Militarizing the police in Honduras (a never-ending tale)

Christine Wade takes a look at what is happening in Honduras with Police Scandal in Honduras Could Lead to Even More Militarized Policing for the World Politics Review.

The Honduran National Police have long had a reputation as being the most corrupt in Central America. Ineffective, criminal and obstructionist, they are known to engage in drug trafficking and organized crime. The fact that death squads operate within their ranks is practically common knowledge, as is the fact that they frequently target their own.

While police reform might occur following the latest revelations, the real fear is that the Honduran military will become all the more involved in policing, which is neither good in the short- nor the long-run.

But rights activists have serious concerns about the growing reliance on militarized policing. While homicides may be down, reported abuses by military police are up. Soldiers have been implicated in murder, torture, kidnappings and extortion. Violations by military police cannot be investigated or prosecuted by the attorney general’s office, but are handled by the military. The budget for MPOP, funded by a security tax, is classified. Moreover, militarized policing has done nothing to address impunity, as the military’s internal oversight institutions have little training in conducting investigations. For many, it’s a return to Honduras’ militarized past. 

Police and military reform in Guatemala has been slow. It has occurred while shady characters led those organizations and while less than upright citizens were in the presidency. There's little reason to be optimistic, but perhaps progress can occur under similarly poor conditions in Honduras. Read the entire article here.