Autor: Diplomacia e Cultura | Publicado: 2012-04-28T10:46:00-03:00




         
Latin America's history of violence
Fonte: www.dw.de
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Conflict

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        Murder, rape and mutilations are common crimes in Latin America,
 considered one of the most violent areas in the world today. Is the 
violence a legacy of the region's bloody past? A new study examines the 
phenomenon.&nbsp;




    
 UN figures show that in Mexico alone, more than 20,000 people were 
murdered in 2010. In Guatemala, an average of 41 murders per 100,000 
residents were committed, in El Salvador, this figure was even 66. In 
comparison: in Germany, not even one murder - 0.8 cases - per 100,000 
people takes place.



 The three Latin American countries have all experienced political 
conflict in their recent past: violent civil wars took place in El 
Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s and 1990s. Mexico experienced in the
 early 1990s an armed uprising of the Zapatistas against the government.



 The conflicts in these countries are all considered over for at least a
 decade now. The violence which still prevails is primarily perceived as
 being not politically motivated but rather criminal. This is a reason 
why the continent has hardly played a role in discussions about post-war
 and post-conflict societies, said Sabine Kurtenbach, author of the 
paper "The specific features of Latin American post-conflict situations"
 for the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the University of
 Duisburg-Essen.



 Kurtenbach, an INEF associate fellow, said the experience of war or 
armed conflict was not an adequate explanation for the high degree of 
violence in the region. If this were the case, all post-war and 
post-conflict societies would have such problems, she said.


 
  Kurtenbach is also a senior research fellow at Hamburg's GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies.




 The causes of violence are complex, according to Kurtenbach's study. In
 countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala, the experience of war and 
armed conflict represent a significant factor. The oppressive policies 
of these governments are accompanied by a lack of willingness to resolve
 the large gap between poor and rich. Social inequality continued to be a
 significant factor for the high level of violence in Latin America.



 Growing cities and a weak state



 Other factors are the speed of urban growth and the dissolution of 
traditional social ties due to migration into the cities. Criminal youth
 gangs often take over a substitute role for the family.



 However, compared to the usual flight from the countryside into the 
cities, migration following armed conflicts is significantly more 
problematic, since a mainly traumatized population in a region is 
affected.



 "This makes the urbanization even more complicated than the classic 
form due to social change," Kurtenbach said. The risk of violence was 
increased, since the state for the most part cannot provide the migrants
 with adequate infrastructure. Organized crime, such as international 
drug trade, had also led to an increase in violence.



 "Transnational networks do not simply spread into a vacuum, but rather 
go there where there are favorable local factors," Kurtenbach said. A 
weak state made it possible, especially when the legal system did not 
function adequately.



 
  Members of the Mara-18 gang behind bars in El Salvador



 "Where violence is hardly prosecuted and sanctioned or where state 
institutions themselves consider violence a legitimate means, incentives
 are created to employ violence," said Peter Imbusch, an expert for 
conflict and violence research at the University of Wuppertal.



 In post-war societies or countries formerly ruled by military 
dictatorships, it was an&nbsp; added predicament when the state security 
apparatus was part of conflicts, Kurtenbach said. This particularly put 
into question the ability to reform the security sector. This concretely
 concerned the downsizing of armed forces, the demilitarization of the 
police, the subordination of the military under civil institutions, as 
well as the strengthening of the justice system. Mexico, Guatemala and 
El Salvador continue to struggle to implement planned reforms.



 A culture of violence&nbsp;



 Just how much a country deals with its past is a decisive point for its
 development after a conflict has ended. This is the only way for a 
society to agree that violence is no longer a legitimate means, 
Kurtenbach said. But it was not necessarily the case that the 
inclination to use violence automatically ceased when an armed conflict 
ended, Imbusch said.



 "Violence does not simply emerge in a society that is in a 
post-conflict situation, but apparently violence is somehow virulent in 
some form there," he said. However, there were also structures which 
generally favored violence, for example the "machismo" culture where 
violence is considered a legitimate means of defending oneself.



 The battle against violence in the region can only be won in the long 
term, Imbusch said. It was important to ease tensions in troubled 
hotspots through new education and leisure possibilities. This was a 
good opportunity for German development cooperation.


 
  Bogota is trying to clean up its streets.




 In addition, urban development measures could improve the situation, 
such as is the case in Colombia's capital Bogota. The mayors there 
across the political spectrum have spent years successfully winning back
 public space. Dark streets and squares, for example, are better 
illuminated, so people dare to go back onto the streets again.



 Both Kurtenbach and Imbusch agreed that state-imposed repressive 
measures only have a limited effect, if at all. They often tend to lead 
to an escalation of the conflicts instead. This was evident in the fight
 of the Mexican government against drug cartels. Since 2006, at least 
50,000 civilians have been killed in the drug war between the military 
and rival drug cartels.



 Author: Christina Ruta / sac
 Editor: Michael Knigge