The United States and Central America: Geopolitical Realities and Regional Fragility by Mark B. Rosenberg & Luis G. Solis

Author:Mark B. Rosenberg & Luis G. Solis [Rosenberg, Mark B. & Solis, Luis G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, International Relations, Diplomacy, Trade & Tariffs, Treaties
ISBN: 9781135904555
Google: pbYbzoKoFgUC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-09-10T04:55:33+00:00

Source: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel.htm

Yet the tentacles of illegal drug trafficking have infiltrated a whole array of other criminal activities, all of which undermine democratic institutions. Money laundering, weapons smuggling, prostitution, and human trafficking are frequently related to illegal drug operations. The exchange of guns for drugs between Central America and Colombia is well documented, and preventing the use of “dirty” money to feed extra-continental terrorist organizations is now one of the FBI’s explicit priorities.19

The case of urban juvenile gangs is similar, particularly those associated with Central American immigrants in the United States, such as the Mara Salvatrucha (MS) and the Mara 18. Formerly found in Los Angeles, these organizations have expanded throughout almost all the territorial United States. Owing to heightened deportation practices on the part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, they have also settled in, and are now a significant part of, the criminal landscapes of Mexico and three Central American countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.20

The operation in the United States of gangs largely formed by immigrants is not a new phenomenon. It can be traced all the way back to the mid-nineteenth century when it became one of the salient byproducts of the European flows of people who inundated America. The operation of the Mafia and mafia-like organizations in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the significant evolution of their financial networks after World War II, are documented facts that have dominated the concerns and travails of U.S. law enforcement agencies for decades.

Nevertheless, the global implications of organized crime, including maras, in the age of the Internet has turned gangs into likely agents of nonstate violence. For the record, the Bureau for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has voiced skepticism regarding some public speculation alleging links between the MS and global terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda. Yet many government officials in Central America and even high-level members of the U.S. Department of Defense continue to regard gangs as potentially proto-terrorist entities (much like the Colombian drug cartels during the 1980s) that ought to be eliminated for the sake of democratic consolidation.21 Such views constitute one of the most pervasive policy drivers in the contemporary U.S.–Central America agenda.

The policy options for the United States with regard to the domestic political order in Central America therefore seem to be limited, and eventually complicated, owing to one unavoidable fact: they will all require the United States to tolerate and even stimulate greater, not lesser, degrees of political openness. At times this could mean the acceptance of enhanced civil liberties, which could lead to unrestrained disorder or social turbulence. If the United States is once again swept into isolationism or if some new major issue (such as fighting terrorism, as was the case with communism before) seizes the U.S. foreign policy agenda to the point of minimizing other longer-term structural concerns—such as democracy—then Central America’s political opening could be short-lived.

Dealing with the small Central American post–Cold War democratic governments poses a significant, yet paradoxical, challenge for a regional hegemon such as the United States.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.