The U.S. Spends Millions Funding Central America’s Drug War. A New Report Says It Hasn’t Worked

The U.S. Spends Millions Funding Central America’s Drug War. A New Report Says It Hasn’t Worked

September 12, 2016

Militarized law enforcement may have done more damage to human rights than it has to crime rates.

BY Parker Asmann

A new paper released last week by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) disputes data from a 2014 report on U.S.-funded anti-crime programs in Central America, suggesting these programs may not have been as effective as previously thought.

In 2007, then-president George W. Bush created the Merida Initiative, a security cooperation agreement between the United States, Mexico and Central America, as a regional response to rising drug trafficking and violence in Central America. Furthering this approach, in 2010 President Obama created the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), separating the Central American countries from the Merida Initiative.

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), between 2008 and 2015, the U.S. has appropriated at least $1.2 billion to Central America through these two initiatives to provide equipment, training and technical assistance to support immediate law enforcement operations in the region, consequently leading to a more militarized violence prevention method that has been widely criticized.

A 2014 report conducted by the Vanderbilt University-based Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) found that CARSI seemed to be reducing crime. This was the only publicly available evaluation of CARSI programs.

More:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/19457/the-u.s.-efforts-to-stop-violence-in-latin-america-may-not-be-working/