What about El Salvador?
I have a new post up at Warscapes calling for a serious investigation into that country's 2012 gang truce. It is entitled Four Years after El Salvador’s Gang Truce: Time to Know the Truth.
I was a supporter of the truce. I never thought that it was the magic bullet to solve everything that people hoped it would solve but I did think that it had the potential to make things somewhat better.
However, that hope was predicated on the assumption that those on the government's side who were involved in the truce were acting mostly within the rule of law. However, Mauricio Funes is under investigation for corruption. David Munguia Payes has been under investigation for arms trafficking and other crimes. And Raul Mijango? I don't know. I spoke to some people last July who said that they trust him as far as they can throw him.
However, what about El Salvador? Imagine the Honduran government entering into a shadowy pact with gang members that is tremendously unpopular with the country's citizens. They do it anyway. At the same time, they are denying that they are engaged in negotiations with the gang members. Nobody is sure what the government negotiated away and at the end of the day the country's murder rate is the world's highest.
Following the collapse of the truce, perhaps during it, death squads within the security forces begin operating throughout the country once again; they are killing gang members, suspected gang members, and witnesses. Government officials will not condemn those actions. Instead their public statements seem to encourage extrajudicial executions and promise to turn a blind eye to police misconduct.
When the Salvadoran people and international community ask the government of El Salvador to request international assistance to help strengthen their political institutions and tackle impunity, they responded no. We'll clean up our own house. Even Honduras seems to have met the international community halfway.
And then when there's a reshuffling of the president's security team in order to get a hold on insecurity, who do they appoint? Of course, they appoint, a man connected to a 1990's death squad, la Sombra Negra, as deputy police chief.
US policy towards Honduras and El Salvador do not need to be identical. However, if we are going to try and cut off assistance to the Honduran government because of their shady track record, we need to at least consider doing the same for El Salvador. I am a pro-engagement type of guy so I don't think that we should cut off assistance to either country. However, if we are asking that question for one country, we might as well ask it for both.
Here's the link again to Four Years after El Salvador’s Gang Truce: Time to Know the Truth.
I was a supporter of the truce. I never thought that it was the magic bullet to solve everything that people hoped it would solve but I did think that it had the potential to make things somewhat better.
However, that hope was predicated on the assumption that those on the government's side who were involved in the truce were acting mostly within the rule of law. However, Mauricio Funes is under investigation for corruption. David Munguia Payes has been under investigation for arms trafficking and other crimes. And Raul Mijango? I don't know. I spoke to some people last July who said that they trust him as far as they can throw him.
The recent appointment of El Salvador’s new attorney general provides the Salvadoran people with the opportunity to learn once and for all about the motivations of the protagonists (the government, mediators, and gang leaders themselves). We can better learn whether the truce was doomed from the start because it was a pact among thieves or whether its failure was a consequence of weak domestic and international support for what had the potential to be a major security improvement. No matter the outcome, a thorough investigation will go a long way towards building needed confidence in the country’s criminal justice and political systems.There is international pressure coming from academics and governmental and non-governmental organizations that wants a stronger stance taken against the Honduran government following Berta Caceres murder. I agree with that (to a certain extent).
However, what about El Salvador? Imagine the Honduran government entering into a shadowy pact with gang members that is tremendously unpopular with the country's citizens. They do it anyway. At the same time, they are denying that they are engaged in negotiations with the gang members. Nobody is sure what the government negotiated away and at the end of the day the country's murder rate is the world's highest.
Following the collapse of the truce, perhaps during it, death squads within the security forces begin operating throughout the country once again; they are killing gang members, suspected gang members, and witnesses. Government officials will not condemn those actions. Instead their public statements seem to encourage extrajudicial executions and promise to turn a blind eye to police misconduct.
When the Salvadoran people and international community ask the government of El Salvador to request international assistance to help strengthen their political institutions and tackle impunity, they responded no. We'll clean up our own house. Even Honduras seems to have met the international community halfway.
And then when there's a reshuffling of the president's security team in order to get a hold on insecurity, who do they appoint? Of course, they appoint, a man connected to a 1990's death squad, la Sombra Negra, as deputy police chief.
US policy towards Honduras and El Salvador do not need to be identical. However, if we are going to try and cut off assistance to the Honduran government because of their shady track record, we need to at least consider doing the same for El Salvador. I am a pro-engagement type of guy so I don't think that we should cut off assistance to either country. However, if we are asking that question for one country, we might as well ask it for both.
Here's the link again to Four Years after El Salvador’s Gang Truce: Time to Know the Truth.
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