In the past few days, two photos have connected the more than 6,300 kilometers that separate the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico and Santiago in Chile. The images are radically different, but they speak of the same thing: a security crisis. In the first, some soldiers patrol the beaches of one of Mexico’s tourist paradises. From the Caribbean to the Pacific, Cancun to Acapulco, the slogan is the same in a bid to protect visitors in the middle of the holiday season after Holy Week began with eight killings in those two destinations. The second snap shows Chilean President Gabriel Boric along with former Presidents Sebastián Piñera, Michelle Bachelet and Ricardo Lagos at the funeral of Daniel Palma, the third police officer killed in just over three weeks.
An imaginary line can be drawn between the militarization of the Mexican coast and that sign of the unity of the Chilean political class, which in reality becomes very tangible in the everyday life of the region. It crosses Central America, Ecuador, Peru and extends to Colombia and even Argentina. Behind, organized crime, violence, mafia exploiting migratory flows and misery complicate government plans, slow reforms and top the list of Latin Americans’ major problems. The most glaring case of the phenomenon, the most recent, albeit not as profound in absolute terms as in other countries, threatens to provoke a crisis in Boric’s governing coalition. This week, the bloc in Congress was broken ahead of a vote on a law to increase police power, which was eventually passed. Last year was the most violent of the last decade in the South American country, with a homicide rate of 4.6 per 100,000 people.
The data is well below the 40.4 registered by Venezuela, but represents an anomaly that puts the young left-wing president in a difficult position. This emergency is also mixed with migration-related challenges. The suspects in the latest murder are Venezuelans, and in view of the massive arrival of foreigners, the executive branch has already deployed the army on the northern border. “When it comes to fighting crime in the Chilean state, there are no splits… There is no government and opposition, there is no left and no right, there are no old or young. We are all united in this crusade,” Boric announced this week. According to a regional poll by consulting firm Gallup published in late February, 71 percent of Chileans believe crime has skyrocketed in the past four months.
A woman held up a Chilean flag during a funeral procession for a slain police officer in Santiago on Thursday Esteban Felix (AP)
This perception is amplified to 85% in Ecuador, one of the countries that has seen one of the worst escalations of violence in the region since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic just three years ago due to the consolidation of criminal gangs. . Almost half of the population, 48%, also report that a member of their household was the victim of a mugging or robbery between September and December 2022. Add to this panorama the chaos in the country’s most violent city. where almost 600 murders were committed in less than four months. Political balances in Quito are very different from those in Santiago, and the president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, has just allowed citizens to bear arms. A controversial measure that nullifies a regulation that serves to curb violence: From now on, every Ecuadorian over the age of 25 who, among other things, passes psychotechnical tests, can have access to a weapon.
Although Lasso and Boric are on ideological antipodes, the two leaders have had to cope with a huge loss of popularity, which is reflected in all the polls. On the other hand, where a setback in the approval of the president is hardly noticed is Mexico. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is about to end his last year in office, has radically changed the security strategy compared to his predecessors Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón. The slogan “Hugs instead of bullets”, which was criticized by his political opponents and alluded to the pacification of the country through comprehensive political measures against poverty instead of direct confrontation with organized crime, has failed in reality. The government had to face a new war between cartels, a significant increase in migration – which also means an increase in the presence of mafia exploiting migrants – the fentanyl pandemic and increasing pressure from the United States, especially from the most radical sectors the Republican Party. Although the number of homicides has fallen by 7.1% over the past year, the figures are still stratospheric and disheartening: 30,968 people, according to the government. And with a view to the 2024 elections, uncertainty among citizens is the number one priority.
López Obrador was not the only president who sought a structural approach to peace. Colombian Gustavo Petro’s so-called “Total Peace” project is going through a particularly delicate phase in a country emerging from more than half a century of conflict between the state and the FARC. The attack, which killed nine soldiers two weeks ago, complicates talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), America’s oldest active guerrillas. And the President himself did not hide his deep anger. “He’s angry,” he came to those around him.
Venezuela has led the stats on violence in Latin America for decades, but its people, who are experiencing a tangible economic improvement following the resumption of oil deals between Nicolás Maduro’s executive and the United States, are not as concerned as in neighboring countries. . 35% of Venezuelans perceive an increase in crime in their community. This is well below Peru (79%), which has had a weak government focused on isolating and quelling protests since Pedro Castillo’s failed self-coup in December. But the perceived insecurity in Venezuela is also a far cry from a destination that has traditionally been an oasis: Costa Rica. The Central American country, which abolished the army 75 years ago, has seen a 66.5% increase in homicides since 2012.
Violence and organized crime do not give any government a truce. Drug traffickers, particularly the organization known as Comando Vermelho, are gaining ground in Rio de Janeiro, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva bailed out his old public safety plan weeks ago. But Argentina is also on alert and Congress has approved a plan to strengthen security in the city of Rosario, which was the scene of an attack on a supermarket by Lionel Messi’s in-laws a month ago.
The exception is El Salvador, where, as InSight Crime acknowledges, “the government’s direct offensive against gangs has resulted in a dramatic drop in homicide rates, albeit presumably at the expense of systematic human rights abuses.” “Zero murder” or “the safest month,” Nayib Bukele usually boasts on social networks. The other side of the coin is repression and, according to organizations like Human Rights Watch, an accumulation of abuses in the march of a president who changed the constitutional rules of the game in order to be re-elected.
A member of the army stopped a man in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Monday after the state of emergency was declared. GERARDO MENOSCAL (AFP)
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