Number of results to display per page
Search Results
32. Analysis of the Botnets that Operated in Honduras During the Primary and General Elections of 2021
- Author:
- The Carter Center
- Publication Date:
- 02-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- The Carter Center analyzed social media in Honduras during the 2021 electoral process, focusing on the period around the primaries in March and the general election in November. The purpose was to assess the political debate on social networks during the elections, the extent of disinformation and how it spread, and the role played by Honduran politicians.
- Topic:
- Elections, Media, Social Media, and Digitalization
- Political Geography:
- Central America, North America, and Honduras
33. Survivor-Centred Justice for Gender-Based Violence in Complex Situations
- Author:
- The George Washington University The Global Women's Institute (GWI)
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- The Global Women's Institute (GWI), The George Washington University
- Abstract:
- The report Survivor-Centred Justice for Gender-Based Violence in Complex Situations is the result of new research conducted by IDLO, in partnership with the Global Women’s Institute at George Washington University, in six countries across the globe with the aim to identify approaches that centre survivors in all efforts to address gender-based violence (GBV) in complex situations. The report is informed by country case studies in Afghanistan, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Tunisia, to provide different perspectives of complexity in accessing justice and an analysis of diverse justice mechanisms dealing with GBV in situations of conflict, organized crime, climate disasters, and health emergencies, often intersecting with contexts of legal pluralism and political transition. Research findings show that, in order to be effective, measures and programmes aimed at ensuring access to justice for GBV survivors need to be responsive to women’s specific needs and vulnerabilities, as well as relevant to contextual challenges, while firmly anchored in international gender equality and human rights legal obligations.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Gender Based Violence, Justice, and Group Survival
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Philippines, Central America, North America, Tunisia, Honduras, South Sudan, and Papua New Guinea
34. A Remedy for El Salvador’s Prison Fever
- Author:
- International Crisis Group
- Publication Date:
- 10-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Following a spate of murders, the Salvadoran government ordered mass roundups of suspected criminal gang members, throwing more than 53,000 in jail. The clampdown is popular but unsustainable. Authorities should develop a path out of gang life that members can choose.
- Topic:
- Crime, Governance, Police, and Gangs
- Political Geography:
- Central America, North America, and El Salvador
35. Pathways for Labor Migration from Northern Central America: Five Difficult but Necessary Proposals
- Author:
- Michael A. Clemens
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development (CGD)
- Abstract:
- Very few labor-based pathways for regular migration are available for people in Northern Central America, often called the “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. This paper briefly summarizes the state of labor-based migration channels in the region. It then argues that extending those channels is a necessary complement to asylum reform even for the goal of humanitarian protection. It concludes by arguing that five recommendations for long-term reform, though difficult, are needed to unleash the maximum shared benefit of these pathways.
- Topic:
- Migration, Labor Issues, Asylum, and Immigration Policy
- Political Geography:
- Central America, North America, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
36. The State of Exception: Gangs as a Neoliberal Scapegoat in El Salvador
- Author:
- Leisy Abrego and Steven Osuna
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- On 26 March 2022, gangs in the small Central American country of El Salvador killed 62 people, making it the deadliest day in modern Salvadoran history.1 In the span of just three days, between 25 and 27 March, there were a total of 87 seemingly random murders of people laboring and commuting in El Salvador. In line with the common political practice since the 1990s, Salvadoran politi- cians zeroed in on punishing gangs, whom they have blamed for all social ills. Indeed, the brutal intercommunal violence of gangs is horrifying and dehuman- izing in ways that permeate everyday life for large swaths of Salvadoran society. 3ese realities make gangs particularly visible and therefore politically useful for the ruling elite, who can and frequently do turn to gangs as a distraction from their own corruption. 3e proliferation of gangs and violence, however, was not inevitable, and a political and media focus solely on gangs misses the larger picture. Gangs, and the social conditions surrounding them in El Salvador, are ultimately a symptom of a larger root problem: neoliberal capitalism. To best understand the conditions of the present moment, we trace how neoliberalism developed in El Salvador, why it has thrived across party lines, how it is fueling the actions of this particular Salvadoran administration, and how a growing grassroots cross-border movement is resisting it.
- Topic:
- Neoliberalism, Violence, Organized Crime, and Gangs
- Political Geography:
- Central America and El Salvador
37. Fighting Gangs to Dismantle Democracy: How Anti-Crime Policies Have Contributed to the Authoritarian Drift in Central America
- Author:
- José‐Luis Cruz
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- For several years, the northern countries of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—have seen some of the highest levels of criminal violence globally. 5ey are also ground zero for two of the most brutal street gangs in the Western Hemisphere: the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang (Barrio 18). Di6erent government administrations have imple- mented various policies to address gangs and criminal violence; however, no policy has been more controversial or frequently used than the zero-tolerance, or mano dura (iron fist), crackdowns. Zero-tolerance crackdowns were introduced at different moments in all three countries but have been a dominant feature of state response to crime in Central America in the last two decades. In this essay, I examine the latest installment of hard-on-crime policies in El Salvador and how they contributed to the democratic erosion of the country. This case exemplifies how Central American governments have repeatedly used the fight against crime as a justification to strengthen security forces without oversight, ignore human rights standards, and leverage the justice system to serve corrupt government officials.
- Topic:
- Crime, Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Gangs
- Political Geography:
- Central America
38. A Path Not Taken: A Historical Interpretation of the Roots of Contemporary Crime in Central America
- Author:
- Jeffrey L. Gould and David Diaz-Arias
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- Has Central America always been a dangerous place? During the early 1980s, in the provincial city of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, one could walk anywhere and at any time without fearing crime. The Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), a leftist guerrilla organization founded in 1961 that had led the Ni- caraguan Revolution to triumph in 1979, ruled the country.1 Remarkably, its police force, the Policía Sandinista, was neither feared nor scorned, even by the anti-Sandinista sectors of the community. Neither crime nor its absence were a topic of conversation in Chichigalpa, nor were they a concern in the U.S. media, despite the media’s obsession with all things Sandinista.2 If the media or the Reagan administration had commented on the low levels of crime in Nica- ragua, they likely would have criticized the FSLN for that too, citing a highly regimented surveillance society as its cause.3 On the contrary, any surveillance that did exist in Nicaragua in the early 1980s derived from enhanced forms of solidarity against what was largely perceived as an external threat: the Contras— the United States-backed, counter-revolutionary forces composed of former Somoza supporters, Nicaraguan-dictatorship exiles, and ex-Guardia o:cers. 9is military force eventually received signi5cant peasant support in the central and eastern parts of the country.4 One institution that fomented solidarity was the Comités de Defensa Sandinista (CDS). Organized immediately preceding and following the revolutionary triumph of July 1979, the CDS began as a group of relatively democratic organizations that promoted community development as well as security.5 Over the next few years, through nightly patrols, they increas- ingly focused on the surveillance of potential Contra terrorist activities. While such e;orts certainly contributed to crime reduction, the democratic character of the organizations also eroded, as a top-down emphasis on national defense became predominant among the CDSs.
- Topic:
- Crime, History, Immigration, and Conflict
- Political Geography:
- Central America
39. Criminal Groups and a Decade of Displacement in Central America and Mexico
- Author:
- David James Cantor
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- Organized criminal groups in the North of Central America and Mexico (NCAM) make global news headlines. 3e bloody reputation of drug tra4cking structures from Mexico during the past decade rivals the global infamy of Colom- bian groups such as the Medellín and Cali cartels during the 1980s and 1990s. Brutal gangs in the North of Central America (NCA)—formed by the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—have even served as a bogey-man in presidential campaigns in the United States during the 2010s.1 But what about the predicament of the people living in the zones to which organized criminal groups lay claim? Much has been written about the levels of violence to which these populations are exposed; however, what is less understood, even today, is how the aggressive activities of organized criminal groups have produced waves of internal and external displacement and the implications of this displacement for the global community. 3is paper draws on research conducted by the author over the past decade to re5ect on the crisis of forced displacement that has a6ected these populations in the NCAM during the 2010s. 3e paper analyzes statistical data concern- ing refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to o6er observations on the scale of displacement within the NCAM and across borders; the diverse organized criminal groups that generate di6erent but overlapping dynamics of displacement; and the response in law and policy to this displacement within these countries and in the Americas more generally. Finally, this paper ends by arguing that the displacement in the NCAM has important implications not only for those countries but for the Americas and at the global level, as well.
- Topic:
- Crime, Trafficking, Displacement, and Cartels
- Political Geography:
- Central America, North America, and Mexico
40. Tackling the Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation in Central America: Can Korea Contribute?
- Author:
- Seungho Lee
- Publication Date:
- 05-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
- Abstract:
- Climate change adaptation has long been established as a regional and national priority in Central American countries. Korea, as a responsible middle power in global governance, should not hesitate to play a more active role in tackling their adaptation challenges. This brief summarizes a number of findings and policy suggestions from Lee et al. (2021), which identifies promising cooperation areas in the field of climate change adaptation between Korea and four Central American countries and proposes cooperation schemes in each area.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, International Cooperation, Governance, and Adaptation
- Political Geography:
- Asia, South Korea, and Central America