Regional Commission
Against Impunity in Central America
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA (IPS) - The countries of
Central America's so-called northern
triangle, El Salvador, Honduras and
Guatemala, are studying the idea of
setting up an international commission
against impunity – an initiative that
has the support of human rights
organisations.
"Impunity in Guatemala has perhaps drawn
more attention, but the situation in El
Salvador is similar," Benjamín Cuéllar,
director of the Human Rights Institute
at the Jose Simeón Cañas University (IDHUCA)
of El Salvador, told IPS.
A body capable of taking on organised
crime in the three countries, which have
some of the highest murder rates in the
world, "could be extremely useful"
because many organised crime groups
"function at a regional level, and have
never been investigated," he said.
According to Cuellar, the idea that a
commission of this kind undermines
national sovereignty "is part of an
outdated mentality," because what
matters is to "dismantle the parallel
power structures that remain firmly
entrenched in the three countries and
that have serious economic and social
consequences."
The need for a regional body was
suggested by Guatemalan President Álvaro
Colom to U.S. Assistant Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Arturo Valenzuela on May 3, during a
visit by the U.S. official to this
Central American country.
"We, the three presidents, have agreed
to work together in the fight against
impunity, particularly against organised
crime," Colom said on that occasion.
The tasks of the new commission would
include the harmonisation of laws and
the passage of new ones, such as a law
on asset forfeiture, which would allow
the state to confiscate assets that have
been used to facilitate drug trafficking
or are derived from drug trafficking or
organised crime, the president said.
Colom said the head of the United
Nations-sponsored International
Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
(CICIG), Spanish prosecutor Carlos
Castresana, visited Honduran President
Porfirio Lobo to discuss the issue. A
similar visit to Salvadoran President
Mauricio Funes is also reportedly being
organised.
In response, Valenzuela praised CICIG's
work and said "organised crime, lack of
public safety, and drug trafficking are
huge problems in our countries, and we
believe we can tackle them better by
means of regional cooperation."
CICIG, which began to operate in January
2008, was set up to strengthen, purge
and reform the country's justice system
and fight human rights violations. Among
the key steps are identifying the
infiltration of the corruption-riddled
police, prosecution and judiciary by
organised crime and dismantling illegal,
clandestine armed security groups.
CICIG's support in clarifying
high-profile crimes with international
ramifications and in promoting essential
laws and bringing about a new culture of
honesty and competence in law
enforcement and prosecution have raised
hopes for justice in Guatemala, where
according to the U.N.-sponsored body, 98
percent of all crimes go unsolved and
unpunished.
The idea now is to expand the experience
to El Salvador and Honduras. "A
commission of this kind would be
physically based in the country, which
would give it the added value that we
are seeking in terms of learning and of
rebuilding institutions that are not
working," Reina Rivera, the former head
of the Honduran Centre for Investigation
and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH),
told IPS.
"I think it's an opportunity; I don't
believe in nationalist arguments that
say this kind of initiative undermines
the constitution or national sovereignty
or weakens the public prosecutors office
or the justice system," she said.
A truth commission began to operate May
4 in Honduras to clarify the events
ahead of, during and after the Jun. 28,
2009 coup that overthrew then President
Manuel Zelaya.
Honduran civil society, meanwhile,
launched its own alternative truth
commission, complaining about the
limitations of the official commission
set up by the Lobo administration.
Rivera said both truth commissions
should express their views on the
creation of a regional body to fight
impunity and should recommend a model to
be followed in the case of Honduras.
Achieving a functioning justice system
is a pending task in this area, as
indicated by the alarming crime rates.
The United Nations Development Programme
Report on Human Development in Central
America 2009-2010, released in October,
described Central America's "northern
triangle" as the most violent region in
the world.
In 2008, the murder rate in Honduras was
58 per 100,000 population, followed by
El Salvador (52 per 100,000) and
Guatemala (48 per 100,000), compared to
a global average of nine per 100,000 and
a Latin American average of 25 per
100,000.
Overwhelmed police forces, overworked
courts fighting to keep up with a
growing backlog of cases, and severely
overcrowded prisons foment impunity and
a general sense of insecurity in the
three countries, the study adds.
The head of the National Human Rights
Movement of Guatemala, Miguel Ángel
Albizures, told IPS that the initiative
could work only if the countries'
structural problems are tackled, such as
the heavy concentration of land
ownership and the need for tax reforms
in order to prevent tax evasion and make
sure those who earn more pay more. |
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