The growing insecurity in Latin America, not only in traditionally violent countries such as Colombia and Central America, but now also in other countries such as Ecuador, has led to widespread insecurity on the continent despite Latin America’s stricter firearms laws. Closely related to the flood of firearms. The United States has a stockpile of these weapons, most of which are supplied by the United States.
The murder rate in the area has increased in recent years. Venezuela had the highest incidence rate of 40.4 per 100,000 population, followed by Honduras with 35.8, according to 2022 data collected by the specialized portal Insight Crime. Colombia is 26.1. Ecuador is 25.9. and Mexico had 25.2.
Despite being far from the most violent country, with a rate of 5 per 100,000 people, Chile has seen homicides double over the past decade, creating concern among its citizens – 50%. Recognizes that crime is the most important problem at the national level.
Left-wing Gabriel Boric’s government has increased security spending and even sent an army to try to solve the immigration crisis on the Peruvian border, but this has not prevented the right from winning recent elections to elect the country’s new party members. . Constitution.
In Ecuador, too, alarming levels of violence have been key to the political crisis the country is experiencing, with President Guillermo Lasso dissolving the opposition-controlled parliament, citing the inability to govern. Here, in early April, the president approved the “possession and carriage of weapons for civilian use for personal defense,” among other measures aimed at curbing nascent insecurity associated with rising drug trafficking. bottom.
Illegal Trade in Light Weapons
“The main factor behind this epidemic of armed violence is the diversion and illicit trafficking of small arms and light arms across the region,” said Karina, an expert, head of the Arms Trade Treaty Observatory (ATT Monitor). Mr. Solmirano emphasizes. ) in an “Americas Quarterly” article by Control Arms, a coalition of organizations working to strengthen management of this issue.
To be precise, more than 75% of homicides in the region are firearm-related, far below the global average of 40%, according to the latest ATT Monitor report in 2018. Furthermore, 10 of the 15 countries with the highest murder rates outside of armed conflict are in Latin America.
The 2018 Small Arms Survey estimates that civilians in the region had approximately 60 million weapons in the same year, including 17.5 million in Brazil and 16.8 million in Mexico, many of which were legally registered. not To these must be added the approximately 8.8 million held by national security forces and agencies, as well as those held by the growing private security firms in Latin America.
“The millions of illegal weapons in circulation in the region and the relentless trafficking between nations and from the United States have fueled the activities of criminal gangs and made them even more violent,” Solmilano said. accusations linked to increased levels of There is drug trafficking in the hemisphere.
Various forms of weapon diversion
The origins of illegal light weapons in circulation in Latin America are diverse, depending on when and how they were diverted from legal channels. A good portion of them stem from the armed conflicts that ravaged countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua decades ago. According to the aforementioned ATT Monitor report, it is estimated that about 360,000 military weapons were not delivered at the end of the civil war in El Salvador.
But the United States will be the main source of this illicit arms trade. In many cases, those who obtained the weapons legally in the United States are illegally exported, primarily to Mexico, but also to other countries in the region, according to ATT Monitor.
It is estimated that about 253,000 firearms purchased through these “straw men” crossed the border between the two countries each year between 2010 and 2012. Moreover, 70% of the weapons seized by Mexican authorities between 2009 and 2014 (more than 73,000) originated in the United States, confirming this level of smuggling.
Another means of illegal arms trafficking is the forgery or misuse of end-user certificates. Conflicts like the one experienced in Colombia have found cases of legitimate a priori purchases being diverted thanks to forged certificates and corrupt officials against armed groups.
endemic rot
Corruption, one of the continent’s unique problems, also plays an important role in this whole diversion process. Members of the security forces and corrupt officials have made the country’s arsenal an important source for Latin American militants and drug traffickers.
And if, for example, in the past Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega armed the conflicting parties in El Salvador, now Venezuela under the Nicolas Maduro regime is arming the second guerrilla, the National Liberation Army (ELN). It is suspected that In Colombia, according to the aforementioned report.
The proliferation of private security organizations in the region also contributes to illegal arms trafficking. ATT Monitor estimates there are about 16,000 companies employing at least 2.4 million people.
Thus, while it is estimated that there are two private security guards for every police officer in the subcontinent, the numbers are much higher in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and in Central America. The lack of regulatory and oversight mechanisms for these private companies and their weapons makes it easy for them to exploit and end up on the black market for some of the weapons they use.
Diversion of small arms and light arms “continues to be a serious problem in Latin America and the Caribbean,” according to the ATT Monitor, a country that recognizes the complexities of dealing He especially emphasized the role of exporters in securing final sales destinations, particularly the United States, which he warned was not responsible.
cost of armed violence
On the one hand, violence causes enormous economic losses for these countries. A 2017 study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) found that Latin America’s crime losses were 3% of GDP (ranging from 2.42% to 3.55%), with the situation far worse in Central America. there is The cost here is double his of the regional average.
This represents a total cost of up to $236 billion, equivalent to an average of $300 per person across the 17 countries analyzed. Given that Latin America is one of the hardest-hit regions by the COVID-19 pandemic, as Solmirano warns, “if we were to measure the same variables again, these costs would be even higher today. It is very likely that it will be higher.”
In this context, experts say the “militarization of security”, as has happened in Mexico and Brazil, has not produced the desired results. For this reason, the country is working on other measures, such as improving the security of its arsenal, increasing the destruction of seized weapons, and expanding information exchange, suggesting a comprehensive approach to reducing global demand for weapons. warned that it was necessary. Latin America remains “the most violent region in the world”.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
