual risk behavior. Overall goal To analyze the experiences and perceptions of women participating in the study on the use and abuse of drugs, victimization by violence and sexually risk behavior, as well as to identify and evaluate the state of self esteem, depression and psychological abuse of the same. Specific Goals - Determine the frequency of drug use, violence and sexual risk behavior among women participating in the survey. - Describe and evaluate the state of self-esteem, depression and psychological abuse, as well as the level of drug abuse, types of violence among under and over eighteen year olds and the sexual risk behavior, especially HIV/AIDS among women participating in the sample. - Identify the individual and collective experiences relating to drug use, violence and sexual risk behavior in women participating in the exploratory study sample of 10 Spanish-speaking countries of Americas, Brazil, and the US (English, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin women). Design and Methodology A quantitative and qualitative approach was adopted, in which the quantitative aspect was obtained through individual interviews based on a questionnaire, and descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the data obtained. In the qualitative aspect, focus groups with content analysis were employed. The intentional sample comprised 660 women between the ages of 18 and 60, living in lower middle class and lower class communities in the 10 Hispanic countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela), Brazil and the United States, with an average of 30 women per location. The study was conducted in the following manner: (i) In the Spanish-speaking countries, the focus groups were first organized and then on another day, individual interviews were conducted. In some of the locations in Brazil the individual interviews were conducted first, followed by the focus groups. (ii) The data obtained from the focus groups and the individual interviews were stored in a database created in each university participating in the study, prior to proceeding with the data analysis and preparation of the reports by the same universities. In countries where there was more than one participating university, one university was chosen to work with the combined data and to prepare the country report. In the case of Brazil, in particular, this stage was conducted by SENAD, which worked with five universities participating in the study. After this stage in the process, the 19 universities from Latin America and SENAD forwarded their data to the OAS/CICAD-EDRS to proceed with the analysis of the results obtained in the quantitative and qualitative components in the 12 participating countries and to prepare the final report of the exploratory study. (iii) The creation of an editorial committee with representatives from universities of Spanish-speaking Latin America , Portuguese-speaking Brazil, and the multi-lingual United States, as well as from CICAD-EDRS, SENAD/Brazil and external consultants, to assist with the preparation, revision and publication of the final report of the exploratory study. Details: Washington, DC: OAS, 2009. 168p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2014 at: http://www.cicad.oas.org/reduccion_demanda/educational_development/reports/women-drugs%20ENG.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 132992 |
Author: Mahler, John M. Title: The scale shift of cocalero movements in Peru and Bolivia Summary: This thesis seeks to explain variation in the outcomes of cocalero mobilization in Peru and Bolivia. When cocaine became a popular drug in the United States in the late 1970s to early 1980s, governments of the coca-producing countries in the Eastern Andes began implementing policies that included forcible eradication of coca plants, often with U.S. assistance. Cocaleros in Bolivia not only protested against government policy, but also formed a national movement using political alliances that included indigenous and labor unions. In contrast, Perus cocaleros also mobilized against forced eradication, but a coherent national movement never materialized. This is a problem because social movement literature indicates Peru and Bolivia share many factors that should contribute to increasing levels of mobilization: decentralization measures, a consistent threat from national and international entities, neoliberal reform and backlash, and a recent turn to the political left. This thesis argues that cocalero movements first require political associational space before they can expand their movement through political alliances and achieve an upward shift in the scale of their movement. Furthermore, it finds that when cocalero movements use credible and resonant frames of protest, they are more likely to mobilize broader support and realize their goals. Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2013. 92p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed November 10, 2014 at: http://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/37665 Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Cocaine (Peru, Bolivia) Shelf Number: 134005 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Game Changers: Tracking the Evolution of the Organized Crime in the Americas: 2014 Summary: Welcome to InSight Crime's Game Changers for 2014, where we highlight the year's most important trends in organized crime in the Americas. This year was one of dashed hopes. In the same year that Mexico celebrated the capture of the world's most wanted drug trafficker, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, it also had to accept the horror that came with a smaller, splinter criminal group executing 43 protesting students and burning their bodies to destroy the evidence. The group, known as the Guerreros Unidos, was believed to be acting in concert with the local police, a local mayor and his politically ambitious wife, in what is a blatant example of the regular collusion that exists between local authorities and criminal organizations throughout the region. The death of the students in Mexico shattered the facade created by the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto that by capturing the country's most wanted figures -- which, in addition to El Chapo, included the heads of the Juarez Cartel and the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) -- and largely ignoring institutional reform, it could quell Mexico's criminal problem. Instead, the resulting atomization of large criminal organizations into smaller, more volatile groups that depend on local revenue streams, has led to bloody battles over the territory they need to keep the money flowing. The Guerreros Unidos, for instance, were once a part of the BLO. This fragmentation is a regional phenomenon. From Colombia to Brazil to Guatemala, large, hierarchical structures are now small, amorphous cells, working in networks, which are responsible for much of the violence that has made Latin America and the Caribbean the most homicidal region in the world. They are thriving, in part, because of the increase in the domestic consumption of illegal narcotics. The US market, while still the biggest consumer of drugs, is being challenged by growing drug use in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, to name but a few, and these new markets are giving birth to new criminal syndicates that are feeding this violence. Lastly, the Mexico case highlighted a stark reality about security forces: that they are at the heart of much of the violence. This has been a central feature of the Colombian civil conflict and the same is true in Brazil. Brazil continues to implement its once vaunted citizen security project, the UPP, although belief that the program is a panacea is now waning, especially amidst continuing concern over the police's repressive tactics. Not even cameras attached to the police's shirt pockets and fixed to the inside of official vehicles, it appears, can impede the police from doing what they have been doing for years: executing suspects. Brazil also fell under the spotlight this year as it hosted the World Cup. Lost in the pageantry and spectacular performances of the players was the fact that soccer remains central to organized crime. From owners of local teams in the smallest villages to the largest club teams and their most celebrated players, criminal groups use soccer, and the social and political capital it generates, to make huge profits and continue their illicit operations in relative impunity. Efforts to defuse conflicts with large political-criminal organizations also faltered this year. The peace process in Colombia between the government and the country's insurgencies stumbled, after guerrillas from the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), kidnapped an army general. The FARC, the region's oldest and arguably most criminalized insurgency, now seems to be splitting into pieces, some of which may adhere to their Secretariat's move towards peace and demilitarization, and some of which may break away and form their own criminal organizations. El Salvador's government-brokered truce with the two most powerful street gangs, the MS13 and the Barrio 18, also unraveled as a new administration took power and sidelined the efforts. For many who saw the truce as a farce and believe the gangs could develop into transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), the death of the truce was a relief. But for those seeking a reprieve from the resurging violence in that country -- including an increasing number of attacks on security forces and a surge in unaccompanied minors to the United States -- there are few answers. The one silver lining can be found in the slow move towards a new drug policy paradigm, one that so far decriminalizes drug use while continuing to criminalize those who create illegal, dangerous and destabilizing criminal structures. The region is not exactly poised to overturn a century of international legal precedent, but it is taking steps to measure just what levers it can pull and push in order to slow the criminal dynamics that have helped make the Americas the most violent place on the planet. Details: s.l.: InSight Crime, 2014. 197p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 31, 2015 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/game_changers_2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: South America Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 134509 |
Author: Organization of American States Title: The OAS Drug Report: 16 Months of Debates and Consensus Summary: At the Sixth Summit of the Americas, held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in April 2012, our Heads of State and Government entrusted the Organization of American States with the task of preparing a Report on the drug problem in the Americas. The instructions, as communicated by the President of the Summit, Juan Manuel Santos, were clear-cut: the Report should be frank, thorough, and shed light on actions taken so far to confront the drug problem, without shying away from sensitive issues and without fear of breaking taboos in order to pave the way for new approaches to the drug phenomenon. One year later the task had been completed. In May, 2013, we delivered the Report on the Drug Problem to the same President of Colombia and, through him, to all the Heads of State and Government. It had a huge, immediate impact. Less than one month later, the OAS General Assembly met in Antigua Guatemala, for the first session ever to address this significant issue that we have lived with for several decades. Its conclusions testified to the pressing need our governments and peoples felt to revisit the policies that had predominated in the Hemisphere and yet had failed to achieve expected outcomes. In just 16 months, the Report managed to open up a discussion as frank as it was unprecedented of all the options available in the quest for more effective policies for dealing with the drug problem in the Hemisphere. The influential North American daily, The New York Times, wrote that the report "effectively breaks the taboo on considering alternatives to the current prohibitionist approach." The Colombia magazine Semana wrote that "this report opens another front in debate between the various alternatives to address the drug business in its various stages, as well as the consequences of its consumption." Details: Washington,DC: OAS, 2014. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 23, 2015 at: http://www.oas.org/docs/publications/LayoutPubgAGDrogas-ENG-29-9.pdf Year: 2014 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Abuse and Addiction Shelf Number: 135765 |
Author: Veening, Wouter J. Title: Mining gold and mercury pollution in the Guiana Shield: A case study on the role of the EU in fighting environmental crime Summary: This brief report first identifies mercury pollution as a serious and growing threat to global environmental security and the health of the community of life. It then details this threat in the biologically important Guiana Shield ecoregion located in the North East Amazon, bordering the Caribbean, where it is caused by wide-spread informal gold mining. Therefore, the European Union's relevent legal arrangements, lacunae and dilemmas are summarised, also from a criminal law perspective and, finally, conclusions and policy implications for the EU are suggested. Details: The Hague: Institute for Environmental Security, 2015. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: A study compiled as part of the EFFACE project. Accessed August 21, 2015 at: http://efface.eu/sites/default/files/EFFACE%20Mining%20gold%20and%20mercury%20pollution%20in%20the%20Guiana%20Shield_0.pdf Year: 2015 Country: South America Keywords: Environmental Crime Shelf Number: 136518 |
Author: Ferguson, Brodie Title: Estimating Potential Gains in Life Expectancy by Reducing Violent Deaths in Selected Countries Summary: Injuries account for some 5 million deaths in the world each year, and nearly a third of these (1.6 million) are recognizable intentional. We assess the immediate demographic cost of mortality due to intentional violence in over 90 countries using population and mortality data collected from international organizations and country statistical offices for the year 2004, and attempt an economic costing valuation. We employ multiple decrement life table analysis to estimate the potential gains in life expectancy (PGLEs) that could be achieved by reducing the risk of intentional injury deaths to a proposed "regular" level of 1.27 deaths per 100,000 persons. Regional PGLEs range from 0.44 years for men in the Americas to 0.02 years for women in the Western Pacific. Violence prevention programs are likely to have the highest overall impact in countries such as Jamaica, Colombia, and Brazil characterized by both relatively high life expectancies and high levels of homicides. Details: Unpublished paper, 2009. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 25, 2015 at: https://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.346948.de/restrepo_conflict_gecc.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America Keywords: Homicides Shelf Number: 136577 |
Author: Schujer, Maria Title: The impact of drug policy on human rights: The experience in the Americas Summary: This report highlights the different strategies used in countries across the Americas to tackle the drugs problem in the region. It discusses the prohibitionist approach which has led to militarisation, violence, criminalisation of drug use and users, mass incarceration and forced crop eradication campaigns. The so-called "War on Drugs" deployed in the last 50 years has had an enormous impact on the functioning of security, justice and prison systems in Latin America. Despite the high levels of violence that this battle has caused in some areas and its grave consequences, for many years it was not analyzed from a human rights perspective in local or international arenas. This scenario has begun to change. In March 2014, at the request of 17 organizations from 11 countries in the Americas, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held a regional thematic hearing on this topic, the first in the history of its 150 sessions. This publication expands on the assessment presented by those organizations. The prohibitionist paradigm has increased exponentially the militarization and violence associated with drug trafficking. By creating an enormous illegal market controlled by complex and increasingly powerful criminal groups, violent conflicts have intensified throughout the region, especially in impoverished areas where there has been a further deterioration of inhabitants' living conditions and increased stigmatization. These repressive policies tend to violate the human rights of thousands of people, above all those who face judicial proceedings and are sent to prison, where overcrowding and inhumane detention conditions are often the norm. Numerous studies have shown that these policies tend to disproportionately affect particularly vulnerable groups, and in that way, they reinforce and replicate discrimination and social exclusion Details: Buenos Aires, Argentina: Center for Legal and Social studies (CELS), 2015. 69p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 28, 2015 at: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64663568/library/the-impact-of-drug-policy-on-human-rights-CELS.pdf Year: 2015 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Enforcement Shelf Number: 136526 |
Author: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Title: Access to Information, Violence against Women, and the Administration of Justice in the Americas Summary: The report aims to provide an introduction to the challenges faced by women in the Americas in gaining adequate access to State-controlled information on violence and discrimination. It also seeks to systematize the international standards that have been developed in the inter-American system on this subject, and to identify good practices in the region with regard to the application of and compliance with those standards. The right of access to information is closely related to the exercise of other human rights, and in that sense, the failure to comply with the obligations of respecting and guaranteeing women's free access to information can be understood to lead to various violations of their rights to live free from violence and discrimination. The IACHR has observed that even in States with institutionalized mechanisms for gathering, processing, and producing information on violence against women, often that information is not adequately disseminated. Likewise, the IACHR has noted that there is a widespread lack of coordination in the region between the various systems that coexist in the States for gathering and producing information, for example records kept by free legal aid offices, data collected by observatories on violence or discrimination, and mechanisms for compiling judicial statistics. With regard to the main challenges in access to public information on discrimination and violence, the IACHR has reported on a number of occasions that there are deficiencies in the availability, quality, and completeness of public information on violence and discrimination against women. These include the failure to gather complete information in the various State bodies on all the different types of violence and discrimination, as well as the failure to produce comprehensive statistics based on that information and to disaggregate the statistical information by factors such as sex, race, ethnicity, age, social status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and other criteria that would make it possible to appreciate the true incidence of violence and discrimination in specific groups of women. The importance of compiling data and producing statistics has been highlighted in the inter-American and the United Nations human rights systems as a fundamental mechanism for designing and evaluating public polices and prevention, assistance, and protection programs on violence and discrimination. Another priority challenge involves the effective implementation of international standards on access to information in the domestic sphere. In this regard, the IACHR has stated that although the vast majority of countries in the region have constitutional and/or legal regulations in place on this matter, concrete information about the practical implementation and effectiveness of those regulations is not available, which makes it difficult to evaluate the level of compliance with State obligations. Access to information in the realm of the administration of justice is an area of special interest for the IACHR. It presents a number of challenges in terms of guaranteeing access to information as a right that facilitates access to justice for women victims of violence and discrimination. In this context, the IACHR notes that the following are priority challenges: ensuring access by women and their family members to information on their pending violence or discrimination cases; the availability of appropriate and sufficient free legal aid services; and access to interpreters and information in other languages for women who do not speak the official State language, among other challenges. The IACHR underscores the importance of having public information on justice system operations, including data on the number of arrests, prosecutions, convictions, restraining orders, and judgments handed down; the amount of time it takes to decide cases; the gender makeup of the justice systems; the budgets allocated to judicial activities; and the internal accountability mechanisms. The Commission urges the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) to adopt measures to guarantee the availability of high-quality free legal aid services, the training of justice operators and other public employees who are involved with violence-related issues, and the implementation of action protocols for cases in which violence is imminent. The Commission also reiterates its willingness to work with the States in their efforts in this sphere of protection which is so essential for women to be able to fully exercise their rights. Details: Washington, DC: OAS, 2015. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 28, 2015 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Access-information.pdf Year: 2015 Country: South America Keywords: Discrimination Shelf Number: 137363 |
Author: Castillo, Juan Camilo Title: Should drug policy be aimed at cartel leaders? Breaking down a peaceful equilibrium Summary: Experience from the last decade in Colombia and Mexico suggests that violence increases when governments achieve their objective of beheading and fragmenting drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). In this paper I provide a theoretical framework to understand this behavior. Drawing elements from industrial organization, I model DTOs as firms that collude by not attacking each other in order to increase their profits. DTOs always collude when they interact repeatedly; thus, previous analyses focusing on a static Nash equilibrium miss an important part of the dynamics between DTOs. I show that a peaceful equilibrium arises if there are only a few DTOs that care enough about the future. Policies resulting either in a larger number of DTOs or in more impatient leaders increase violence between DTOs without reducing supply. On the other hand, policies that reduce the productivity of DTOs, without directly attacking their leaders and fragmenting them, are more desirable since they can curb supply, although this comes at the cost of increased violence if the elasticity of demand is below a certain threshold. I calculate this threshold, which is a refinement of the value suggested by Becker et al. (2006) for consumer markets. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Universidad de los AndesFacultad de EconomaCEDE, 2013. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2016 at: https://economia.uniandes.edu.co/components/com_booklibrary/ebooks/dcede2013-41.pdf Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 131160 |
Author: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Title: Violence, Children and Organized Crime Summary: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presents a regional report on violence and other violations of rights to which children and adolescents fall victim in contexts in which organized crime and violent or criminal groups operate. The report identifies the leading factors that make the Americas the region with the highest rates of violence in the world, and focuses primarily on analyzing how children and adolescents are affected by different forms of violence in their communities, especially acts committed by members of armed groups but also by agents of the State. Conditions of insecurity and violence in the region are significant factors of concern which involve serious violations of people's human rights. The public often associates these situations with adolescents, who are blamed to a large extent for the climate of insecurity experienced by many communities. The focus tends to be on male adolescents from poor and marginal neighborhoods who belong to groups that have traditionally been excluded and discriminated against and who are stigmatized on a daily basis and singled out as "potential dangers to society" who must be brought under control. However, as the IACHR explains in the report, the reality is different from these perceptions and much more complex. Children and adolescents, in fact, represent one of the groups most affected by different forms of violence and rights violations, as well as by the actions of criminal groups and by repressive citizen security policies. The inhabitants of some communities suffer the scourge of violence more intensely. The areas that are particularly hard-hit are the least developed neighborhoods where there is limited access to basic services, a lack of opportunities, and little State presence. These are areas with populations living in vulnerable conditions, in which their rights are not guaranteed due to structural situations of marginalization and social exclusion. These factors facilitate the emergence and expansion of criminal groups and organized crime. In addition, the enormous financial revenues associated with the illegal drug market have contributed significantly to the expansion of criminal groups that compete for this market and its benefits, unleashing spiraling violence due to clashes between criminal groups and State security forces. Easy access to firearms and the large number of guns in the hands of private individuals exacerbate the existing climate of insecurity and violence. In the report, the IACHR observes with concern that the conditions for children and adolescents living in these contexts can be daunting. Many of them experience situations of violence, abuse, and neglect in their homes, communities, and schools, at the hands of adults, their peers, and even the police. The quality of education is poor, and there are many barriers to accessing higher education and access to job opportunities and decent employment. Children and adolescents are often subjected to pressure, threats, or trickery to get them to join these organizations; other adolescents seek out these groups in search of opportunities, recognition, protection, and a sense of belonging, aspects that they would otherwise not be able to find. Once they are within these structures, they are used and exploited by the adults for a broad range of activities, including surveillance, the transport and sale of drugs, robberies, extortions, kidnappings, and other violent activities related to maintaining the interests of criminal groups. Girls and adolescents in particular are the primary victims of sexual violence and human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Adults use them as disposable, interchangeable parts of criminal structures - the last link in the chain - with the average age of recruitment 13 years old. State responses to these challenges are primarily based on policies that are strongly focused on aspects of coercive control by security forces and punitive repression through the criminal justice system. The common denominator of security strategies in the region has been the allocation of greater responsibilities to State security forces, along with a progressive militarization of the police and their operations and the participation of the army in citizen security tasks. However, these strategies have not significantly eased the climate of insecurity; on the contrary, many countries have experienced a resurgence of violence, in addition to reported abuses, arbitrary practices, and human rights violations carried out by State security forces. In this report, the IACHR expresses its concern regarding the high rates of arbitrary detentions; excessive use of force and lethal force; cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, even extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances, as well as sluggish investigations and high levels of impunity for these types of acts. Due to the social stigma they face, some adolescents from certain groups of society are often victims of these types of abuses and arbitrary practices. Among the situations it found, the IACHR has observed that the application of the crime of "unlawful assembly" or "conspiracy" or "belonging to a criminal group" has increased the number of arbitrary detentions of adolescents based on their appearance and on the belief that they may belong to a gang or a criminal group, without any evidence that a crime has been committed. Current drug policies have also contributed to an increase in the number of children and adolescents deprived of liberty for drug-related offenses such as micro-trafficking and possession of small quantities. In several countries of the region, adolescents who are poor, of African descent, or members of minorities are over-represented among those detained by the police. The prosecution of crimes of "unlawful assembly" and drug-related crimes has also led to an increase in pretrial detentions and for longer periods, due to an overextended criminal justice system. Meanwhile, States in the region tend to prioritize punitive and retributive responses to adolescent offenders, with incarceration the most widespread measure used. State responses have focused on proposals to reduce the age of criminal responsibility for adolescents, in some cases starting at age 12, and to lengthen prison sentences. In practice, this might mean that they would be locked up for their entire adolescence - a crucial phase for their personal development, growth, and education. Added to this is the fact that detention centers, where conditions are generally alarming in terms of safety, health, and overcrowding, have become factors aggravating adolescents' vulnerability and exposure to violence and crime, which only worsens and reinforces the problem States are seeking to solve. The IACHR reiterates in the report that measures designed to hold adolescents accountable for their actions should be based primarily on a model of restorative justice and socio-educational measures, one whose purpose is to rehabilitate adolescents and reintegrate them into society. In the Inter-American Commission's judgment, current policies seek to show short-term results but do not adequately address structural causes or focus sufficiently on prevention or on social investment programs and promotion of rights. The current policies do not take into account the specific consequences of these environments for adolescents who are in an especially vulnerable and unprotected situation which puts them at risk of being captured and used by organized crime, becoming involved in violent and criminal activities, or becoming victims of such activities. The report concludes with a series of recommendations to the States to address violence and insecurity through comprehensive, holistic public policies that take into account the centrality of human rights and effectively ensure the exercise of rights by children and adolescents. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 2016. 227p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 7, 2016 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/ViolenceChildren2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: South America Keywords: Children and Violence Shelf Number: 138593 |
Author: Rosero, Oswaldo R. Title: An Analysis of the Law Enforcement Chain in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape Summary: The Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape is located at the far eastern edge of the tropical Pacific Ocean, to the south of Costa Rica and Panama, and to the west of Colombia and mainland Ecuador. The Seascape is naturally demarcated by the convergence of three tectonic plates. The region extends to the west as far as the Cocos Ridge, a long submarine mountain chain running from Costa Rica in the north, to the Galapagos Islands over 1,500 km to the southwest. Another chain, the Carnegie Ridge, which runs for 1,000 km, from the Galapagos Islands to the coast of Ecuador, denotes its southern limits. Within these limits lies the Panama Bight, with depths greater than 4,000 meters. Marine currents in this region are complex, moving water from the Central American coast towards the Eastern Tropical Pacific, where it flows slowly to the west to join the North Equatorial Current. Another current affecting the region is the North Equatorial Countercurrent, which brings surface water to the east. The regional waters are warm (maximum temperatures of 28 degrees Fahrenheit), but in some areas the temperature can drop to 25 degrees Celsius during periods of upwelling. This Seascape boasts diverse endemic marine and terrestrial species, and displays a high degree of ecological connectivity. It possesses complex ecological relationships due to the dynamic convergence of marine currents that affect the migration and distribution of many species. The islands in the region are home to the most extensive coral reefs in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and some of these coral species are endemic to the region. The Seascape is a migratory destination for several threatened and endangered species including the blue whale, humpback whale, and the leatherback turtle. Due to its biological productivity, the Eastern Tropical Pacific is of key importance for tuna fisheries (yellowfin, skipjack and bigeye). The region is vulnerable to degradation as a result of the following human activities: - Illegal fishing. - Overexploitation of coastal marine resources. - Inadequately regulated tourism growth. - Risk of pollution from commercial vessels (marine transport). - Habitat loss and degradation. - Introduction of exotic species. The region is periodically subjected to extreme climatic events (El Nino - Southern Oscillation), which have negative impacts on resident and migratory species (but sometimes provide new opportunities). In recognition of its high level of biodiversity, biological productivity and the ecological value of many sites in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape, each one of its four constituent nations has established marine protected areas (MPAs) within their respective waters. - In 1978, Costa Rice declared Cocos Island a National Park with 24 km2 of terrestrial area and 1,974 km2 of marine area. - In Panama, Coiba National Park, with a terrestrial area of 537 km2 and a marine area of 2,165 km2, has existed in its current form since 2004. - Colombia has two marine protected areas in the Pacific: the Malpelo Flora and Fauna Sanctuary and the Gorgona Natural National Park, designated in 1995 and 1993 respectively. Malpelo includes 3.5 km2 of terrestrial habitat and 8,572 km2 of marine area, whereas Gorgona includes 16 km2 of terrestrial habitat and 598 km2 of marine area. - The Galapagos Marine Reserve, which covers an area approximately 133,000 km2, is the largest marine protected area in the region. The origin of the Galapagos Marine Reserve is the Special Law for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Province of Galapagos of 1998. It extends 40 nautical miles from a baseline around the farthest points of the Galapagos Archipelago In recognition of their great ecological value, their value as endangered species habitats, and for their natural beauty, four of the five MPAs (with the exception of Gorgona) have been designated as UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites. UNESCO first recognized Cocos Island National Park in 1997, then the Galapagos Marine Reserve in 2001, Coiba National Park in 2005, and Malpelo Flora and Fauna Sanctuary in 2006. All these islands and their surrounding ocean share certain features - their isolation from the mainland, their endemic species, and their relatively pristine state of protection and conservation. In 2004, the governments of Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Colombia signed an agreement to create the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR). The main objective of this agreement is the conservation and sustainable development of the 211 million hectare region which contains the aforementioned MPAs. The CMAR initiative is supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), UNESCO, Conservation International (CI), the IUCN among others. With over 80 NGOs, research organizations, local community groups, and representatives from the private sector particpating, CI's Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (ETPS) initiative has promoted regional cooperation for the training, education and conservation of marine resources. Study Objectives The main objective of this study is to identify and evaluate the critical factors required for effective law enforcement in each MPA of the Seascape. The specific objectives are: 1. To determine the main strengths and weaknesses of the law enforcement chain in each MPA. 2. To prioritize a series of recommendations to improve the enforcement chain in each MPA. 3. To identify regional initiatives to strengthen cooperation between member states; in particular regarding the conservation of migratory species. Details: San Francisco, CA: WildAid, 2010. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2016 at: http://wildaid.org/sites/default/files/resources/Law%20Enforcement%20Chain%20ETPS_0.pdf Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Fishing Shelf Number: 138709 |
Author: Katz, Charles M. Title: The Gang Truce as a Form of Violence Intervention: Implications for Policy and Practice Summary: While there is much literature describing the assumptions, issues, and effectiveness of crime suppression (e.g., Decker, 2003; Decker and Reed, 2002; Katz and Webb, 2006; McCorkle and Miethe, 2002) and prevention strategies (Esbensen and Osgood, 1997), much less attention has been paid to gang intervention programming, particularly gang truces. Little is known about how often gang truces occur, what conditions give rise to them, the role of third parties in brokering them, their transformative effects, and their effectiveness. In this policy brief, sponsored by SolucionES1 and conducted by FUNDE, a member of the SolucionES Alliance with Arizona State University, we systematically evaluate gang truces; including reviewing prior research and presenting evidence on the effectiveness of gang truces that have been implemented in El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica for the purpose of identifying lessons learned should other governments or donors wish to support gang truces in these or other countries. Summary of Findings We found that the truce in El Salvador resulted in a reduction in homicides that was not the product of other trends or temporal factors; and that the truce there should be considered a short term success. By contrast, the truces in Jamaica and Honduras resulted in no impact on violence. The Jamaican and Honduran experiences therefore mirror the results of prior gang truces that have been studied to various extents, including those in Los Angeles and Trinidad and Tobago. Important differences in how the various truces were negotiated may explain the different results and one important difference - the ability of government and non-gang community stakeholders to promise and immediately produce measurable deliverables - appear to be especially significant. Details: San Salvador: Fundacion Nacional para el Desarrollo - FUNDE, 2015. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 2, 2016 at: http://www.globalinitiative.net/download/general/central-america-caribbean/Gang%20Truce%20Form%20of%20Violence.pdf Year: 2015 Country: South America Keywords: Gang Suppression Shelf Number: 138889 |
Author: Ameripol Title: Situational Analysis of Drug Trafficking. A Police Point of View: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru Summary: This report analyses the drug trafficking phenomenon in the region; it establishes a course of action and measures to fight drug trafficking and organized crime. Police institutions from the various countries contributed to the publication, presenting a police analysis of the drug trafficking situation. The publication also includes a chapter on drug trafficking in Africa. Details: Bogota: Ameripol, 2014. 162p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 3, 2016 at: http://www.cocaineroute.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ameripol-sit-anal-eng.pdf Year: 2014 Country: South America Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 131271 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Game Changers: Tracking the Evolution of Organized Crime in the Americas: 2015. Summary: Welcome to InSight Crime's Game Changers 2015, where we highlight the year's most important trends in organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. This year saw some potentially game changing developments related to government corruption, organized crime, and rising pressure to alter alliances between members of the state and criminal groups. It also saw important shifts in the criminal world, in particular related to street gangs and the realignment of large criminal enterprises. From Mexico to Brazil and numerous places in between, officials came under fire for establishing mafia-like schemes that defrauded their citizens and ensured impunity for government officials connected to criminal groups. The long-term results of the widespread outcry from multilateral bodies, non-governmental organizations, private sector, political organizations, and religious and civic groups designed to disrupt these criminal networks are not yet clear, but the short-term impact has been profound. In August, Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina resigned. This came just three months after Guatemala's Vice President Roxana Baldetti resigned. The two were accused of running a massive customs fraud scheme, which has been a mainstay of a criminal network run by current and ex-military officials for decades. Perez and Baldetti's departures came after the United Nations-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comision Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG), working with the Attorney General's Office, began revealing a spate of corruption cases. These investigations touched the highest levels of congress, as well as government purveyors such as the social security institute and mayors' offices. All of these had set up criminal networks to embezzle money from the government coffers. The public outcry that followed hastened the officials' departures. In Mexico, the power and popularity of President Enrique Pena Nieto's government has eroded in large part due to its handling of several major security crises, some of which spilled over from 2014. These events include the disappearance and likely murder of 43 students at the hands of a criminal group with deep ties to the local government and police; the apparent massacre of at least 22 suspected criminals by the Mexican army; and the dramatic escape of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from a high security prison in June. Outside investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) pilloried Mexico's Attorney General's Office for the numerous gaps, inconsistencies, and improbable explanations about what happened to the student teachers. In October, the government's own Human Rights Commission confirmed that the army extra-judicially executed at least 15 of the 22 suspected criminals in the so-called Tlatlaya massacre. And in September, the government arrested 13 officials - including the former head of the prison system - for allegedly assisting Guzman's flight to freedom via a one kilometer tunnel that ran from underneath the shower in his jail cell to a small farmhouse. Details: s.l.: InSight Crime, 2015. 162p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 10, 2016 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/2015/GameChangers2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: South America Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 140254 |
Author: GAFISUD Title: GAFISUD - 2010 Regional Typologies Summary: The document: "REGIONAL TYPOLOGIES - GAFISUD 2010" was drafted by the International Financial Action Task Force of South America [Grupo de Accion Financiera Internacional de Sudamerica] - GAFISUD, in cooperation with the GAFISUD- European Union Project. It is classified as a document of PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. Consequently, its content may be consulted and utilized by any person, with copyright limitations. As a result of the aforesaid, its reproduction, copy, distribution, etc., in whole or in part, requires GAFISUD's previous authorization. The pertinent request may be addressed to the email: contacto@gafisud.info This document presents some of the mostly used money laundering and terrorist financing methodologies, with the aim of helping the region's reporting entities and the society as a whole in the preventive actions of behaviours associated with money laundering and the financing of crime organizations. This information will allow designing better instruments of control and red flags that will enable authorities to devise or adjust control mechanisms with the purpose of protecting themselves against money launderers or the financing of terrorist groups. The descriptions and examples are based on real facts. However, all such data that may identify situations, individuals or places and additional elements have been amended in order to avoid any search and seizure, damage or breach of material rights. The statements on economic activities do not constitute a conjecture or forecast about truthful and permanent bonds with activities tied to money laundering and terrorist financing. The described behaviour or typology only shows a tendency and the existing risk within the economic activity of being used by individuals engaged in money laundering or terrorist financing. Details: s.l. GAFISUD, 2010. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 17, 2016 at: http://www.cocaineroute.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Regional-Typologies-2010.pdf Year: 2010 Country: South America Keywords: Financial Crime Shelf Number: 144869 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Game Changers: Tracking the Evolution of Organized Crime in the Americas: 2016. Summary: Welcome to InSight Crime's GameChangers 2016, where we highlight the most important trends in organized crime in the Americas. This year we put a spotlight on crime and corruption among the region's political elites, while reporting on government struggles to corral criminality fueled by street gangs, drug cartels and Marxist rebels alike. Top government officials spent much of the year fending off accusations of corruption and organized crime with varying degrees of success. At the center of the storm was Brazil, where government deals led to bribes and kickbacks that over time reached into the billions of dollars. The top casualty of the scandal was Dilma Rousseff who, ironically, was ousted from the presidency for misuse of funds, not corruption. In reality, it is her Worker's Party that more resembles a criminal organization than she does. Like a mafia, the party collected and distributed money to keep the wheels of political power moving and laundered that money through elaborate schemes involving construction companies and offshore accounts. Rousseff's mentor, the celebrated former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was charged with what appeared to be the type of routine payments all Brazilian politicians and ex-politicians get from the movement of state contracts. Indeed, those who ousted Rousseff are facing similar corruption allegations, illustrating just how institutionalized the problem appears to be. Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro is facing down a different type of crisis, one that includes an economic emergency, widespread corruption and rising crime rates at home, and an increasing number of current and ex-officials charged with drug trafficking abroad. The US government's case against the first lady's "Narco Nephews" got most of the headlines, but numerous other former military officials are revealing to US investigators just what the Venezuelan government looks like from the inside. It is a not a pretty picture, and Maduro's domestic and international issues appear to be pushing him into tighter alliances with the criminal elements in his government. Guatemala's Attorney General's Office and its United Nations-backed appendage, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala - CICIG), continued to arrest and charge more suspects from the mafia state established under former President Otto Pérez Molina, his Vice President Roxana Baldetti and their Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota - PP). The most startling and revealing case was one they termed the "cooptación del estado," or the "Cooptation of the State," a scheme involving numerous campaign contributors whose return on investment was guaranteed once the PP took power in 2012. Among those arrested for the Cooptation of the State case was former Interior Minister Mauricio López Bonilla. Once a staunch US counter-drug ally and hero from that country's civil war, López Bonilla is also being investigated for his multiple shady deals with drug traffickers such as Marllory Chacón Rossell, to whom he provided a government protection service even after she was accused of money laundering by the US Treasury Department; and with Byron Lima, a former army captain who was killed in jail amidst a public squabble with the former interior minister. Potential corruption and organized crime cases continue to shake the foundations of Guatemala, including one that connects a now extradited drug trafficker to the current vice president and a corruption scandal connected to the current president's son and his brother. Details: s.l.: Insight Crime, 2016. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 25, 2017 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/2016/GAMECHANGERS_2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: South America Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 140596 |
Author: Lopez Guevara, Estefania Title: Illegal Mining and Trafficking of Coltan in the Amazon Border Region Summary: The illegal mining of coltan takes place not only in Colombia, but also in the border region between Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. Unlicensed miners, supported by guerrillas and hidden by authorities from Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil, exploit the mines and coerce indigenous peoples into mining labors in the Amazonas where it is presumed that there are deposits of columbite and tantalite inside native's reserves or natural parks. Bearing this in mind, the purpose of this document is to describe the illegal mining and trafficking of coltan in the Amazon border region. The information is structured around the following topics and sections: (i) Key criminal agents relevant in trafficking of coltan, (ii) key criminal hotspots related to trafficking of coltan, (iii) and a description of recent relevant cases. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Vortex Foundation, 2016. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Internet Resource: The Global Observatory of Transnational Criminal Networks: Research Paper No. 2. VORTEX Working Papers: Accessed January 26, 2017: http://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/522e46_bdea3889f6994097adeb2cab13f92ab9.pdf Year: 2016 Country: South America Keywords: Conflict Minerals Shelf Number: 144868 |
Author: Moestue, Helen Title: Digitally Enhanced Child Protection: How new technology can prevent violence against children in the Global South Summary: The last decade has witnessed growing appreciation of the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to protect children from violence. The issue of violence against children (VAC) is of singular importance. And while the full scope and scale of VAC remains hidden from view there is wide spread consensus that "every year and in every region of the world, millions of children suffer the cumulative impact of physical, mental and emotional violence, and millions more are at risk". Although ICT innovation for child protection is comparatively advanced in North America and Western Europe, there is less known about new tools in lower- and middle-income settings in the Americas, Africa and Asia. This Strategic Paper begins filling this knowledge gap and reviews the emerging character and functions of ICTs to prevent VAC in the global South. Drawing on assorted cases from Benin, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda and other countries, it provides a hint of the diversity of emerging experiences around the world. In the process, the Strategic Paper provides insights into emerging trends, typologies, and threats. Key findings include: - Mobile and digital technology are being harnessed in multiple ways to protect children, including through: (a) the digitization of existing child protection systems (b) helplines (c) citizen reporting and crowd mapping (d) mobile research and survey tools(e) big data analysis, and (f) tech-driven campaigning and information sharing; - These initiatives frequently combine the offer of assistance to children with the collection of real time data. This model in turn generates critical information for advocacy and can inform future child protection interventions; - Such approaches save time and money, and are breaking down the social, cultural and practical barriers to violence reporting. However, digital data collection raises important ethical questions about consent and confidentiality; - Innovation is emerging from a wide range of fields, including child protection, social development, the humanitarian sector, public health and the wider violence prevention field, and is often facilitated by creative public-private partnerships. Different disciplines are using the same tools; - Basic SMS based reporting systems have immense potential. Certain open source digital platforms offer the potential for scaling-up, especially systems such as Frontline SMS, Rapid SMS and Ushahidi, which integrate basic mobile phones for crowd-sourcing violence reporting and community mapping; and - There is a widening array of initiatives that enable children themselves to be informed, empowered and included in their own protection. Digitized survey tools, that can be used for and by children even in emergency settings, include Open Data Kit and Kobo Toolbox. The Strategic Paper considers the emerging landscapes of ICTs for VAC. It first sets the scene exploring the character and dynamics of violence against children, especially in low- and middle-income settings. The opening section also considers the expansion of ICTs and ethical implications in their application among children and youth. The second section introduces a typology of different ICTs including the digitization of child protection systems, child helplines, citizen reporting and crowd mapping, mobile research tools, Big Data analytics and technology-enabled campaigns. Section three explores how different sectors and disciplines are engaging with these new tools - including child protection experts, relief and development professionals and the public health community. The Paper closes with a brief consideration of next steps in the evolution of ICTs to prevent and reduce VAC. Details: Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Igarapa , 2014. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Strategic paper 10: Accessed March 4, 2017 at: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Artigo-estrategico-10-Child-Protection-4.pdf Year: 2014 Country: South America Keywords: Child Protection Shelf Number: 134475 |
Author: Lessa, Francesca Title: Justice Without Borders: Accountability for Plan Condor Crimes in South America Summary: Forty years on, accountability for the transnational crimes committed in the 1970s and 1980s by the coordinated repression known as Plan Condor remains a largely unresolved matter in South America. Dealing with the crimes of the past is essential to ensure human rights protection in the future and requires concerted efforts at the regional level. This policy brief is based on a multi-year study carried out between 2013 and 2016 on accountability for Plan Condor crimes and, in particular, two knowledge exchange workshops, in which academics, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, policy experts and members of civil society from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay participated. The brief highlights the main challenges and obstacles that have delayed and slowed down the elucidation of past transnational atrocities in South America. It also sets out three recommendations to overcome these hindrances across the region: • Setting up multidisciplinary teams dedicated to investigating human rights atrocities; • Establishing a regional database or repository with information on Condor crimes; • Strengthening regional channels ensuring a smooth flow of evidence for use in criminal trials Details: Oxford, UK: Latin American Centre, University of Oxford, 2016. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: policy Brief: Accessed March 20, 2017 at: http://www.lac.ox.ac.uk/sites/sias/files/documents/Policy%20Brief%20ENG.pdf Year: 2016 Country: South America Keywords: Criminal Trials Shelf Number: 144517 |
Author: Ameripol Title: Situational Analysis of Drug Trafficking: Police Point of View: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru Summary: A new study from the Americas regional police association Ameripol explores the shifting dynamics of the global drug trade, as new trafficking routes and criminal networks emerge to meet the demands of evolving consumer markets. The report (pdf), entitled "Situational Analysis of Drug Trafficking - A Police Perspective," is a collaboration between the American Police Community (Ameripol), an association of police from around the region, and the European Union (EU), focusing on the drug trade in the three main coca production countries -- Peru, Colombia and Bolivia -- as well as key transit countries. One of the most notable aspects of the report is its plotting of the rise of new trafficking routes to meet the needs of ever changing drug consumer markets around the globe. Most of these rely on maritime transport, which the report classifies as "the biggest drug trafficking threat." Many of these routes now run through Brazil, which is now the world's second largest consumer of cocaine and a key transit point for shipments destined for Europe. The report examines both the traditional and developing trafficking routes that take cocaine from production countries to the cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the northeast of the country, where it is processed, then either sold locally or exported. At the heart of many of the routes sits Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state and a critical thoroughfare for drugs arriving from Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. The report highlights the cross-pollination of illegal activities in the Amazon region, noting that pilots involved in drug flights are also often involved in the illegal mining that blights the region. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Ameripol, 2013. Source: Internet Resource: Available at the Rutgers Criminal Justice Library. Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Cocaine Shelf Number: 131271 |
Author: Sviatschi, Maria Micaela Title: Essays on Human Capital, Labor and Development Economics Summary: This dissertation contains four essays on human capital, labor and development economics. The first two chapters study how exposure to particular labor markets during childhood determines the formation of industry-specific human capital generating longterm consequences in terms of adult criminal behavior, labor outcomes and state legitimacy. The third chapter explores how criminal capital developed during childhood can be exported to other locations generating spillover effects on human capital accumulation. Finally, the last chapter studies how improving access to justice for women affects children's outcomes. Chapter 1, "Making a Narco: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths", shows that exposing children to illegal labor markets makes them more likely to be criminals as adults. I exploit the timing of a large anti-drug policy in Colombia that shifted cocaine production to locations in Peru that were well-suited to growing coca. In these areas, children harvest coca leaves and transport processed cocaine. Using variation across locations, years, and cohorts, combined with administrative data on the universe of individuals in prison in Peru, affected children are 30% more likely to be incarcerated for violent and drug-related crimes as adults. The biggest impacts on adult criminality are seen among children who experienced high coca prices in their early teens, the age when child labor responds the most. No effect is found for individuals that grow up working in places where the coca produced goes primarily to the legal sector, implying that it is the accumulation of human capital specific to the illegal industry that fosters criminal careers. As children involved in the illegal industry learn how to navigate outside the rule of law, they also lose trust in government institutions. However, consistent with a model of parental incentives for human capital investments in children, the rollout of a conditional cash transfer program that encourages schooling mitigates the ef- fects of exposure to illegal industries. Finally, I show how the program can be targeted by taking into account the geographic distribution of coca suitability and spatial spillovers. Overall, this paper takes a first step towards understanding how criminals are formed by unpacking the way in which crime-specific human capital is developed at the expense of formal human capital in "bad locations." While my first chapter focuses on low-skilled labor and criminal capital, my second chapter studies the expansion of high-skilled labor markets. In Chapter 2, "Long-term Effects of Temporary Labor Demand: Free Trade Zones, Female Education and Marriage Market Outcomes in the Dominican Republic", I exploit the sudden and massive growth of female factory jobs in free trade zones (FTZs) in the Dominican Republic in the 1990s, and subsequent decline in the 2000s, to provide the first evidence that even relatively brief episodes of preferential trade treatments for export industries may have permanent effects on human capital levels and female empowerment. Focusing on a sample of provinces that established FTZs and exploiting variation in the opening of zones and age of women at the time of opening, I show that the FTZs' openings led to a large and very robust increase in girls' education. The effect persists after a decline in FTZs' jobs in the 2000s following the end of a trade agreement with the U.S. and an increase in competition from Asia. The reason appears to be that the increase in some girls' education changed marriage markets: girls whose education increased due to the FTZs' openings married later, had better matches with more stable marriages, gave birth later, and had children who were more likely to survive infancy. In sum, the evidence in this paper indicates that labor markets can improve female outcomes in developing countries through general equilibrium effects in the education and marriage markets. Another question I address in my dissertation is whether criminal capital developed during childhood can be exported to other locations. In the first chapter, I find that individuals take skills related to the illegal drug industry with them when they move to other districts, even when they move to districts without significant illegal industries. Chapter 3, "Exporting Criminal Capital: The Effect of U.S. Deportations on Gang Expansion and Human Capital in Central America", provides new evidence on how an increase in criminal capital due to deportations from the US affects human capital investments in El Salvador. In 1996, the U.S. Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act drastically increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the leaders of large gangs in Los Angeles were sent back to their countries. In addition to having a direct effect, the arrival of individuals bringing criminal skills and connections may have generated important spillover effects. We exploit this policy to look at the impact that deportation policies and the subsequent arrival of criminal capital to El Salvador had on several educational and economic outcomes. Using the 1996 policy and geographical variation in the exact location and delimitation of different gang groups, we find that criminal deportations led to large increase in crime and decrease in human capital accumulation for children living in these areas. Overall, this project helps to understand one of the reasons why El Salvador is among the world's most violent peacetime countries. Understanding these effects is crucial for public policy to successfully incorporate deported criminals back into society. While my work in the Dominican Republic and the previous literature has shown that increasing the returns to education for women incentivizes schooling, there is little evidence on how domestic violence affects human capital development and whether improving access to institutions for women can address these issues. During my field work in rural areas of Peru, I found that institutions do not usually address the problems facing women or ethnic and religious minorities. For example, the police do very little to stop domestic violence. Moreover, in many cases, women do not even trust these institutions enough to report these issues. Chapter 4, "Inter-Generational Impacts of Improving Access to Justice for Women: Evidence from Peru", exploits the introduction of women's justice centers (WJCs) in Peru to provide causal estimates on the effects of improving access to justice for women and children. Our empirical approach uses variation over time in the distance from schools and households to the nearest WJC together with province- by-year fixed effects. After the opening of WJC, we find that primary school enrollment increases at schools that are within a 1km radius of a WJC and the effect decreases with distance. In addition, we also find that primary school second graders have better test scores in reading and mathematics. Moreover, we find that children in primary school living in household's located near a WJC are more likely to attend school, to pass a grade and they are also less likely to drop out of school. We also provide some evidence that these improvements might be driven by an increase in the bargaining power of women inside the household and decrease in domestic violence. In sum, the evidence in this paper shows that providing access to justice for women can be a powerful tool to reduce domestic violence and increase education of children, suggesting a positive inter-generational benefit. Details: New York: Columbia University, 2017. 243p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed September 20, 2017 at: https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:nk98sf7m24 Year: 2017 Country: South America Keywords: Child Labor Shelf Number: 147415 |
Author: Taylor, Alice Title: Adolescent Relationship Violence in Brazil and Honduras Summary: There is strong evidence to show that adolescent relationship violence (during non-cohabitating relationships of namoro in Portuguese, noviazgo in Spanish) can lead to adult intimate partner violence (IPV). However, research and interventions addressing violence among adolescents are limited compared to those focused on adult IPV, and they are especially scarce in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. As a result, policies and programs in the region miss out on significant opportunities to promote nonviolent relationships throughout life. Details: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:: Promundo, 2017. 138p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 28, 2017 at: https://publications.iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/8535/adolescent-relationship-violence-in-brazil-and-honduras.PDF?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: South America Keywords: Adolescents Shelf Number: 147485 |
Author: American Enterprise Institute Title: Kingpins and Corruption: Targeting Transnational Organized Crime in the Americas Summary: Key Points Transnational organized crime resides at the heart of nearly every major threat confronting the Americas today. These organizations systematically degrade democratic institutions and the rule of law, stunting economic growth and stifling legitimate commerce and investment. The threat of transnational organized crime in the Americas requires greater focus and investment from policymakers to effectively combat illicit trafficking networks, corrupt government officials, gang activity and violence, and the growing presence of hostile extra-regional actors such as Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah. The US government should engage with regional allies to restore the hemispheric coalition against transnational organized crime. The Trump administration can lead the way by applying asymmetrical policy tools such as targeted sanctions while also working to enhance enforcement capabilities, promote economic development, and develop counterterrorism legal frameworks in neighboring states. Details: Washington, DC: AEI, 2017. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 29, 2017 at: http://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/kingpins-and-corruption.pdf Year: 2017 Country: South America Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 147500 |
Author: Martinez, Luis R. Title: Transnational Insurgents: Evidence from Colombia's FARC at the border with Chavez's Venezuela Summary: More than half of insurgent groups since the end of World War II have operated across international borders, but these transnational insurgent activities are seldom observable and little is known about their consequences. The election of Hugo Chavez as president of Venezuela in 1998, a well-known sympathizer of the insurgent groups in neighboring Colombia, provides a natural experiment to study the effects of increased access to foreign territory on insurgent activity and conflict intensity. Martinez shows that activity by the Colombian insurgent group FARC increased disproportionately in Colombian municipalities next to the border with Venezuela (relative to the rest of the country) after Hugo Chavez became president of the latter. He argues that this finding is consistent with increased FARC presence in Venezuela during the Chavez administration, given that the military and transport technologies employed by the insurgents severely constrained the area in which a safe haven across the border allowed them to expand their operations. The results indicate that exposure to a cross-border guerrilla sanctuary leads to large increases in the intensity of violence, as well as to reductions in local tax revenue and educational enrollment. Details: Chicago: Pearson Institute, 2016. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper no. 35: Accessed October 17, 2017 at: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/sites/default/files/2017-02/35.%20Martinez_Transnational%20insurgents.pdf Year: 2016 Country: South America Keywords: FARC Shelf Number: 147712 |
Author: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Counternarcotics: Overview of U.S. Efforts in the Western Hemisphere Summary: Western Hemisphere nations such as Mexico and Colombia are major sources of illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana. Precursor chemicals used in the production of illicit fentany and other dangerous synthetic drugs often originate in China but typically enter the United States through Canada and Mexico. U.S. agencies implementing the National Drug Control Strategy conduct several activities to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs and dismantle the organizations that control them (see fig.). In December 2016, Congress established the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission to, among other things, evaluate the U.S.-funded counternarcotics programs in the Western Hemisphere. In this context, GAO was asked to review key issues related to U.S. counternarcotics efforts in the Western Hemisphere. This report examines (1) U.S. agencies spending for counternarcotic efforts in the Western Hemisphere during fiscal years 2010- 2015, the most recent data available; (2) how agencies are gathering and sharing best practices and lessons learned from their counternarcotics efforts domestically and internationally; and (3) mechanisms U.S. agencies have used to address changing drug threats. GAO analyzed agencies' data and documents, interviewed agency officials, and conducted fieldwork at the U.S. Southern Command and Joint Interagency Task Force South in Florida. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2017. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-18-10: Accessed November 4, 2017 at: https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/687736.pdf Year: 2017 Country: South America Keywords: Counternarcotics Shelf Number: 148034 |
Author: Organization of American States. Secretariat for Multidimensional Security Title: Report on Citizen Security in the Americas/ Official Statistical Information on Citizen Security provided by the OAS Member States - Informe sobre Seguridad Ciudadana en las Americas 2012 Summary: In 2009, the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) created Alertamerica, the OAS Hemispheric Observatory on Security, which authorities, security specialists and the general public can visit at www.alertamerica.org. The OAS Hemispheric Observatory on Security contains official data from OAS Member States which is sub-divided into 122 indicators that encompass the totality of areas related to the social phenomena of crime and violence, as well as information on the initiatives undertaken by Member States to control and sanction these. The indicators constitute the widest possible repertoire of official information on these themes in the Americas. It is hoped that they will act as a cause for reflection and debate on a topic which has become the principal source of concern for citizens in our region. It constitutes, moreover, the most appropriate indicators and points of reference for the short, medium, and long-term policies which the American countries have implemented with a view to improving citizen security. The document which the reader has in his/ her hands, The Report on Citizen Security in the Americas 2012, is the second version of the General Secretariat's Annual Report comprising the information available through Alertamerica. The reader will find a synthesis of the current citizen security situation in the Americas, broken down into eighty-two statistical tables, as well as the opinions of renowned experts from throughout the continent on the principle areas of regional concern in this field. Details: Washington, DC: OEA, 2012. 164p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 2, 2018 at: http://www.oas.org/dsp/alertamerica/Report/Alertamerica2012.pdf Year: 2012 Country: South America Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 148985 |
Author: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Title: Towards the Effective Fulfillment of Children's Rights: National Protection Systems Summary: International human rights law clearly recognizes the special status of the child1 because of childrens condition as developing and growing persons. Such recognition goes hand-in-hand with the establishment of a duty on the part of States to afford children special and enhanced protection; from this duty derives the principle of the best interests of the child, which requires States to make decisions and prioritize interventions that foster children's enjoyment of their rights as well as the protection thereof. This recognition is enshrined in Article 19 of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter, the "American Convention" or the "ACHR"), Article VII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (hereinafter, the "American Declaration" or the "ADRDM"), and the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter, the "Convention on the Rights of the Child" or the "CRC"), as well as in all of the other main international human rights instruments having to do with children. Generally speaking, after the entry into force and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the States of the region have, at a national level, met their obligation to transpose and comply with this international instrument by adopting codes for children or special child protection laws that recognize the rights of children and adolescents. The legislative commitment undertaken by the States when it comes to children is evident and has enabled clear achievements to be made and very important milestones to be reached in this area, thereby transforming the reality for children in our hemisphere, with advances such as: Recognition of compulsory and free education for children and reductions in illiteracy rates; falling infant mortality and morbidity rates thanks to measures like vaccination programs; and declines in malnutrition levels as a result of nutritional support programs, just to offer a few well-known examples. While progress is visible in all the States of the region, that challenges persist in connection with children's and adolescents effective enjoyment of their rights is also undeniable. As part of its mandate, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) continuously monitors conditions in connection with children's and adolescents' enjoyment of their rights in the different countries of the region, as well as situations in which such rights have been violated and the responses offered by the States to protect, restore, and repair those rights. While the Commission acknowledges and commends advances like the ones described, it also notes with concern the profound gap between the rights recognized in laws and the reality in which millions of children and adolescents in the region live. Many of the issues surrounding the rights of children are, to a greater or lesser degree, experienced by the majority of the States. Details: Washington, DC: IACHR, 2017. 226p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 28, 2018 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/FulfillmentRights-Children.pdf Year: 2017 Country: South America Keywords: Child Protection Shelf Number: 149282 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Game Changers 2017: What to Watch for in 2018 Summary: Organized crime thrives amid political corruption and uncertainty. There will be plenty of this in Latin America in 2018, helping organized crime deepen its roots across the region over the course of the year. This is the moment when we draw on our extensive research and experience to make our predictions for the coming year. And the panorama for 2018 is one of the bleakest that InSight Crime has faced in our nine years of studying criminal phenomena in Latin America and the Caribbean. Tackling organized crime requires stable governments with purpose, strategy, strong security forces, healthy democracy and transparency, along with international cooperation. These currently seem in short supply around the region. Political chaos, infighting and upheaval ensure that attention is occupied on survival and manipulation of democracy, not with tackling organized crime. State legitimacy has come into question in certain nations in the region, as political leaders are investigated for corruption or manipulation of power. Embattled political leaders will often cut backroom deals with criminal elements to ensure their survival. Moreover, several countries will see important elections in the coming year, contributing to political instability. Political Hangovers From 2017 As we wrote in our introduction to this GameChangers, 2017 saw corruption take hold at high levels in governments across the region. So we enter 2018 with several political hangovers, where we believe corruption will assume a still stronger grip: Venezuela, where the last fig leaf of democracy has fallen and a corrupt regime is entrenching itself in power. As oil revenue dries up, the government may further criminalize to survive. The disintegration of the Venezuelan state and its total corruption has far-reaching regional implications for criminal dynamics. These are most immediately impacting on neighbors like Colombia, Brazil and Caribbean nations (Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and the Dominican Republic foremost among them), but the effects are spreading further afield. Honduras, where the re-election of President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been disputed amid claims of fraud and corruption. This has further undermined his already battered legitimacy. This Northern Triangle nation is of extraordinary importance for drugs moving from South America to the United States. Peru, which saw President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski narrowly avoid being removed from power amid accusations of corruption. He survived only by pardoning former President Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for human rights abuses. The Fujimori family control one of the most powerful factions in Congress. Kuczynski has been fatally weakened and discredited. We expect to see major underworld activities such as cocaine, timber and gold trafficking strengthened as a result. Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, has manipulated the constitution and looks set to perpetuate himself in office by standing for a fourth term. Most checks on his power now seem to have been stripped away, even as the country plays a central role in South America's drug trade. Ecuador has seen its vice president removed after a conviction for corruption, while President Lenin Moreno find himself locked in a political war with former President Rafael Correa. Organized crime is far down the president's list of priorities, despite that the fact that we believe the port of Guayaquil to be one of the major departure points for cocaine shipments across the globe. Presidential Elections in 2018 To further feed the political uncertainty, there are elections in six important nations, which mean that political attention will be utterly focused on these and not on the fight against organized crime. Brazil has a president with around five percent approval rating universally seen as corrupt. The favorite to win this election, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, was convicted in July of accepting bribes from an engineering firm in exchange for public works contracts. Colombia, the world's foremost producer of cocaine, is struggling to implement a peace agreement with Marxist rebels and prevent a recycling of criminal actors. The enemies of peace seem stronger than its friends as the candidates line up. Costa Rica, sat astride the Central America route for cocaine heading towards the United States, has seen transnational organized crime take root and feed national criminal structures. Mexico has seen violence reach new heights and its current president, Enrique Peea Nieto, has provided few new strategies to tackle homicides or the organized crime that feeds them. New leadership is desperately needed, but no matter who wins the July elections no real changes in strategy are expected until the end of the year, when a new president will take office. Paraguay, South America's most prolific producer of marijuana already has a president associated with criminal activity in the form of cigarette smuggling. With Brazilian criminal groups projecting themselves into this landlocked nation, clear leadership is needed to contain rampant criminal activity. Venezuela is due to have presidential elections, but with President Nicolas Maduro now operating a dictatorship, there are no guarantees these will be held, much less that any real change will occur. Economic collapse is more likely to produce change than political challenge. Even in Cuba, dominated by the Castro brothers since 1959, change is coming as Raul Castro has promised to step down in 2018. And Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007, is tightening his grip on the levers of power and undermining democracy. Not since the days of the Cold War have democracy and good governance been under such threat in Latin America. These conditions have in part been created by organized crime and the corruption it feeds. And organized crime will continue to profit from the chaos. Cooperation is also key to fighting transnational organized crime and for good or ill, the United States has often provided coherency and leadership in the war on drugs and organized crime. That leadership is gone along with much US credibility in the region. All this simply gives yet more room for criminals to maneuver. More 'Plata' Than 'Plomo' There is another aspect of organized crime worth mentioning when we look to 2018. While corruption has always been one of the primary tools for organized crime, its flip side has been intimidation and violence. Pablo Escobar used to famously offer his victims two choices: "plata" ("silver," a bribe) or "plomo" ("lead," a bullet). What is becoming clear to the most sophisticated criminals is that bribery now gets you a lot further, a lot quicker, than violence. The expanding corruption scandals are evidence of this. While Mexico, Venezuela and much of the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras register epidemic levels of homicides, Colombia is bucking the trend. Even as cocaine exports reach record levels, along with internal drug consumption, with other booming illegal economies such as gold mining and extortion, murders are falling. While this is in part due to the de-escalation of the civil conflict with the demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC), the other major factor is the development of a Pax Mafiosa. The first "mafia peace" was forged in Medellin, the capital of the cocaine trade, and expanded from there across the country. This means that our mission of exposing organized crime is getting harder here in our home base of Colombia. The criminal history of Latin America has been driven by criminal entrepreneurs, principally in the forms of the drug cartels. This is not the case in Africa, where criminal activity is often managed by elements within government. As Latin organized crime continues to fragment, and corruption becomes the preferred method of doing illicit business, Latin America may begin to look more like Africa. Criminality may not only be protected at the highest levels of government but perhaps run by these elements. This is a phenomena we have studied closely in our "Elites and Organized Crime" investigations. We will dedicate yet more resources to these kinds of investigations as we believe they point the way forward in terms of criminal evolution. SEE ALSO: InDepth Coverage of Elites and Organized Crime Transnational organized crime is the most agile business on the planet and adapts to changing conditions much faster than governments. When those governments become weakened, undermined and corrupted by transnational crime groups, the already uneven playing field become yet further skewed. This year is likely to be a year of further criminal entrenchment in the region, of further corruption of high levels of government or even state capture. Be ready, because we need to pay very close attention, if we are to see the hand of organized crime amid the political chaos Details: s.l.: InSight Crime, 2018. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 29, 2018 at: https://www.insightcrime.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GAMECHANGERS-2017-InSight-Crime-FINAL.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South America Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 150738 |
Author: Ramsey, Geoff Title: Responding to an Exodus: Venezuela's Migration and Refugee Crisis as Seen from the Colombian and Brazilian Borders Summary: As the political, social and economic crisis in Venezuela worsens, more and more Venezuelans are fleeing their country in droves each day. Impoverished Venezuelans are facing food and medicine shortages. Unable to sustain their families, many are seeking refuge abroad as a way out of their predicament. South American countries, which are unaccustomed to receiving such large migration flows, are struggling to respond to the needs of the Venezuelan migrant population. The United States has also seen an influx of Venezuelan migrants. Asylum data shows that Venezuela is now the most common nationality among those seeking asylum status in the United States. Since FY2017, the United States committed roughly $56 million in funding to governments and non-governmental groups in the regional response to Venezuela's exodus, and has pledged to support further efforts. Because this issue is both a domestic and regional policy priority for the U.S. government, it is important to look critically at the response to Venezuelan migration in the most affected countries, and how the U.S. can offer more effective support. The response so far is mixed, with some countries in the region adopting measures to restrict Venezuelan migration, and others opting for a more humanitarian response, facilitating special visas, asylum claims, and residency applications while addressing migrants' need for shelter, education, and economic opportunity. Yet the situation is fragile. As the flow of migrants grows, nationalist and xenophobic arguments will likely grow as well, creating potential for anti-immigrant policies as Venezuela's crisis drags on. And it appears destined to drag on. On May 20, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in presidential elections that were widely condemned as illegitimate. With Maduro claiming a new six-year term, the outlook for ordinary Venezuelans appears bleak, and it is very likely that the exodus of Venezuelans will accelerate in the coming months. This report applies a critical lens to the response from the two neighboring countries most affected by the exodus: Colombia and Brazil. It is based on the fieldwork conducted by the authors in Cucuta, Colombia, and Boa Vista and Pacaraima, Brazil, for ten days in late April 2018. Details: Washington, DC, 2018. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 11, 2018 at: https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Final-VZ-Migration-Report-Final.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South America Keywords: Immigration Shelf Number: 152882 |
Author: Camilleri, Michael J. Title: No Strangers at the Gate: Collective Responsibility and a Region's Response to the Venezuelan Refugee and Migration Crisis Summary: Venezuela suffers from a profound and multifaceted crisis. Years of mismanagement have led to a crippling economic contraction and an inflation rate projected to reach 1,000,000 percent in 2018. Citizens are chronically short of food and medicine and face some of the world's highest levels of violence. The governing regime has systematically dismantled democratic checks and balances, consolidating power through fraudulent elections, violent repression and the cynical use of scarcity as a tool of control. Unsurprisingly, Venezuelans are fleeing, generating the largest refugee and migration flow in the history of the Western Hemisphere - more than 1.6 million people since 2015. Most have sought refuge within Latin America, but Venezuelans are now also the leading requesters of asylum in the United States and Spain. With no end in sight for the economic, humanitarian and governance crisis in Venezuela, the forced migration challenge will only grow. The regional response to Venezuelan refugees and migrants has been marked by a spirit of solidarity. Latin American countries - particularly neighboring Colombia, where authorities report receiving 5,000 Venezuelans per day - have taken important steps to ensure freedom of movement and to provide avenues for legal stay and access to basic rights for those fleeing Venezuela. Nonetheless, many significant challenges to effective response remain. Meeting them requires reinforcing the existing regional solidarity toward Venezuelan refugees and migrants and combining it with greater creativity, collective responsibility and political will from the international community. This report aims to galvanize such an effort and offers concrete proposals for action. Details: Washington, DC: Centre for International Governance Innovation and Inter-American Dialogue, 2018. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 2, 2018 at: https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/CIGI_IAD_Venezuela_report-English-final.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South America Keywords: Humanitarian Response Shelf Number: 153116 |
Author: Neumann, Vanessa Title: The many criminal heads of the Golden Hydra: How the Tri-Border Area's Interlocking Arcs of Crime Create LatAm's #1 International Fusion Center Summary: The Tri-Border Area ('TBA') that straddles the intersection of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil is considered the 'Golden Hydra,' as it is the lucrative regional entry point of many 'heads' of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) that all lead to the underworld of illicit trade for more than forty years. This is partly a consequence of its ethnic composition and open borders, set by a policy to facilitate immigration from the Middle East, and also the connecting infrastructure to facilitate cross-border trade. The TBA gained notoriety in the 1990s after the bombings of the Israeli embassy (1992) and the AMIA center (1994), both in Buenos Aires, by Lebanese Hezbollah militants. The money, operatives and bomb parts all moved through the TBA. After 9/11, it again became the target of US counter-terrorism surveillance, as a 'safe haven' for terrorists from groups like Al Qaeda and Hamas, in addition to Hezbollah. With the world's attention firmly focused on the Middle East since then, the TBA has grown into a mini-state that benefits a corrupt elite while maintaining a large and efficient money laundering center for the world's organized crime and terrorist groups, not just in the region, but throughout the world, yielding TCOs and FTOs an estimated US$ 43 billion a year. Illicit trade of all sorts (including the illicit trade in tobacco products, 'ITTP') has been growing rapidly in recent years, corrupting good governance in all three countries and exploiting the degrading security and economic situation in both Argentina and Brazil. The TBA has become a regional crime fusion center where corrupt politicians work with drug cartels from Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, as well as organized crime groups from China, in conjunction with a large Lebanese merchant community, part of which gives support to Hezbollah. Though illicit funding for Hezbollah is generally high on the US agenda, that is not the case for the countries of the TBA. For historical reasons, Hezbollah is on the political agenda of Argentina. Brazil, however, does not consider Hezbollah a terrorist group; it considers only three groups as terrorists: the Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS. Paraguay considers Lebanese Hezbollah a group that poses a problem for its neighbors Argentina and Brazil, but not for Paraguay. authorities and mandates, Paraguay is constitutionally structured for corruption and illicit trade. Despite its smaller population and economy, it is the source and economic driver of illicit trade and money laundering affecting the other two countries. At the heart is Paraguay's lame-duck president, Horacio Cartes, the architect of the region's ITTP; he is the owner of Tabesa tobacco company. Furthermore, the removal of Carts from the presidency and its assumption by his successor (and fellow party member) Mario Abdo Benitez , will not reduce this illicit trade: Cartes will continue to wield tremendous power as a senator; several of his close friends will also enter the Senate, and his party won the presidency in the April 2018 elections. Security is the highest-ranked agenda item in Brazil's upcoming presidential elections in October 2018. This is primarily because of the military operations in Rio's favelas, where the criminal group Comando Vermelho (CV) and its affiliates are so widespread and heavily-armed, they are challenging the state for supremacy. The CV is enabled and funded by drugs and weapons that come mainly from Paraguay. This growing illicit trade has also turned Brazil into a prime export point for narcotics from South America to North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Because of the complexity of the TBA's organized crime cluster, as well as the weakness of regional counter-terrorist protocols, we recommend engaging international authorities with regional mandates over the core crimes of corruption, money laundering, and proceeds of crime, with the aim of dismantling the source from the fusion centre. These authorities include: the IMF, UNODC, UN CTED, and FATF. Given that the US is largely absent from the region, it is recommended to open pathways to the US and European enforcement communities and the aforementioned authorities through well-structured workshops in Washington, DC and other key cities to build awareness. The other way to influence regional ITTP is to become a larger stakeholder in the Paraguayan tobacco industry. Details: New York: Counter Terrorism Project, 2018. 119p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed Dec. 12, 2018 at: https://www.counterextremism.com/sites/default/files/The%20Many%20Criminal%20Heads%20of%20the%20Golden%20Hydra%20%28May%202018%29.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South America Keywords: Illicit Tobacco Shelf Number: 154457 |
Author: Ortiz-von Halle, Bernardo Title: Bird's-Eye View: Lessons from 50 years of bird trade regulation & conservation in Amazon countries Summary: In 2014, TRAFFIC's South America office discussed with WWF the importance of assessing the status of trade in wild birds in Amazon countries in the lead up to the fiftieth "anniversary" of policy and legal changes that were urgently implemented to regulate the trade that seriously depleted many of the most sought-after species in demand by booming post-war economies. Six Amazon countries were visited by the author, although Venezuela and Bolivia were omitted due to budget constraints, consideration of the role of these two countries in the wider conservation context, and in relation to the trade dynamics of their neighbors is covered here. The author interviewed key stakeholders, including national and subnational governments, police forces, NGOs, zoos and rescue centers, bird experts, traders and breeders. These interviews and some field visits offered different perspectives about bird trade issues, mechanisms in place and the solutions needed to reduce any threats from the poaching of birds on their conservation status. During the 1970s, trade prohibition spread to most Amazon countries, and by the mid-1980s, every one had developed its own institutions and laws to manage and contain the problems generated by demand for illegal wildlife under the framework of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which entered into force in 1975. This report is constructed from the institutional experience of TRAFFIC's South America office, which operated from Quito, Ecuador, from 1999 to 2015, and the personal experience of the author, dealing with species and habitat conservation in the region during the last 30 years. This culmination of wildlife conservation experience related to wildlife trade, its dynamics, socioeconomic linkages, institutional and legal elements, CITES included, helped structure the design of this research examining the reality and outlook for bird trade in the Amazon countries. The personal interviews in different countries, bibliography and web searches offer an updated insight into the bird trade status in each country, its linkages to other environmental and socioeconomic dynamics, and the way forward not only to resolve bird trade issues, but more importantly, to guarantee the conservation of birds and their habitats throughout Latin America. The conclusions presented are a compilation of issues the author considers worth highlighting to understand better where things are and in what direction they are going regarding bird trade and conservation beyond protected areas. This document presents country chapters for Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and combines in a single chapter Guyana and Suriname, as there are enough commonalities between these two countries to consider a joint analysis. One initial chapter compiles an overview of the birds of South America in relation to trade-legal or illegal, and another chapter dedicated to the USA as the former main market of Amazon country birds for more than two decades until it banned the import of CITES-listed species in 1992. The USA then turned into a major commercial breeder of South American bird species after this process was "exported' to the rest of the world-South American countries banned the trade while others legally profited from breeding and trading in the species. Banning the bird trade surely saved millions of birds, but it did not bring any incentives to conserve habitats or species as a whole. This exludes Guyana and Suriname, whose economic interest in conservation is left for non-consumptive uses like bird tourism, which is also an important economic activity in some rural portions of most Amazon countries. The reduction of the bird trade to current (2017) levels, which are a fraction of what they were just five or ten years ago, offers hope for a better future for birds and nature, other threats and pressures appear or increase as human populations grow, encroaching into pristine regions of the continent. Local conservation efforts have made enormous differences in many areas, even reversing the destruction of nature and the extinction process of species. Stakeholders still need to design and install the appropriate tools to contain deforestation and the impacts of climate change as we move further into the 21st century. The urgency of the situation requires the revision of currently failing conservation strategies, and above all, giving local stakeholders the economic conditions and motivations to appreciate, value and respect the invaluable avian treasures that enrich each South American country. Birds have been treated over the last 150 years as sources of money for whatever international business demanded them for their feathers, meat as pets or for sport. Attitudes towards their conservation have certainly changed, but there still needs to be a stronger boost to prevent further destruction and irreplaceable loss. Details: Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC, 2018. 198p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2019 at: https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/11517/birds-eye-view.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South America Keywords: Birds Shelf Number: 154452 |
Author: Lanza, Edison Title: Women Journalists and Freedom of Expression: Discrimination and gender-based violence faced by women journalists in the exercise of their profession Summary: The Americas have made progress in formally recognizing women's right to freedom of expression under equal and non-discriminatory conditions and in removing legal barriers that have traditionally prevented their full exercise. More and more women are involved in building and strengthening a representative, transparent, and accountable government in many countries and an increasing number of journalists and human rights defenders are engaged in the exercise, promotion, and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. In particular, information and communication technologies have facilitated and expanded the possibilities for millions of women to participate actively in political, economic, cultural, and social life, including the media. Despite these remarkable advances, women in the region still face structural obstacles and discriminatory practices that exclude many women from public debate and prevent them, forcibly and persistently, from exercising their right to express their ideas and opinions publicly and to receive information on an equal footing with men. Many of these obstacles and practices are manifestations of gender-based discrimination, in addition to other factors, such as race, ethnicity, religion or belief, age, class, sexual orientation, and gender identity, that women in the region face, and they continue to create disparities in women's exercise of the right to freedom of expression in comparison to their male peers. The impact of these discriminatory practices is particularly pronounced on women who actively exercise freedom of expression and have a high public profile, such as women journalists, women human rights defenders, and women politicians. These groups of women are doubly attacked for exercising freedom of expression and because of their gender. In addition to the risks of threats and violence faced by all human rights defenders and journalists in the region, women belonging to these groups are exposed to additional or specific risks. By challenging chauvinistic stereotypes that disapprove of their participation in public life, they face a situation of violence and gender-based discrimination against women, as well as differentiated forms of violence from State and non-State actors. At the same time, they face a lack of protection and obstacles to access to justice that are also differentiated from their male counterparts. The right of women to freedom of expression has been part of the work agenda of the IACHR's Office of the Special Rapporteur since its inception. In 1999, the Office released the report "Women and Freedom of Expression," examining for the first time the relationship between the status of women and its repercussions on the right to freedom of expression and information, and underscored those factors that lead to inequality and discrimination against women and that directly influence the exercise of freedom of expression and information, such as "women's inequality in educational opportunities, violence against women and the need for women to become more politically involved." Since then, it has promoted, through various mechanisms and in collaboration with the IACHR's Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women, the development of standards to guarantee women's right to freedom of expression and access to information as a tool to combat gender-based violence against women. For several years now, the Office of the Special Rapporteur, together with the international community, has made efforts to draw attention to the forms of gender-based violence faced by women journalists in the exercise of their profession, as well as to the disproportionate impact of certain forms of discrimination in their work. The Office of the Special Rapporteur has paid close attention to the situation of violence against women journalists and the special or additional risks they face in their work because of their gender, and it has been part of the Office's work agenda on an ongoing basis. In particular, the Office of the Special Rapporteur has drawn attention to the increase in violence against women journalists, including murder, sexual violence, and online violence. In addition to being subjected to the wide range of human rights violations affecting journalists in general, "Women journalists, however, disproportionately and routinely face gender-based violence in the workplace and in the field." Women journalists and women working in other areas of communication must deal with specific threatening environments that restrict their work and/or have a disproportionate impact on the exercise of their right to freedom of expression. From inequality at work, sexist and misogynist comments, sexual violence and gender-based killings of women (or femicide), these threats or risks tend to be invisible and are not recognized as undue restrictions on freedom of expression by most colleagues, the media, and state authorities. In turn, the lack of a protection against this type of violence and in the investigation of crimes committed against them, makes it difficult to adequately address the particular situation of women journalists and effectively guarantee the exercise of their right to freedom of expression. Both the universal human rights system and the Inter-American system have developed norms and standards that underscore the State's obligation to address special risks and particular factors that hinder or prevent women journalists from exercising their right to freedom of expression as part of its obligation to respect, protect, and guarantee the exercise of this right. This includes adopting the necessary positive measures to create and maintain a safe and supportive environment for women journalists to be able to work under equal conditions and free from discrimination. States also have an obligation to protect persons under their jurisdiction from undue third-party interference with their right to freedom of expression, including by companies. All companies, including the media and online platforms, in turn have a responsibility to respect human rights, in accordance with the standards developed in this area. The objective of this report is to highlight the situation of women journalists in the region and to examine the obligations of States, as well as the role of the private sector, in eliminating the main obstacles and special or additional risks faced by women journalists in the exercise of their freedom of expression that are related to inequality and gender-based discrimination against women. The report seeks to support States in meeting their obligations and to contribute to the efforts of civil society, business, and other private actors. The report is divided into three sections. In the first part, based on information received and testimonies gathered, the report documents the situation of discrimination and gender-based violence against women experienced by journalists in the Americas. In the second section, the report then addresses the obligations of States to ensure the substantive equality of women journalists and examines some of the obligations of the private sector in this area. Finally, the report concludes with a number of recommendations. The Office of the Special Rapporteur recalls that a functional definition of journalists is used in this report. As expressed in other opportunities, journalists are those who observe, describe, document, and analyze events, statements, policies, and any proposal that may affect society, with the purpose of systematizing that information and gathering facts, analyses, and opinions to inform sectors of society or society as a whole. Such a definition includes media workers and support staff, as well as community media workers, "citizen journalists," and others who may be using the new media as a tool to reach out to the public, as well as opinion leaders who become targets by exercising their right to freedom of expression. Details: Washington, DC: Organization of American States, 2018. 77p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 8, 2019 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/reports/WomenJournalists.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South America Keywords: Discrimination Shelf Number: 154882 |
Author: Collard, Rosemary-Claire Magdeleine Solange Title: Animal Traffic: Making, remaking, and unmaking commodities in global live wildlife trade Summary: Against mass species loss and escalating concern over declining biodiversity, legal and illegal trade in wildlife is booming. Annually, it generates tens of billions of dollars and involves the circulation of billions of live and dead animals worldwide. This dissertation examines one dimension of this economy: flows of live, wild-caught animals - namely exotic pets - into North America. My central questions are: how are wild animals' lives and bodies transformed into commodities that circulate worldwide and can be bought and owned? How are these commodities remade and even unmade? In answering these questions the dissertation is concerned not only with embodied practices, but also with broader, dominant assumptions about particular figures of the human and the animal, and the relations between them. This dissertation draws on reading across economic geography and sociology, political economy and ecology, and political theory to construct a theoretical approach with three strands: a commodity chain framework, a theory of performativity, and an anti-speciesist position. It weaves this theoretical grounding through multi-sited research carried out from 2010-2013, including participant- and spectator-observation, interviews, and film and photography. In this research, to retain a focus on animals I inserted myself in multi-species contact zones. Specifically, I traced three nodes in global live wildlife trade's circuits: commodification of animals through capture in biosphere reserves in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize; recommodification (re-legitimation of the animals' status as commodities) through exchange at exotic animal auctions across the US; and attempted decommodification through rehabilitation at a wildlife centre in Guatemala. This research suggests that commodification and decommodification are not processes of "denaturing" and "renaturing", respectively. Rather, they are both productions of particular natures. Commodification produces an encounterable, individual and controllable animal life. Decommodification seeks to do the opposite. Ultimately, I argue that all of these global live wildlife trade processes depend on and perform, or bring into being, a human/animal dualism that positions the human figure as a master subject and the animal as a subordinate object. This dissertation thus amounts to a critique of the exotic pet commodity form. Details: Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia, 2013. 216p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed march 14, 2019 at: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0165692 Year: 2013 Country: South America Keywords: Illegal Trade Shelf Number: 154968 |
Author: Inter-American Children's Institute Title: Adolescent Criminal Liability Systems in the Americas Summary: 1. The Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN) is the Specialized Organization of the Organization of American States (OAS) responsible for promoting and contributing to the protection of the rights of children in the Americas, and for generating technical instruments which will strengthen the States' capacity to design and implement public policy in these areas. Two international instruments constitute the principal reference points for its activities: the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 2. The IIN, composed by the OAS Member States represented on the Directing Council make this Institute a dynamic organism that can translate the needs and interests of the States into solutions for children and adolescents of the region. 3. As the body responsible for coordinating and generating input for the States, the IIN's Secretariat is a technical reference point in matters involving human rights and public policy for children in the hemisphere. By virtue of its direct contact with the governing bodies for children in OAS Member States, it has become the coordinating body of the principal regional efforts for the fulfillment of rights of children and adolescents. The IIN is, therefore, an institution that contributes technically to creating awareness regarding the problems affecting children, as well as to generating a sense of social responsibility in this respect. 4. Within the context of the Inter-American system, in addition to cooperating with the human rights agencies in disseminating and promoting these rights, the IIN fosters the design of comprehensive public policies that promote the best interest of children. Details: Montevideo, Uruguay, 2012. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 14, 2019 at: http://www.iin.oea.org/pdf-iin/2016/publicaciones/Adolescent_Criminal_Liability_Sytems_in_the_Americas.pdf Year: 2012 Country: South America Keywords: Adolescents and Crime Shelf Number: 155824 |
Author: Piotrowski, Matt Title: Nearing the Tipping Point: Drivers of Deforestation in the Amazon Region Summary: The largest tropical rainforest on the planet, the Amazon plays a critical role as a storehouse of carbon and mediator of the global water cycle and holds a greater share of the world's known biodiversity than any other ecosystem. However, according to "Nearing the Tipping Point: Drivers of Deforestation in the Amazon Region," a new report by the Inter-American Dialogue in collaboration with the Andes Amazon Fund, unchecked development is placing the Amazon under threat, pushing deforestation rates to near-record levels throughout the region. The main causes of deforestation vary between countries-from cattle ranching and soy production to infrastructure development, land grabbing, and illegal gold mining, the report finds. A lack of oversight-often due to inadequate resources for environmental regulation-is a pervasive challenge in Amazonian countries, and signs suggest this problem is only growing. In his first months in office, Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, reduced the already strained budgets of national environmental and indigenous offices. In Colombia, the peace agreement with the FARC created a vacuum of governability now occupied by illegal armed groups, resulting in land grabbing. Details: Washington, DC: Inter-American Dialogue, 2019. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2019 at: https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Nearing-the-Tipping-Point-FINAL-3.pdf Year: 2019 Country: South America Keywords: Deforestation Shelf Number: 155878 |
Author: Magalini, Frederico Title: eWaste in Latin America: Statistical Analysis and Policy Recommendations Summary: The modern lifestyle of a growing number of people living on the planet increasingly relies on electric and electronic equipment (EEE). The use of modern information and communication technology (ICT) can contribute to achieving some of the Sustainable Development Goals and enable a transition to more efficient resource use, which can engender key societal benefits. In addition, increased demand for EEE is impacting consumption on a global level. In the case of some metals, such as cobalt and palladium, the mobile phone industry alone consumes more than 10 per cent of the annual global production. As a result of increased EEE production and use, the amount of discarded electronics (e-waste) is also growing worldwide, reaching more than 40,000 kilotonnes (kt) of electronic products discarded in 2014, nearly 4,000 kt of which occurred in Latin America (LATAM). For mobile phones in particular, nearly 189 kt have been discarded worldwide, of which nearly 17 kt occurred in LATAM. This means that worldwide, e-waste generated from mobile phones represents less than 0.5 per cent of the total weight of the world's e-waste, which is the same proportion for LATAM; ICT equipment, and mobile phones in particular, make up a relatively small segment of global e-waste. When looking at the expected growth rate, the average year-to-year growth of e-waste appears to be higher in LATAM compared to the global average. The amount of the region's e-waste is expected to increase to 4,800 kt in 2018. This is a growth of 70 per cent compared to 2009, whereas e-waste is projected to grow globally by only 55 per cent. Annual growth rate expected from now till 2018 will decline from 7 per cent in 2012 to 5 per cent in 2018 in Latin America. Four main elements need to be considered when analysing the challenges of e-waste management: E-waste often contains materials that are considered toxic, which are potentially harmful to environmental and human health. This may also impacts lives of children in many countries, as they could be exposed to e-waste-derived chemicals in their daily life due to unsafe recycling activities that are often conducted in the home, either by family members or the children themselves. Furthermore, children may be exposed through dumpsites located close to their homes, schools and play areas. In addition, evidence and studies are also showing the effects on fetuses that may already be exposed via their mothers. E-waste contains valuable and scarce materials, and recovery of these materials as secondary resources can alleviate some mining of virgin materials. In some cases, the costs of proper collection and recycling of e-waste may exceed the revenues generated from the recovered materials. This is primarily due to the complexity of product design and the difficulty of separating highly commingled materials. Extending equipment lifetime could be preferable from a life cycle perspective for some products. This could lower the ecological footprint through less production and also make products available for segments of the population that cannot afford brand new products. Only a few LATAM countries have specific bills on e-waste management in place. In the majority of cases, e-waste management is regulated under general hazardous waste legislation, and specific policy bills or technical guidelines are currently being discussed, going through the legislative process or being implemented. Basic waste management and recycling infrastructures exist, mainly linked to metal scrap processing, but individual and specific e-waste processing facility development is expected to grow in the coming years. In many countries, pre-processing facilities are still relying mainly on manual dismantling. End-processing or disposal options for some of the critical fractions that result from e-waste processing are missing, and thus the majority of fractions are either exported or processed with rudimentary techniques that result in low yield, or they are disposed of. From a strategic perspective, key principles should guide development of policies on e-waste and tackling mobile phone collection and treatment, in particular: Adequate and targeted awareness campaigns need to be created by public authorities, with support from manufacturers, service providers, retailers and municipalities to inform consumers about their fundamental role in the recycling chain; appliances kept at home even when not used are holding back natural resources from potential recycling processes, and improper disposal of e-waste (especially mobile phones) with unsorted municipal waster or other metal scrap may prevent the opportunity to properly recover critical materials forever. Securing reliable access to raw materials has become a critical challenge to ensure the production and supply of these products and functionalities for a growing number of people on the planet. One of the primary elements to ensure future access to key metals is to enable effectiveness through the recycling chain; products must not only be collected, but also recycled, keeping in mind the effectiveness of various processes, particularly for key metals. Separate collection of mobile phones is the first, fundamental step in the recycling chain. But societal benefits of e-waste (especially mobile phone) recycling can be achieved only if all e-waste collected is channelled to the best treatment options. Efficiency in the recovery process is particularly important for metals that are extensively used in modern electronics. The intrinsic economic potential and the environmental benefits of recycling can be achieved only when efficiency is maximised across all steps of the recycling chain. This report aims to identify the main challenges related to proper e-waste management, especially in the context of Latin America, with a particular focus on the opportunities linked to mobile phone collection and recycling. The unique challenges of mobile phone collection and recycling, from a societal perspective, are discussed in the report. Details: S.L.: GSMA and United Nations University, 2015. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2019 at: https://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/GSMA2015_Report_eWasteInLatinAmerica_English.pdf Year: 2015 Country: South America Keywords: Electronic Waste Shelf Number: 155942 |
Author: Idler, Annette Title: Arrangements of Convenience: Violent Non-state Actor Relationships and Citizen Security in the Shared Borderlands of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela Summary: Borderlands are critical security zones but remain poorly understood. In regions plagued by drug violence and conflict, violent groups compete for territorial control, cooperate in illegal cross-border activities, and substitute for the functions of the state in these areas. Despite undermining physical security, fuelling fear, and challenging the state's sovereignty, the exact modi operandi of these groups are little known. Against this backdrop, this thesis explores how different interactions among violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in the Colombian-Ecuadorian and Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands impact on citizen security. These border areas attract rebels, paramilitaries and criminal organisations alike: they constitute geo-strategic corridors for the global cocaine industry and are sites of supply and operation for the major actors involved in Colombia's decades-long armed internal conflict. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis consolidates the literature on conflict, security and organised crime, borders and borderlands, and anthropological approaches to fear and violence. It integrates theories of cooperation among social actors with original empirical research. It is based on a comparative, multi-sited case-study design, using ethnographic methods complemented by quantitative data. The research involved over twelve months of fieldwork with 433 interviews and participant observation on both sides of the crisis-affected Colombia-Ecuador and Colombia-Venezuela borders, and in Bogota, Caracas and Quito. Developing a typology of VNSA interactions, I argue that these create not only physical violence but also less visible types of insecurity: when VNSAs fight each other, citizens are exposed to violence but follow the rules imposed by the opposing parties. Fragile alliances produce uncertainty among communities and erode the social fabric by fuelling interpersonal mistrust. Where VNSAs provide security and are socially recognised, "shadow citizen security" arises: security based on undemocratic means. I show that the geography of borderlands reinforces the distinct impacts of VNSA arrangements on citizen security yet renders them less visible. Details: Oxford, United Kingdom: University of Oxford, 2014. 351p. Source: Internet Resource Doctorate Thesis: Accessed July 14, 2019 at: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5c8e5068-4de8-4a53-bdab-1f847f438f05/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=ORA%2BThesis%2BAnnette%2BIdler%2B20072015.pdf&type_of_work=Thesis Year: 2014 Country: South America Keywords: Border Security Shelf Number: 156797 |