Canada’s Role in a Regional Crime Spree

Rachel Schmidt and Carlo Dade

As Mexican drug traffickers and hit men stockpile hand grenades, assault rifles, and grenade launchers, the country’s military has been called in to help overwhelmed police forces, a practice becoming more common throughout Latin America. Colombia’s military has been fighting a drug war for decades, and Central America is struggling to control the myriad gangs that channel drugs between South and North America.

In El Salvador, the murder rate is now higher than it was during the civil wars. Although Canada does not have such extreme levels of violence, the recent escalation of urban gang activity — including this week’s shooting of a well-known drug trafficker in Vancouver — reminds us that we are not immune to organized crime.

While the Canadian government has recently chosen the “Americas” as a foreign policy priority, officials have yet to address our role in the region’s alarming crime levels. Debates around governance and prosperity (i.e., democracy and free trade agreements) are plentiful, yet little has been said about one of the most crucial issues confronting Latin America and the Caribbean: security.

Despite the fact that political violence such as guerrilla warfare has significantly decreased in the region, most Latin American and Caribbean countries are now seeing even higher levels of violence. Although figures vary, certain trends stand out: with 30 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the Caribbean currently has the highest murder rate in the world, closely followed by Latin America with 25 homicides per 100,000. (Comparatively, the U.S. murder rate stands at 5.6 per 100,000, while Canada is at 1.85.) Drug trafficking, violent youth gangs, money laundering and prolific domestic violence rank high among the most serious and immediate threats to regional democracy and development. As Canada develops a strategy in the Americas, we need to figure out what to do about security — and we need to do it soon.

Poorly trained and inadequately funded police forces are certainly part of the problem, especially as they face increasingly wealthy and sophisticated armed groups. In a drug bust last year, Mexican police seized US$205.6 million in cash, an amount close to six per cent of that country’s entire military budget.

In mid-January, the Mexican army arrested a senior-level mafia member and three accomplices carrying just shy of US$1 million in cash. In many countries, the military is taking over from corrupt or ill-equipped police, raising concerns not only about human rights but also about where to turn should the armed forces fail or worse, be co-opted.

Some civilians frustrated by insecurity have embarked on their own form of enforcement, which includes “social cleansing” operations such as killing street kids, drug addicts, sex workers and other “undesirables.” Wealthy citizens simply hire their own security: in several Latin American countries, private security forces outnumber state police forces. But vigilante justice due to police incompetence is only one part of the story. Estimates by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank put the cost of crime and violence in the region at over 14 per cent of regional GDP — and the problem is not going away any time soon.

One new effort to combat organized criminal groups and the militarization of policing duties is the creation of Ameripol, Latin America’s first regional police force. This is an endeavour in which Canada should play a key role. At a recent FOCAL event, Javier Hernandez, the deputy representative for the UN High Commission on Human Rights in Colombia, emphasized that military and police forces need “peer training” in human rights — training from other soldiers and police officers rather than civilians. He also stressed that Canadians have the expertise in human rights, minority rights, gender equality and peacekeeping that is needed in Latin American police and military forces.

Such a contribution should not only be seen as an altruistic endeavour. Trans-national crime unavoidably affects Canadians and will continue to do so as criminal groups gain more money, power and global reach. The economic benefits of tackling crime are also clear, as foreign companies are wary of investing in countries known for violence, extortion and targeted killings. According to the 2005 World Bank Development Report, more than 50 per cent of firms in Latin America judge crime to be a serious obstacle to conducting business. The corresponding number for Asia and Africa was only 25 per cent.

Despite the obvious challenges, reducing violent crime in Latin America and the Caribbean is possible. Significant work is already being done by many international actors, but with the exception of immigration and deportee case work, Canadian security and intelligence agencies are largely absent. We need to address the immediate concerns of ground-level security while also dealing with higher-level, long-term negotiations such as free trade agreements. If we are concerned about improving human rights and economic equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, we must also be concerned about the personal security of the people living and working there.

Rachel Schmidt is the Editor-in-Chief of FOCALPoint and Communications Director for FOCAL. Carlo Dade is FOCAL’s Executive Director.