Militarizing Latin America's police

Orlando Perez takes a look at militarizing the police in Latin America for Latin America Goes Global.

But the militarization of police units has been a longstanding policy in Latin America well before it received attention from the U.S. media. U.S. bilateral assistance to countries in Latin America has encouraged the adoption of military equipment and military training for local police forces.   While the U.S. prohibits the armed forces from assisting police forces at home, the practice of technology transfer and military training in-country has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean for years. The logic is that crime and violence have overwhelmed local police forces—weak and corrupt to begin with—and therefore the armed forces are necessary for the state to provide security.   But that comes with huge risks.

Whether the policy has been successful is questionable. In the meantime, the militarization of the police—without regard to its effectiveness—has become ubiquitous.

In Central America, the US is often blamed for militarizing anything and everything. While there's a certain truth to that, I'm not sure it is the biggest culprit. Central Americans themselves, citizens and politicians, often demand using the military for policing purposes. I'm not quite convinced that the US is forcing the FMLN to send the military out into the streets to deal with gangs and public insecurity. It wasn't the US putting former military men Munguia Payes in as Minister of Public Security and Salinas as Director of the National Police. Both appointments were later ruled unconsitutional for blurring the lines between civilian oversight and public security. Even after all the confusion and corruption allegations surrounding Munguia Payes, the FMLN now has him as Minister of Defense.

I don't know that much about Brazil, the country that Orlando opens with, but it is hard to see the US forcing this policy down on them.

Regardless of who is primarily responsible, militarizing the police and relying upon the military for anything more than short-term emergency measures have demonstrated no positive effects on security in the region. Relying upon the military might actually set back efforts to reform the police. The military is not always less corrupt than the police (not so sure about this but too corrupt that it might not matter). The process also undermines further democratization.