Regional Commission Against Impunity in Central America

• by Danilo Valladares (guatemala city)
• Friday, May 14, 2010
• Inter Press Service

'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According to Cuellar, the idea that a commission of this kind undermines national sovereignty 'is part of an outdated mentality,' because what matters is to 'dismantle the parallel power structures that remain firmly entrenched in the three countries and that have serious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.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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