What is the region doing to improve security?
By Diego Hernández Castillo
Throughout history, Latin America has been portrayed as being one of the regions with the highest levels of insecurity, violence, crime and infiltration by narco-traffickers. As a result, the region’s national governments have implemented heavy-handed strategies on several occasions, sometimes successful and more often not.
According to specialists from the United Nations, the underlying causes of crime, violence and insecurity are nothing less than poverty and inequality in the social system, and the fact that governments for the most part have failed to develop plans or strategies to prevent or eliminate those factors.
Some of the most violent and insecure countries in the world are to be found in Latin America. Venezuela has been inundated by a wave of violence since Nicolás Maduro replaced Hugo Chávez in power in 2013, and between them, the two presidents have introduced more than 20 failed security strategies. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are supported by the United States in their efforts to maintain security, and it’s the same with Haiti, which has been under the protection of the United Nations since 2004.
In Mexico, although President Enrique Peña Nieto says murder rates have declined after more than two years of his government, insecurity, violence, crime and human rights violations are a constant throughout the country, as exemplified by the famous case of the forced disappearance of the Normal School students of Ayotzinapa in a rural area of the State of Guerrero.
Still, there are exceptional countries in terms of security, like Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua and Uruguay, whose governments have implemented and executed effective plans to lower and eradicate violence and insecurity. Here are the strategies of the Latin American countries:
Argentina
Before she was re-elected in December 2010, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner founded the Ministry of Security, and to date she has implemented many of the strategies during her second mandate:
In 2011 neighborhood community participation tables were established to create a crime map and form a parallel structure of police control.
In August of that year the Buenos Aires Safe City Plan was unveiled to combat crime through technology and with 1,200 video cameras.
At the end of 2011 the Biometric Identification System was created, to enable authorities to have genetic and bio-information of citizens.
The Neighborhood Prevention Police have been operating since 2012. Its officers create personal links with neighbors to intervene in conflicts.
The Churruca Vista Hospital has been remodeled with modern equipment to attend to wounded Federal Police officers and their families.
The Federal Police force has begun to appoint women to high office, and to include transgender people in their ranks.
Four security zones have been established:
The South Belt, to optimize security in Buenos Aires with the National Gendarmerie and the Naval Prefecture.
The Sentinel, with deployment of 6,000 police officers from the Gendarmerie in the suburbs of the capital, with an investment of 150 million pesos.
The Northern Shield to combat narco-traffic, human trafficking and contraband in the north of the country, with 20 military radars.
The Watchtower, for control of persons and cargo in long-distance transport, using 650 gendarmes, 140 airport police, X-ray scanners, cameras and drug-detecting dogs.
Bolivia
Before ending his second term and starting his third in 2014, and in response to the increase in crime, President Evo Morales amended Law 264 of the System of Citizen Security to increase the budget by 700 million bolivianos for infrastructure for the National Police. The Deputy Minister of Citizen Security carried out several plans:
In preventive technology: Air Security Service at the testing stage; Geo-referenced Information System; Security Observatory; Forensic System for identification of goods and persons; and surveillance cameras.
Disaster risk: Implementation of the Area of Disaster Risk Management; strengthening of the Physical, Nuclear and Radiology Security Committee; and the Platform of Traffic Security.
For information and training in security: School security brigades; implementation of the Integral Model of Care of street children and adolescents; and development of protocols against trafficking in humans.
Brazil
In August 2014, President Dilma Rousseff proposed leaving in place the security model adopted during the Brazil World Cup, but by the beginning of her second term this year Congress still had not approved it because it considered public security to be an issue exclusively under the jurisdiction of each of the country’s 27 states. These were the measures introduced for the World Cup:
A budget of $900 million and 177,000 officers (Firefighters; Municipal Guard; Armed Forces; Intelligence; and Civil, Military and Federal Police).
The Extraordinary Secretary of Security for Large Events was created.
15 Command and Control Centers were created: 12 regional, one at each venue; two national, in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro; and one Center of International Police Cooperation.
Each World Cup host state was given Command Centers and Mobile Controls (fully equipped trucks): 12 air imagers (equipment in helicopters capable of taking and transmitting images in real time); robots to detonate explosives; and 36 elevated observation platforms.
The Armed Forces had several action zones: control of the air space, maritime defense, cybernetics and supervision of explosives.
The novelty of the model resides in the joint action of the bodies of national and regional police, as well as the implementation of a Command and Control Center in each of the nation’s state capitals. In addition to that and in response to the marches against her, Rousseff reported the following measures early in April:
Creation of a unified data bank to combat crime.
Measures to control violence during political demonstrations and to standardize law and order enforcement procedures.
Actions among the various police forces and methods of protection against the destruction of public and private property.
Chile
After starting her second term, in August 2014 Michelle Bachelet announced the Security Plan for Everyone. Its basic features are information, citizen participation, coordination, territorial focus and local leadership. Its strategy is based on five main points and 16 priorities:
Planning and execution at the local level: Implementation of the Community Plan, the new security governance; strengthening the role of local governments and state services; and creating instruments to improve relationships and promote peace.
Institutionalizing the rehabilitation and support for victims: Creation of the National Service for Social Rehabilitation, adding to the contents of the rehabilitation program; separating the area of protection of children at risk and creating a service for adolescent lawbreakers; and creating the Support Service for Victims.
Control and punishment: strengthening the system of penal punishment and preventive work by the police; modernizing the intelligence system; taking on organized crime and drug trafficking; restricting and punishing the illegal use of arms; and improving the regulation of large events, improving the Law of Violence in the States and the regulations of private security.
Regulation of the prevention of violence and crime: Forming a commission to create the Law of Prevention of Violence and Crime; and creating a state policy for the social prevention of violence and crime.
Information and evaluation: Improving the systems of measurement and evaluation of violence, crime and insecurity.
Colombia
Since his first term in 2010, Juan Manuel Santos has continued with the security policy of Álvaro Uribe and promised to combat narco-terrorism. Before being re-elected in 2014, the president unveiled the Policy of Citizen Security, a list of items that includes the following points for the current government:
Creation of the Ministry of Citizen Security, focused on crime prevention and the punishment of criminals.
Increasing the police force by 25,000, adding 5,000 new soldiers and 15,000 officers to the National Police with the goal of reaching 200,000 before 2018.
An increase in the number of Metropolitan Police forces from 8 to 17. The idea is that there should be 32 during the current government.
The National Plan for Community Policing by Quadrant in more than 260 municipalities, with a total of 3,656 quadrants. Mobile Quadrants will be created to complement the community-based ones.
The Policy of Living Together and Citizen Security was developed, and will strengthen the “Together we can” program for citizen cooperation.
Reinforcing the Integral Security Plans in the municipalities and cities to harden the punishments for minor crimes; more vigilance; higher quotas in the prisons and dismantling of conflictive areas.
Reinforcing police investigations, working with the judicial branch so that criminals do not return to the street and are properly prosecuted.
A frontal assault against cyber-crime.
Protection of women and minors.
Reform of the Police Code, updating it and making it into a guide for citizens to live together.
Costa Rica
When he became president in 2014, Luis Guillermo Solís continued with the Policy of Citizen Security of his predecessor Laura Chinchilla that succeeded because it was based on consultation with the citizens. That’s why he appointed Celso Gamboa, who had been Assistant Minister of Security in the Chinchilla administration, to be Minister of Public Security, although he resigned on February 3, 2015. The strategies are:
For prevention, carrying out actions in vulnerable communities and schools, aimed at dealing with the root causes associated with violence.
For control and punishment, promoting measures to reinforce police work and make it more effective, and coordinating with prosecutors and judges.
The passing of two laws that establish taxes to finance public security: one on registered corporations and the other on gaming in casinos.
Increasing the number of officers in the police force to 14,000 and increasing their salaries.
Dramatically reinforcing the actions of prosecutors and court judges.
Putting special emphasis on fighting narco-trafficking and organized crime by carrying out more drug seizures and dismantling gangs.
These are the security strategies that have been added since the start of the Solís administration:
Approving a budget of $438 million for 2015, a 5 percent increase over 2014.
Creating a Border Police force to patrol the frontiers.
Acquiring security and defense equipment to protect the frontiers.
Cuba
Since Raúl Castro assumed power in 2008 and in spite of the limitations imposed on its citizens, Cuba continues to be one of the safest countries in the world. According to the United Nations it has a homicide rate of less than 5 per 100,000 persons. Raúl is continuing to reinforce the strategies for security in the country:
He strengthened the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) which were established in 1960 to carry out the tasks of collective vigilance in the face of external threats and destabilizing actions against the political system.
The CDRs are found in every corner of the island and carry out night patrols, battle against possible smuggling of packages of drugs by sea, recruit young people to study and work, and provide attention to families with social disadvantages and vulnerable old people.
He reinforced the National Revolutionary Policy and the Technical Investigation Department, pillars of citizen security, both in common crime situations and in keeping the peace.
He provided weapons, motorcycles and cars for the National Revolutionary Police, the Railroad Police and the Tourism Police forces.
He modernized the techniques and armaments of the Revolutionary Armed Forces with the support of Russia.
He continued Fidel’s policy of covering the needs of food, housing, education and dispersion of the population to avoid criminal activity.
He reinforced the 106 emergency number, which is used to communicate with the police, fire department and sanitation service.
As part of the preventive policy, the daily newspapers avoid sensationalizing crimes; on the contrary, the articles are edited with didactic prose.
He reinforced security by granting liberties to citizens: Access to the Internet, buying and selling of cars, houses and telephones, and the creation of businesses and trading.
Ecuador
During his first term starting in 2007, President Rafael Correa launched the Integral Security Plan, which did not work well and had to be overhauled in 2010 following a political crisis in his country, for which he did the following:
He invested $2.6 million in security and built hundreds of Community Police Units.
He built ECU-911, installations which concentrate all public safety institutions in one central information location.
He installed cameras in public trucks and taxis to avoid kidnappings.
He ordered the Armed Forces to combat organized crime.
He created a truth commission that investigates state crimes against human rights that occurred in previous administrations.
He restructured the judiciary power, creating the Judicial Council and the National Court of Justice, and rewrote the Comprehensive Criminal Code.
At the start of his third term in 2013, Correa released the 2014-2017 Integral Security Plan to solve problems or develop opportunities:
He converted National Security into a state policy operated by the institutions of the Sectorial Security Council.
He ordered treatment of violations with a structural vision of the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Religious Affairs, which exceeds the powers of the Security Council.
The Coordinator of Security Ministry tries to achieve a connection among the three levels of planning: Macro (Plan for Living well and Secretary of Planning and Development); middle (sectorial and intersectorial); and micro (coordinated ministries and secretariats).
He makes visible the management of sectors of security such as intelligence and national mobility.
He proposed a methodology that brings together the directors of the strategies of Eradication of Poverty and the agendas with a focus on equality, gender, human mobility and disability.
El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras
In September 2014, Presidents Juan Orlando Hernández, Salvador Sánchez Cerén and Otto Pérez announced the Alliance Plan for the Prosperity of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, their respective countries, in which they will be supported by the United States to attract investments, and which includes as a line of action the improvement of citizens’ security and access to justice:
To strengthen the programs of prevention of violence at the family and community levels.
To promote programs of secure schools.
The creation of centers of attention for youths at social risk.
To strengthen the institutions of citizen security.
To modernize the justice system.
To strengthen institutions for increasing trust in the state by the citizens.
To increase transparency.
In January 2015, one year after he came to power, Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras introduced a series of measures to combat the crime wave that was sweeping his country, one of the most violent in the world:
He sent the Military Police into the streets. The Military Police are made up of all branches of the police, military, prosecutors and judges, to combat narco-traffic, criminal bands and gangs.
He reinforced and modernized the Observatory of Violence.
For his part, when he came to power in 2012, the Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez created the following strategies:
He created two police task forces to combat and prevent kidnappings and the murdering of women.
He built a maximum security prison financed by Taiwan.
He proposed the legalizing of marijuana and consumption of narcotics in his country and in the region, but the proposal was rejected.
Haiti
Since 2011 when he came to power, Michel Martelly has been supported by the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti, which was established before the crisis and coup d’état of 2004. That plan, ordered by the United Nation Security Council, set up the following strategies:
To stabilize the country.
To create a military contingent of 7,000 soldiers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States, the Philippines, France, Guatemala, Italy, Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka and Uruguay.
To pacify and disarm guerrilla groups and criminal gangs.
To promote free and open elections.
To encourage institutional and economic development in Haiti.
In September 2014, with the nation on the road to stabilization, Ban Ki-Moon, secretary-general of the UN, recommended the following actions:
Acceptance of a budget of $500 million for the period June 2014-June 2015.
An attempt to reduce the military contingent to two battalions of 2,370 soldiers by June 2015. In 2014 there had been 5,000 military personnel, 2,600 UN police, 400 international civilians and 1,300 local civilians.
Training and evaluation by the UN of the Hait National Police, which consists of almost 11,000 active officers.
Reform of the justice system in Haiti in order to build institutions and improve local governance.
Mexico
At the start of his government in 2012, President Enrique Peña Nieto unveiled the Security Policy that is based on six lines of action, although it has not yielded results so far:
In 2013 he founded the National Security Commission to replace the Secretary of Public Security. The programs are created jointly by several departments.
In 2013 the Program for the Social Prevention of Crime and Violence was established with a Budget of118 billion pesos for only that year.
In April 2014 he created the National Program for Human Rights, based on international recommendations, to protect individual guarantees and to combat disappearances and human trafficking.
He implemented coordination between local and federal governments. The territory was divided into five regions to concentrate the efforts. The five regions are: northeast, northwest, west, central and southeast.
In August 2014 the National Gendarmerie was introduced as a division of the Federal Police, with 5,000 officers.
Budget for the evaluation of the activities.
However, in November 2014, after the disappearance of the students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, Peña Nieto introduced the Rules for peace, unity and justice, in which he proposed:
The Law against the Infiltration of Organized Crime into Municipal Government.
Reform of the system of jurisdictions in penal terms.
Creation of unique state police; creation of a 911 help line.
Establishment of a personalized identity code.
Operation in Tierra Caliente by federal forces.
Actions to make the right to justice effective.
Issuance of laws dealing with torture and forced disappearance.
Approval of laws against corruption.
However, those proposals had not been approved in Congress as of April 2015. On March 30, Peña Nieto stated that after two years of the Security Policy being in force, the number of murders has declined, as well as extortion and robbery, and that 92 of the 122 most dangerous criminals in the country have been arrested.
Nicaragua
After he came to power in 2007, Daniel Ortega Saavedra launched the National Plan for Living Together and National Security, a preventive, proactive and community-minded model of the National Policy that has yielded good results for the country, and that is the exception in Central America. It is based on:
Inter-institutional coordination for social prevention: police action, citizen participation and the participation of the government and the state.
How is social prevention carried out? A police work plan and a community action plan; identification of the problem and periodic evaluations and adjustments; and the definition of priorities and social control.
The program has four components:
Institutional reinforcement of the National Police: Modernization of the Management of Living Together and Security; Integrated System of Information on Citizen Security; and a System of Monitoring and Evaluation.
Social prevention of juvenile violence: interventions through the education system; labor training and promotion of employment; prevention and attention to youth; reintegration of gang members; and crime prevention.
Strengthening and broadening of the Police Community Project: Modernization of the police communication system; broadening of attention to family violence; training of police and citizens.
Social communication: Disclosure through formal social communication media and informal media of communication and sensitization.
Panama
In August 2014, after he became president, Juan Carlos Varela introduced the program Cooperation on Security Issues in Panama, financed by the European Union with 28 million euros. This Citizen Security Strategy has five elements:
Prevention: Creation of a Center of Analysis of Trends in Drugs and Crime to improve the statistics and the quality of analysis.
Control and punishment of crime: Strengthening the Public Ministry.
Rehabilitation: Strengthening of the Corrections Academy.
Social reintegration: Modernizing the Management of the Corrections System to improve the situation of those deprived of liberty and to facilitate their social reintegration.
Preventive activities: Creation of a Technology Platform of Information and Exchange of Intelligence.
During the current government he has also carried out the following actions to improve security:
Renovation of the Pecora Compliance Center for Infractions by Minors, which opened in February 2012, with capacity for 250 young people.
Creation of the Custodial Center where young people in the process of being reintegrated have the same rights and conditions as others.
Construction of a third Transition Center where young people of majority age do not have to be moved to adult centers.
The policy of the Rehabilitation System is based on three pillars of re-integration: respect for human dignity, security and rehabilitation.
Creation of the Safe Neighborhood program with more Opportunity and Tough Love for youth at social risk.
Smart security cameras are installed and the number of motorized police is increased in remote areas.
Police stations are repaired, built and modernized.
Paraguay
After he assumed power in 2013, Horacio Manuel Cartes launched the Strategy for Public Security with what is hoped will reduce crime in Paraguay by 15% by 2016. The plan is as follows:
Multi-disciplinary action based on the axis of information:
Review of the improvement of the information systems.
Preparation of an integrated system of statistics.
Carrying out surveys.
Updating of an institutional diagnosis and the policies.
Institutional coordination based on Social and Situational Prevention:
Prevention of the consumption of drugs and alcohol.
Social prevention of violent behavior.
More complete prevention action in the most vulnerable areas.
Sensitizing people about gender and domestic violence.
Focus based on the axes of Control and Punishment of Crime:
Improvement in police effectiveness and professionalism.
A closer relationship between the citizens and the National Police.
Control of Private Security.
Reinforcement of the battle against narco-trafficking.
Modernization of penal prosecution.
Improvement of prison conditions.
Democratic governability of security based on the Re-integration, Rehabilitation and Presence of the Victims:
Social reintegration of youth in conflict with the law.
Social reintegration of persons deprived of their liberty.
Social reintegration of persons who have completed their sentence.
Protection and support in the area of judicial procedures.
Psychological support and social protection.
Monitoring and evaluation based on the axis of Institutional Management:
Strengthening of democratic governability of security.
Decentralization of governability of citizens’ security.
Inter-institutional coordination and monitoring of the strategy.
Peru
Ollanta Humala proposed the modernization of the National Citizens’ Security System, led by the local authorities and with the participation of citizens, to articulate the measures of prevention and punishment of violence and crime. This plan is based on four main points:
Strengthening of the citizen security services that are offered, consistent within the system.
Promoting the commitment of the members of the Security Committees.
Achieving greater participation of civil society in citizen security.
Strengthening the leadership of mayors and other officials, promoting integrated local patrols and the creation of the Observatory of Violence and Criminality.
In 2012, the Humala government unveiled new elements of the National Plan of Citizen Security and Social Harmony.
Promotion of social inclusion and security for all the peoples of Peru.
Re-establishment of the principal of authority and recovery of confidence in the institutions that develop prevention, investigation, and reporting.
Participation of private and public institutions for peace and well-being.
Strengthening control and punishment of crimes, ensuring the recovery of the victims and reintegration of the guilty parties.
In 2013 the National Plan for Citizens’ Security 2013-2018 was announced, in which the following objectives were added for the long term:
Providing an articulated National System of Citizens’ Security.
Making public spaces into good places for citizens to meet.
Reducing social risk factors that lead to criminal acts.
Promoting the participation of citizens, civil society, the private sector and the communications media to confront insecurity.
Strengthening the National Police Force as an efficient institution and confidence in it.
Improving the justice system for the reduction of crime.
Dominican Republic
In 2012 Danilo Medina launched the Integral Citizenship Plan to fight crime and violence using the following strategies:
Creation of the Council of Citizen Security to design strategies and plans related to security; to direct the Observatory of Citizen Security; to coordinate the design and implementation of plans; and to prepare policies and design actions against crime and violence.
Creation of the prevention program Live Quietly to combat the causes of crime and insecurity: poverty and inequality.
Incorporating 2,500 new police officers to bring the force up to 30,000, 300 traffic officers, 2,000 monitoring cameras and 500 firearms.
Reform of the National Police, which proposes readjustment in police salaries and professionalizing the officers.
Application of the Immediate Special Action Plan in vulnerable areas, where 53 percent of the population lives and where 64 percent of crimes are reported.
Renewal of the National Management of Drug Control (DNCD), the Metropolitan Transport Authority, the Interior Ministry and the Public Ministry.
The DCND is empowered to use an unmanned aircraft and helicopters from the United States to pursue the narco-traffickers.
Uruguay
After he returned to power on March 1, Tabaré Vázquez put in place the strategy for Life and Living Together, which is centered on three key definitions: the exercise of authority, the practice of reciprocity and the development of living together. Vázquez emphasizes two relevant areas in the set of challenges: prevention networks, and territory and participation:
Develop a strategy of living together to overcome fear, strengthen public spaces and prevent and eradicate domestic violence.
Comprehensive urban interventions for living together in vulnerable territories which combine social, urban and security policies.
A program of Citizen Culture to improve the public spaces where people come together.
In the promotion of citizen culture, the Local Tables of Harmony and Security, Community Police and the Center of Help for Crime Victims will all be strengthened.
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