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BOGOTA, Oct 28 (TrustLaw) - Central America is ill-equipped to deal with a surge in narcotics-related corruption as cartels increasingly use the region as a route for smuggling drugs into the United States, analysts say.
Stepped-up efforts against drug trafficking in Colombia and Mexico are driving major drug gangs into Central America, posing a serious challenge to the rule of law as the region's weak governments and poorly trained police forces struggle to stem soaring drug-fuelled graft and violence.
U.S. officials estimate around 60 to 80 percent of cocaine produced in South America that enters the United States - the world's biggest cocaine market - now travels overland through Central America.
"It's highly likely drug corruption will rise across Central America," said Michael Shifter, a senior analyst at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think-tank. "There's a very high association between drug trafficking and corruption and the penetration of political systems by organised crime networks. Corruption tends to gravitate towards places where governments lack the capacity to deal with organised crime."
Many Central American governments are "overwhelmed" as drug cartels extend their presence in Central America, taking advantage of the region's weak judicial systems and ineffective law enforcement, he said.
"The accelerated deterioration of the problem is greater than the resources the governments in Central America have. There's a sense of them being overwhelmed by the spread of organised crime. Central America is extremely nervous for the future," Shifter told TrustLaw.
A region of seven developing nations, including some of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, Central America is particularly vulnerable to drug-related corruption as it struggles to recover from years of military rule and civil war.
"For historical reasons, the region's political institutions, with the exception of Costa Rica, are much less developed than the rest of Latin America," said Shifter.
He highlighted a "perfect storm of factors" that make Central America a fertile breeding ground for graft.
"Central America is being squeezed a lot more than the rest of Latin America. The recession in the U.S. has meant a slowdown of remittances, and more unemployment combined with the historical legacy provides a fertile ground for drug trafficking, bringing with it more corruption," he explained.
GUATEMALA HOT SPOT
Many analysts single out Guatemala, a country that borders Mexico, as a fragile nation most at risk of rising drug-fuelled corruption and organised crime.
"It's difficult for the problem to get any worse than it already is in Guatemala," said Kevin Casas-Zamora, former vice president of Costa Rica and senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "The country is by the far the worst case in Central America and is a symptom of how rotten law enforcement has got."
The Guatemalan government blames drug traffickers for the corruption plaguing its police force, whose chief was arrested on alleged drug trafficking charges earlier this year. Nearly 2,000 police officers have been purged from the force in recent years.
Elsewhere in Latin America, notably Mexico, governments periodically fire police officers as quick-fix solutions to root out graft in their ranks.
In Costa Rica last month, dozens of police officers were arrested on drug smuggling charges in what the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation called its largest corruption probe ever.
But with Latin America's drug trade worth an estimated $30-$40 billion a year, police and judicial officers can be bought off easily.
"The drug traffickers can bribe just about anyone. The size of the business, the amount of money that changes hands in Central America is just staggering," said Casas-Zamora.
Underpaid police officers with poor training and low social status find it hard to resist pressure from the drug cartels, he added.
"The police force has been very weak and corrupt in Central America for a long time. It's just that now they are under more pressure as some Mexican cartels are setting up shop in Central America, like (in) Guatemala," he said.
REFORMING THE POLICE
While progress has been made in defining the roles of the military and police more clearly, experts say Central American governments - with U.S. backing - need to step up efforts to reform their police and judicial systems, strengthen government institutions and roll out anti-corruption initiatives.
Measures that can help stem graft and nepotism in police ranks include tightening internal control mechanisms, promoting community policing, increasing resources for investigative units, training prosecutors to present sound court cases, and setting up transparent recruitment and promotion procedures.
"It's about rebuilding almost from scratch law enforcement agencies. Internal control units and the intensive use of information and technology is almost unheard of in Central America," said Casas-Zamora.
Experts say the growing problems of drug-related corruption and organised crime in Central America have been neglected by regional governments and Washington, which has focused on fighting the drug war in Mexico.
"They are underestimating the fact that Central America is much more vulnerable to corruption and drug trafficking than Mexico. Only now are some in Washington getting a sense of the urgency," said Casas-Zamora.
He called for more U.S. funds - under the Merida Initiative, Washington's $1.4 billion anti-drug effort in Mexico, Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic - to be diverted to bolstering government institutions in Central America.
Despite increased awareness among Central American governments that much more needs to be done to professionalise the police, stamping out corruption is difficult to do in practice, analysts say.
"It's extremely difficult to professionalise a police force, and it's a slow and difficult process of reform, especially when the drug cartels have so much more money. At best it can be made more manageable," said Shifter, who added that regional bodies such as the Central American Integration System (SICA) should take a stronger lead in fighting corruption.
For Casas-Zamora, it is crucial that national governments push tackling drug-related graft up the political agenda.
"Even the best-defined assistance programmes from the U.S. are a drop in the ocean, and won't do the trick," he said. "The task is so big that countries need to be convinced themselves to deal with the problem and make it a priority."
