Could it be that the most dangerous region in the world is trying to improve itself?
Imagine that you’re sitting quietly at a restaurant or cafeteria and, suddenly, you
begin to hear gunshots a few meters away.
You’d choose an empty stomach and opt for a quick escape, wouldn’t you?
Well, unfortunately these kinds of situations are common in many Central American cities.
Cities where security is noticeable for its absence.
In 2018, 42 of the 50 most violent cities in the world were in Latin America, and of
these, two were in Honduras, one in Guatemala and one in El Salvador.
In 2017 alone, more than 14,500 homicides were registered in Central America.
The vast majority, more than 90% of them, happened in three countries known as the Northern
Triangle: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Chilling, to say the least.
So why is violence so common in this part of the world?
What is driving these high crime rates?
Has Central America always been a violent region?
Let’s find out.
(INTRO)
Here’s a question for you: Have you ever noticed how curious the map of the American
continent is?
Just look at it for a second, Central America is a bridge between South America and North
America.
And not only metaphorically, but also literally.
And this has consequences:
The fact that Central America is a bridge has turned it into the largest illicit goods
highway in the world.
For goods produced in South America.
We’re mostly talking about cocaine.
No less than 90% of all the cocaine that enters the United States, the world's largest market
for the drug, passes through Central America.
But don’t think this is the only illegal activity based there.
Not at all.
Human trafficking; trafficking of illegal immigrants and minors, is also booming in
this region.
And as you can imagine, all of these activities go hand in hand with organized crime; criminal
organizations that control, manage and fight each other for dominance of all these businesses.
We’re talking about a huge industry, and a highly structured one: with managers, administrators,
lawyers, corporate advisors, diversification, investment strategies, etc.
An industry that is increasingly becoming involved in developing a presence in Central
America.
Check it out.
(AUDIO: Mexican cartels are moving 90% of their activities to Central America, according
to research.
- Agencia EFE)
The increasing pressure from the state in Mexico in recent years has made this type
of mafia want to settle in countries with weaker and less vigilant governments.
And you know what?
The truth is that these groups, these macro-crime companies have managed to take over much of
Central America.
(MEXICO, CRIME EXPORTER TO CENTRAL AMERICA)
Mexico – or rather the Mexican cartels – are slowly becoming the leaders, the biggest drug
business owners in Latin America.
Of course, they’ve been competing with Colombian groups for quite some time.
The Mexican cartels already control the majority of the main routes for transporting illegal
goods.
And that pretty much means controlling all of Central America.
Now, let's put ourselves in the shoes of these great bosses for a second.
Imagine that you’re one of them.
What’s the fastest way to control the Central American territory?
How can you settle in and dominate this region?
Exactly, a good option would be to establish alliances with the native criminal groups,
those that were there before you.
Groups that have the necessary infrastructure, contacts and knowledge of the territory that
you need.
We’re talking about groups that have a single philosophy: work with whoever gives you the
most cash.
This is hardly surprising.
We all know the power of the dollar.
But how and why did Central America become so ripe for exploitation by the Mexican drug
traffickers?
To understand that we need to go back to the 90s.
You see, the key moment, when the players changed, happened between 1991 and 1993, when
the Medellín Cartel suffered its greatest defeat.
Pablo Escobar’s fall, as well as that of the cartel’s main bosses, also meant losing
the huge influence and power they had in Central America, which they’d gained thanks to their
alliances with local groups, who worked directly for them.
And that was the Mexican groups’ great window of opportunity, which of course they took
advantage of by storming into Central America with the objective of completely controlling
that important bridge, which connects the production centers with the consumption centers.
But surely some of you may be thinking.
Just a second, Simon, there are several different cartels in Mexico, didn’t that pose a problem?
Yes, indeed, it did.
After the Mexicans arrived, Central America became a kind of battlefield between the different
Mexican cartels who fought to control the transport routes.
And that’s precisely one of the reasons that violence in Central America increased
dramatically until finally each cartel claimed their own niche territory.
You could say that Mexican cartels became major exporters of violence and crime to their
southern neighbors.
Check out the case of Honduras for example.
(CHART)
You see, the power struggles between Mexican cartels and local groups to increase their
influence and gain control of the business explain much of the increased crime during
those years.
Now, let's put all big numbers aside.
Let's focus on the streets.
How exactly do all these battles between cartels and Central American criminal groups affect
the safety of regular citizens?
Listen up.
(WHEN VIOLENCE DOESN’T FIND AN ENEMY)
We’ve already showed you that the Central American North Triangle has the highest crime
rates in the world.
That’s why we ask an essential question, is there a solution?
What does the region need to achieve social peace?
Well, the truth is that this goal seems very, very complicated, why?
Check this out…
(AUDIO: Honduran President’s Brother Is Found Guilty of Drug Trafficking.
- The New York Times)
(AUDIO: Honduran President Is Accused of Drug Conspiracy.
Prosecutors say drug proceeds were allegedly used to support Honduran President Juan Orlando
Hernández’s 2013 election WSJ)
(AUDIO: Son of ex-Honduran president Porfirio Lobo gets 24 years for U.S. drug charge.
Reuters)
(AUDIO: Former El Salvador President Saca gets two-year prison term for bribery.
- Reuters)
Against such a backdrop of corruption, institutionalized drug-trafficking and other despicable actions,
who would put up their hand to fight crime?
Especially if crime itself is in charge!
If the highest spheres of power in Central America have such close ties, very close,
with the great criminals, how on earth is anyone going to fight them?
And it’s not that they can’t, but that they don’t want to.
It’s a matter of incentives.
No one, absolutely no one wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
However, just a second.
Because despite this harsh reality, the truth is that in recent years, Central America has
experienced a gradual reduction in homicide rates.
This has led many politicians to stand up.
Of course, in many cases, it wasn’t thanks to the government, but in spite of it.
Let's take a look at El Salvador.
For example, in El Salvador in 2018, they had 15% fewer homicides than in the previous
year, but even so, it was still a very high number: 3,340 homicides in one year in a country
of less than six and a half million inhabitants.
El Salvador is the country with the highest homicide rate in the most dangerous region
on the planet.
So we could say it’s the most dangerous country in the world.
But even though the country has encouraged it, the truth is that this history of violence
comes from way back, long before the Mexican cartels ever set foot in Central America.
We’ve talked about them for a while on VisualPolitik.
The Maras are dangerous criminal gang member groups, many based in Los Angeles, that are
dedicated mainly to drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering, immigrant trafficking and
prostitution.
Since the 1960s, they’ve been one of El Salvador’s greatest security challenges.
The Mara Salvatrucha or MS13 and Barrio 18 are the two main branches which, as expected,
often fight each other, and have been trying to control the Salvadoran territory for many
years in order to better carry out their illegal activities.
It has been this fight over the territory that has spread pain and suffering all over
El Salvador.
And of course, these maras are still fully active.
So why is it that crime has decreased in recent years?
Well... take a look at this...
(AUDIO: Drug traffickers use maras and street gangs to dominate Central America.
- Excelsior)
Yes, as you can see, paradoxically this alliance could explain much of the reduction in homicides.
Why?
Well...
The answer is complex, but simplifying it a bit, we could say that currently the maras
are acting as branches of the most powerful Mexican cartels, such as the Sinaloa Cartel
or Los Zetas.
Interestingly, this alliance could be causing part of these gangs’ forces to be operating
in wider fields, protecting the Mexican cartels’ activities, and thus moving them away from
the streets.
Let's say there are bigger businesses than extorting money from the corner store.
And that’s not the only change.
In addition, Mexican cartels have noticed that the Maras are tremendously effective
in controlling cities and infusing the greatest possible terror.
So, they are recruiting troops and moving to Mexico to support their activities and
to train their own people.
Basically they are enlisting them.
That way, Mexicans have introduced the maras into the large-scale international drug trafficking
business.
But how exactly are the gangs helping the Mexican cartels?
Well, obviously not for the common good.
They are teaching them the most horrible, cruel and ruthless ways of treating their
adversaries.
These are techniques they are moving to and implementing in Mexico itself.
I think that now you can understand better why crime has decreased in recent years.
And yes, unfortunately, it has had little to do with governments or with the US’s
plan for Central America, and more with the dynamics of the crime industry.
Surely at this point many may be thinking that this is getting out of hand, right?
Maras and cartels collaborating, governments bought by and backing criminal interests,
ineffective and corrupt security forces, bribed courts...
Against such a backdrop, do you think that El Salvador and Central America in general
have any chance to escape this vicious circle?
What can Salvadorans do to stop being the most dangerous country in the world?
Well, I'm sorry to say that it doesn't look like an easy task.
But who knows, perhaps the arrival of this man, who’s very well-known for leading his
government through tweets, can make a step forward by showing that one of the problems
of Central America, and perhaps the most important one, is that there’s a lack of political
will.
(AUDIO: Nayib Bukele, an Outsider Candidate, Claims Victory in El Salvador Election.
- The New York Times)
[TEXT: And here, on June 1st, we’ll build the best government in our country’s history.]
Bukele came to power early in 2019 with the key promise of making El Salvador a safer
and less corrupt country.
Will he achieve it?
Only time will tell, but for now, it looks like he’s taking decisive steps to do so.
Of course, with Latin American politicians...
Well, no one ever knows.
In this region the forecasts, especially if they’re optimistic, aren’t worth very
much.
(AUDIO: El Salvador launches anti-corruption commission, inspired by Guatemala.
- Reuters)
And be careful because corruption isn’t a minor problem.
In this region, fighting corruption is a necessary step to break the link between power and crime.
Well, having reached this point, we’ve seen why politicians can’t take the credit, even
if homicide rates are decreasing; we’ve seen that nowadays there’s little room for
hope in Honduras and that El Salvador could be facing a great opportunity for real change.
However, in this delicate balance of crime and power we need to include another Central
American country.
A country that isn’t part of the Northern Triangle, but which has recently seen a dramatic
increase in violence.
In many cases, a very different violence, because drug-trafficking isn’t the only
disease that plagues Central America.
Listen up.
[TEXT: I want them to leave the country.
I want them to go to jail.]
(NICARAGUA, THE END OF A DREAM?)
We’ve talked about this in several videos.
In Nicaragua there’s a phenomenon that doesn’t happen in many other Latin American countries,
that is the use of violence as a form of political control.
It’s a scenario similar to the one found in Venezuela, and which has suddenly ended
the myth that Nicaragua was the exception; the only safe country in the most dangerous
region in the world.
For example, in 2017 Nicaragua only had seven homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, while at
the same time in Honduras it was 40, it was 51 in El Salvador and 28 in Guatemala.
The difference is remarkable, but that doesn’t really mean Nicaragua is a safe place to live.
Time has shown us that.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front, the ruling party, has completely penetrated
the state power agencies, politicizing them by getting like-minded people into key positions
and using true paramilitary groups to repress the population.
Nicaraguan tyrant Daniel Ortega has literally begun employing thugs to do the dirtiest work
in the name of the police and the army during the protests.
And yes, from a political and institutional point of view, this is one of the worst decisions
a leader can make.
(AUDIO: Alarm rises for a wave of crimes with viciousness that bear the seal of the paramilitaries
of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
- Infobae)
(AUDIO: In 2018, violence rates skyrocketed through the brutal repression of civil protesters
by President Daniel Ortega's regime.
InsightCrime)
Because as soon as a government begins using irregular force to repress the masses, they
create conditions that legalize and normalize violence and give impunity at a general level.
You could say the floodgates of crime are opened with the first blow.
We’ve seen it in Venezuela and we’re starting to see it in Nicaragua.
Anyway, as you can see, crime, corruption and a lack of safety are the great evils that
are hanging over Central America.
In many cases, if not in all, this is happening with the approval and complicity of the political
powers.
We wanted to make this video to better show you exactly what is happening in this region
of the world, the most dangerous region on the planet, in terms of violence.
As well as to show what is hiding behind the decreasing number of homicides that have been
seen in recent years.
So, now, it’s your turn:
Do you think that safety in Central America is an impossible dream?
Can the region really get rid of the curse of drug-trafficking and organized crime?
Leave your answers in the comments.
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