The Unattended Regional Security Agenda of Central America

Abstract

The security challenges in Central America are latent. The region experienced high levels of violence during the decades of 1970 and 1980, especially El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua with the civil wars. This experience was a turning point in the regions political system and since the decades of 1990, the region started a new model of security that continues to this day. The military rule, the violence of Civil War, the international isolation, economic stagnation, and democratization processes pushed Central America towards the revival of the Central American Integration System with new goals and functions. Common security was one of the new additions to that framework with the aim at gaining capability to fight back the threats to the region. Nonetheless, these threats have increased over the years and they have become a huge burden on society and the State. In some cases, like the Northern Triangle countries, violence has reached new highs, even when compared to the worst years of the civil wars. In the southern part of the isthmus, unpopulated territory is being used for drug storage by the cartels. Gang members move around the region freely and organize illicit acts across countries without any problem, even from within jails. This situation has hacked the security institutions in each of the countries, as well as the joint efforts the region is making to counter these illicit organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of the security institutions that exist in the region, and to assess if the new security model implemented in the region after 1990 is effectively acting against the threats to the region. Based on the Central American Integration System as a collective defense institution, the region is trying to jointly fight the threats it must overcome. The main problem is that these threats, as they come from within the region, makes it harder for any security institution to implement any total elimination plan. In addition, the region has two main factors that greatly influence the security policy. The first one is the huge dependence on the United States as a major founder and cooperation agent, while the second is the human rights