How will Montt defend himself in Guatemala?

I have a new post up at Al Jazeera on How will Montt defend himself in Guatemala? I'll leave you with the conclusion.

If the former general believes that the murders, rapes and torture that were carried out under his command were necessary to combat the guerrilla insurgency, he should make that argument to the Guatemalan people.

If he believes that the thousands of civilians who were killed, while tragic, saved the lives of untold millions of Guatemalans who otherwise would have been forced to live under the iron rule of the communists had the military not done its job, he should say so. If that is what he believed, and still believes today, he shouldn't embarrass himself by remaining silent.

No one is going to take his defence seriously if he blames a few rogue officers or if he says that no massacres ever occurred. In the end, the only satisfactory outcome will be a guilty verdict that leads to Efraín Ríos Montt spending the remaining years of his life behind bars. How he gets to there remains up to him.

Guatemala's Human Rights Profile

Human Rights Watch put out a pretty accurate report on the human rights situation in Guatemala several days ago.

Guatemala’s weak and corrupt law enforcement institutions have proved incapable of containing the powerful organized crime groups and criminal gangs that contribute to one of the highest violent crime rates in the Americas. Illegal armed groups are believed to be responsible for ongoing threats and targeted attacks against civil society actors and justice officials.

Although impunity remains the norm for human rights violations, there were significant advances for accountability in 2011, including convictions of four former officers for a notorious massacre in 1982 and the first arrest of a top-ranking official for human rights violations.  

I see the situation in Guatemala as still very difficult but having come off its lows in 2008 and 2009. Arrests of high profile drug traffickers have increased. There have been some prosecutions and/or arrests of human rights violators from the civil war years. Murders of both men and women have declined two years in a row.

Guatemala has gone from a murder rate of 46 per 100,000 to 39 per 100,000 at at time when the rates of its neighbors are in the 70s (El Salvador) and 80s (Honduras). When CICIG first arrived in Guatemala, there were reports that 2% of all murders resulted in convictions. Today, it's between 5% (2010) and 9% (2011).

There's still too much violence and too much impunity, but statistically the country is heading in a better direction than its neighbors.

A Testament From Guatemala’s War Years

David Gonzalez at the New York Times has an interesting story about Jean-Marie Simon in A Testament From Guatemala’s War Years. Jean-Marie spent years documenting life in Guatemala during the war both in photos and in words.

I like her comment on Efrain Rios Montt's potential defense.

“I wish this trial would have happened 30 years ago, when he had a long life ahead of him in prison,” said Ms. Simon, who spent most of the 1980s photographing in Guatemala. “It is so disingenuous to say, ‘I didn’t know’ or ‘I wasn’t in control of the army.’ He was the commander in chief, he had command responsibility for the troops below him. Like a commander in the field once told us, there’s a very short leash between us and the National Palace.”

I agree and should have an op-ed on Al Jazeera stating the same thing soon. I submitted it on Sunday, but they don't seem concerned with the timing of Latin American stories so I don't know when it will go.

Go check out the NYT story, take a look at the photos, and buy her book.

Femicide in Guatemala (2001-2011)

President Otto Perez Molina recently formed a "task force to combat femicide" in Guatemala. Nobel prize winners Rigoberta Menchu and Jody Williams are traveling the region to help bring attention to the intentional killing of women in Guatemala and beyond. And the British Ambassador is organizing human chains around volcanoes. I hope that these three actions are going to help reduce femicide in Guatemala in the region.

In an article for IPS, Danilo Valladares cites statistics from the Presidential Commission Against Racism in Guatemala that indicates femicides increased from 675 in 2010 to 705 in 2011. I think that they are using INACIF numbers which includes murders and other violent deaths but I can't be certain.

However, when one looks at the National Civilian Police's statistics on murder over the last decade one sees that femicide more than doubled from 2001 to 2009 and then has declined in both 2010 and 2011. The increase and then decrease in murders doesn't look at the different from those of men.

This isn't to belittle the murders of Guatemalan women as a problem. It's just to point out that, according to the Guatemalan National Civilian Police's (PNC) murder statistics, the number of women murdered decreased in 2010 and 2011 and that's not even controlling for population increases.

Update - Murder by gender in Guatemala (2010-2011)

I have my first class of the semester in a few minutes, but I thought this was interesting. Here's my lesson for today - don't post right before class, come back after class and double-check everything. I read 2010's numbers for women incorrectly. In 2010, 695 women were murdered. That means the number of women declined from their highs in 2009 in both 2010 and 2011.

According to the National Civilian Police, 5,681 people were murdered in Guatemalan in 2011. Of that total, 5,050 victims were male and 631 were female. Women comprised 11% of all murder victims in 2011.


In 2010, the PNC recorded 5,906 murders throughout the country. Of that total, 5,265 involved male victims and 625 695 female victims. Women comprised about the same percentage in 2010, 10.6%.


Therefore, overall murders dropped 3.8% (from 5906 to 5,681), male victims declined 4.1% (from 5,265 to 5,050), and female victims increased by 1% (from 625-631).decreased from 695 to 631.


Why have authorities been so much more successful at reducing male victims?


According to the National Civilian Police, 5,681 people were murdered in Guatemalan in 2011. Of that total, 5,050 victims were male and 631 were female. Women comprised 11% of all murder victims in 2011.

In 2010, the PNC recorded 5,906 murders throughout the country. Of that total, 5,265 involved male victims and 695 female victims. Women comprised about 11.8% in 2010.

Therefore, overall murders dropped 3.8% (from 5906 to 5,681), male victims declined 4.1% (from 5,265 to 5,050), and female victims decreased 9.2%  from 695 to 631 (720 died in 2009).

The PNC's statistics from from Carlos Mendoza's blog.

Rios Montt to go to trial for genocide and crimes against humanity

OnThursday, Efrain Rios Montt appeared in a Guatemalan court on genocide charges.During the hearing, the government presented evidence of over 100 incidentsinvolving at least 1,771 deaths, 1,445 rapes, and the displacement of nearly30,000 Guatemalans during his 17-month rule from 1982-1983 (WashingtonPost, BBC, SigloXXI, LA Times)

Rios Montt did not speak duringtoday's hearings, but it looks like he will be able to test his "I wasnever on the battlefield" defense. Tonight, judge CarolPatricia Flores determined that there is enough evidence to try RiosMontt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The prosecutionwanted him incarcerated because of his potential for flight but the judge ruledthat he can remain out on bail. He has now been placed under house arrest andwill be watched by the PNC. 

A tremendous victory for the peopleof Guatemala and a continuation of what I believe has been a pretty remarkable year-plus of human rights advancement in theregion.

What do you think about Reagan now?

From the New York Times

A Guatemalan judge has ordered a former military dictator,Efraín Ríos Montt, to appear in court on Thursday, the first step in a processthat could lead to his being tried on genocide charges and to a reopening ofthe darkest chapter in Guatemala’s brutal36-year civil war.

During General Ríos Montt’s 17-month rule in 1982 and 1983,the Guatemalan Army pursued a scorched-earth campaign in the Mayan highlandsthat included massacres that are regarded as among the most horrific in thewar. To flush out small bands of leftist guerrillas, soldiers entered Indianvillages and hunted down their inhabitants, slaughtering men, women andchildren indiscriminately.

How aboutduring the next Republican debate, the moderators ask what the candidates thinkabout Ronald Reagan's legacy given his relationship with Rios Montt, a man whoReagan claimed was "totally dedicated to democracy," "was a man of great personal integrity," and had been"getting a bum rap" by all those people criticizing him for humanrights abuses. Reagan said these things in December 1982 during the height ofthe genocide in Guatemala. While many people knew what was going on at thetime, the evidence today is incontrovertible.

Whilethey are at it, can they ask if they, like Reagan, will allow Central Americanelites to finance death squads against the Salvadoran people while they areliving the high-life in South Florida and perhaps even investing in Bain Capital?

For anyone who follows Latin America, this is nothing new. However, most Americans don't know much about Central American history or the US' role in the region during the 1970s and 1980s. It would be interesting to see if Mexican Mitt or The Historian know anything about the time period in question.

Murder and Police Corruption in Honduras

It's good to see themedia begin to pick up on the fact that national police and governmentofficials in Central American are involved in all sorts of crime. It's not justdrug traffickers from Mexico and Colombia or gangs. (See the Miami Herald and McClatchy). Boz also has a write-up on Police Corruption in Honduras this morning.

A few things jumped outat me. I don't follow Honduran politics as closely as others, but how can youappoint a Security Minister to "lead a sweep of law enforcement" whohad no idea that criminals were operating out of police stations? Maybe not tothe extent that it was occurring, but not that it wasn't happening.

“It never occurred to me whenI took over this ministry that inside police stations there were peoplecommitting crimes and acting against human life,” said Security MinisterPompeyo Bonilla, named recently to lead a sweep of law enforcement. “We have aserious problem.”

While the Miami Heraldarticle wasn't bad, I can't help but notice that the 2009 coup against Zelayawasn't mentioned at all. Perhaps the the violence would have escalated inHonduras had the June 2009 coup not occurred. Obviously, we'll never know. Butit sure seems to me that violence committed by authorities has increased sincethat date. There's also the concern that drug traffickers stepped in to takeadvantage of the chaos that ensued following the coup. It should have beenmentioned even in passing.

Tim Johnson also has agood article for McClatchy on Crime booms as Central Americans fear police switched sides.I definitely don't like the title. Maybe they could have changed it to crimebooms as Central American police remains on both sides of the law.Maybe it's worse today but problem is nothing new.

Murder rates remain stubbornlyhigh across the region. El Salvador tallied 4,354 murders last year, slightlyunder Guatemala's 5,618 and the 6,723 that Honduras registered. The NorthernTriangle now approaches far more populous Mexico in the total number ofhomicides.

Now, notto be picky but these are not rates. It's also not good to present thesenumbers without taking into consideration population differences. El Salvadorhas a population of approximately 6 million, Guatemala somewhere in the 14million range, and Honduras about 8 million. 

Finally, changes in murder ratesfor each country do not look alike. While crime booms, the murder rate in ElSalvador has gone up some years and down other years. In Honduras, it has gonestraight up. And in Guatemala, it has remained pretty flat for the last fewyears. Unlike Honduras and El Salvador, it has declined two years in a row. Guatemala'smurder rate has also been significantly lower than those for the two countriesfor just about every year under consideration.

A comparison of the three countriesshould take these differences into account.

The Miami Herald (Therisks and rewards of helping Honduras) and HermanoJuancito also have stories worth checking out. Their focus is on doinggood work in the midst of such violence. 

Guatemala Murder Rates by Department

Here are the approximate murder rates per 100,000 people for each department in Guatemala in 2010 and 2011.

Guatemala – Change in murder rates 2010-2011

Here's a map that lays out the change in each department's murder rate from 2010 to 2011 in Guatemala. Green is where the murder rate has improved. Red is where the murder rate has worsened. And yellow is where there has been little to no change (El Progreso at 0%, Izabal worsened 0.78%, and Chiquimula improved 1.42%).

AFP is getting a little better reporting on Guatemala

Here's part of today's story on Perez's inauguration fromthe AFP.

The CentralAmerican country has on average 18 murders a day, six times the world average,and has seen large swaths of its territory penetrated by drug cartels usingGuatemala as a transit point on their smuggling routes out of South America.

18 murders per day works out to be 6,570 murders. That's alittle higher than the 6,498 that the PNC reported for 2009 (thehighest on record) and much higher than what it reported for 2010 (5,960) and2011 (5,681). That was a little disheartening. If one uses 2010's murders, itis 16.3 per day and if you use 2011's murders, it is 15.6. Not great, but 18 to16.3 to 15.6 tells a little different story.

But then a few paragraphs later, they write that Perez

has vowed to showresults in his first six months in office, and to cut in half the murder rate —currently one of the world’s highest at 38 per 100,000 inhabitants — by the endof his term.

38 per 100,000 looks like 2011's murder rate based upon5,681 murders and a population of 14.7 million.

I guess we should be happy that at least one of thestatistics that they cite is current. However, it's still disappointing thatthey can't realize that the two numbers that they use (per and and per 100,000)are inconsistent.

Now if they would only ask the general why reducing thecountry's murder rate from 43 per 100,000 (the year before Colom took power) to38.6 per 100,000 (Colom's last year in office) is evidence of an increasing andout of control crime situation, why is he promising to cut the murder rate inhalf? By his and the Guatemalan media's standards, that would just mean thecountry is even worse off than when he took office, right?

Inauguration Day in Guatemala

It's inauguration day inGuatemala. I wasn't impressed with the two main presidential candidates and Ican't say that I'm excited to have Otto Perez Molina in charge for the nextfour years given what he is alleged to have done and what he intends to do. (NPR, Bloomberg, Christian Science Monitor, Reuters, The Foundry)  

On Friday morning, aGuatemalan congressman was shot and killed blocks fromthe country's congress. 

OscarValentin Leal Caal was elected to congress as a member of LIDER. However, justdays ago, he agreed to switch his party affiliation to Perez' Patriotic Parry(PP). Even though President Alvaro Colom "said there was no immediate evidence the crime was linked tocongressional affairs or Perez's inauguration" his murder has led to somespeculation that he was killed because of political motivations as his partyswitch wasn't official at the time of his death. 

On the other hand,according to reports, he has been getting threats since his Septemberreelection so it's hard to see how his switch played a role unless we know more about what has been going on behind the scenes.

The otherscenario is that he was killed for some reason related to events in AltaVerapaz, the department which he represents in congress. It's also thedepartment where the government launched a state of siege in December 2010.

Roxanna Baldetti spoke to the press this morning. She says they have recovered the murder weapon, a police revolver. They also have a protected witness. Let's justsay that Leal's death was probably not a suicide. That one's been tried before.

In other news, afterPresident Colom says good-bye, he will try to rekindle that loving feeling with former wife SandraTorres. She apparently isn't going anywhere. She wants more security and the political persecution to stop. She's alsoone of the favorites in 2015 in case you are looking ahead.

Friday Morning in Central America

Here are a few links to get you through the morning.

In Guatemala, a judge told former first lady SandraTorres not to leave the country while she is under investigation forpossible misuse of government funds when she managed President Colom's socialprograms. While she hasn't been charged, a complaint was filed against her last year. I don't think that anyone would be surprised if the former first lady and her husband used the social programs to benefit support for his administration and her electoral campaign. It's deplorable, but not surprising. Is there anything else to the charges?

In El Salvador, the government has confirmed that it hasreceived a formal extradition requestfrom Spain for 13 former military officers linked to the killing of sixJesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in 1989. Two of the 15 wanted bythe Spanish court are currently in the United States. Foreign Minister HugoMartinez said that the request has been forwarded to the high court forconsideration.

The Institute of Legal Medicine says that it never reportedthat only 10% of murders were gang-related. 

"We have never said that is 10 percent (the percentageof homicides committed by gangs), what happens is that police investigations donot (...) 70 of 100 around where the murder was committed, did not report whowas the perpetrator, only 30 reported who was the perpetrator. Of these30, hence the confusion likely, 10 said they had been gang, "said Magana,who said to be responsible for half of national newspapers.

So, in general, police are only able to identify murderer in 30% of the cases in which they investigate. And one-third of those that they do "solve" is gang-related. 

The Tripartite Commission comprised of the ILM, PNC,and FGR has not met yet. They will come up with an official murder tollsometime later this month or February. Then we'll know for sure whether themurder rate has gone up and by how much.

In the same article, Contrapunto also provides additionalstatistics from last year's murders.

Sonsonate was the department's most violent country in 2011with a homicide rate of 110.4 per 100,000 population, followed by San Salvadorand La Libertad with a murder rate of 83.8 and 70.6 murders per 100,000inhabitants, respectively.

With regard to gender, 14.8 percent of those killed in 2011were female and 85.2 percent men.

The Vatican Insider has a detailed report on Thepeace mosaic that caused a “war.” It's about the destruction of themural on the face of the cathedral in San Salvador.

A difficult task I do say

From an AP story on President-elect Otto Perez Molina

Former general Otto Perez Molina takes office as Guatemala’s new president Saturday with a top priority of ending a long-standing U.S. ban on military aid imposed over concerns about abuses during the Central American country’s 36-year civil war.

Perez, who was a top military official during the war, has long insisted there were no massacres, human rights violations or genocide in a conflict that killed 200,000 civilians, mostly Mayan Indians...

Close advisers say he supports meeting the conditions set by various U.S. congressional appropriations acts for restoring aid that was first eliminated in 1978 halfway through the civil war.

Among the required steps is reforming a weak justice system that has failed to bring those responsible for abuses to justice. A U.N.-sponsored postwar truth commission said state forces and related paramilitary groups committed most of the killings.

The U.S. also insists that the government support a United Nations-supported international anti-corruption team whose prosecution effort has been criticized by Guatemala’s political elite.

I find it hard to believe that Perez is going to put a lot of effort into reforming a judicial system so that it can bring human rights violators to justice for atrocities committed during the civil war when the president himself believes that no such violations took place and his incoming administration is filled with former military officials.

Many of his other officials are tied to the country's economic elite who have been waging war on CICIG and the attorney general. I hope that I am wrong, but I don't have a lot of confidence here either.

He won handily this time with campaign promises to deal with criminals with an “iron fist,” a stand that resonated in a country of more than 13 million people where murders are committed at a rate of 45 for every 100,000 residents. That is almost three times higher than in neighboring Mexico.

45 per 100,000 is closer to 2008 or 2009 not today. Last year the murder rate was about 38.5 and in 2010 it was 41 per 100,000. While Guatemala's murder rate might be three times as high as Mexico's, it is about half its southern neighbors, Honduras and El Salvador, with which it is more frequently grouped.

Courageous Stand by The Guatemala Times

The Guatemala Times released Our take on the Colom Presidency yesterday. There’s a lot of good stuff. President Colom has gotten bad press his entire term in office. Some of it is obviously deserved. However, much of it seems to be politically motivated and it's only gotten worse over the last few weeks. I use the term courageous to describe The Guatemala Times' position because what they say is dangerous and I am sure that they know it.

Guatemala’s mainstream media is owned by the status quo and defends the status quo. President Colom was always seen as a threat to the powers of Guatemala – a socialist, in the minds of the Guatemalan right - wingers that is considered the same as communist, guerilla, terrorist, anti- establishment, a menace to their power structure. He is not one of “them”, he must be the enemy.

Anyone who has the illusion that in Guatemala the President elect is the real power is a fool. The power behind the power is and always has been the Guatemalan elite, much the same as in the US, where President Obama has not been able to do anything of what he promised, because it is not convenient for the big money. It is a “moneycracy” not a democracy. Money rules, not the people.

Now the Guatemalan media smells blood and they must endear themselves to the newly elected government of Otto Perez. They are getting bolder and bolder, more offensive and disrespectful as the Presidency of Colom is coming to its end.

There seems to be several factors at play in the media’s coverage of Colom. One line seeks to connect him to the guerrillas and tends to argue that this is what happens when you elect a leftist of someone closely aligned with the guerrillas to the presidency. I get the impression that they don’t just want to take down Colom, but they want to undermine social democracy and the political left in Guatemala. This can be seen by both the media’s coverage of Colom as well as the legal actions brought against former guerrillas and peace activists for crimes committed during the civil war. While the guerrillas did some nasty things, what they did pales in comparison to what the Guatemalan armed forces and government did.

Yesterday’s story about a lawsuit brought against Colom for failing to extend CICIG’s mandate looks like it might be designed to discredit him as well. In 2010, it was thought that the Congress did not need to vote to extend CICIG’s mandate. Putting my conspiracy hat on, it is possible that the media, the elite, and members of the incoming administration do not want CICIG’s mandate extended and this is a way for them to get out of the country’s relationship with CICIG while blaming Colom. I’m not sure of this one, but stranger things have happened. We already know that the lawsuits against Claudia Paz y Paz was politically motivated and likely designed to get her to stop civil war investigations. It’s not that far-fetched to believe that this lawsuit is politically motivated as well.

Finally, the media’s brutal coverage of Colom’s last few weeks already has the effect of causing the people to look towards Otto Perez Molina as the country’s savior. I haven’t read one piece that questions statistics on the country’s murder rate. What explains why two years of reduced murders have led to a rising sense of insecurity amongst Guatemalans? Are the authorities not counting correctly? If murders are not the best way to measure criminal violence, how can we produce statistics that better reflect the situation in which Guatemala finds itself? Has there been any of that? No. They just report the decline and then repeat how Colom has done nothing to improve the security situation in the country.

    

You should definitely read the whole piece.  

Guatemala fails to extend CICIG mandate

A Guatemalan attorney has filed a criminal complaint against President Alvaro Colom for failing to extend the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Colom didn't send the bill to congress and no one seems to have realized it until recently.

According to Gallindo's complain, President Colom didn't send the bill to congress because he doesn't want the CICIG to investigate his administration for corruption. His actions, or lack thereof, constitute a violation of the Constitution, abuse of authority and dereliction of duty. (Siglo XXI, Emisoras Unidas)

I'm sure that there's more to come, but as I said earlier, if the Colom administration was as corrupt as previous administrations with the international community looking over its shoulders, CICIG should not have its mandate extended.

A Different Take on Murders in Central America

Here's what Prensa Libre picked up from AGENCIA ACAN-EFE.

Violence has surged in Guatemala during the last ten years, officials said, because of the presence of youth gangs and drug gangs that have been installed in the country. Last year, according to official figures, 5,681 murders were reported in the country, an average of 16 per day, equivalent to a rate of 38.61 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants. These figures place this Central American country as one of the most dangerous and violent in Latin America.

Would it be so hard to say that 2011's murder rate was the country's lowest since 2004? 

Or how about Guatemala's murder rate of 38.61 is very high, yet it is no where near as high as those of Venezuela (67), El Salvador (70), or Honduras (86)?

Or how about Guatemala's murder rate has never told the complete story about how dangerous a country Guatemala has been? Here's a ranking of the most violent country years since 2000. These are based upon homicide rates for El Salvador, Honduras, and El Salvador per 100,000 people. 

I only intended to compile a list of the top ten. However, I had to go to fifteen so as to include Guatemala somewhere on the list. Guatemala's 2011 rate would rank 25th out of 36 country-years.  

While we are at it, is citing murder statistics useless when we describe Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala? The Northern Triangle is frequently described as one of the most dangerous regions on the planet yet Honduras and El Salvador have nearly double Guatemala's murder rate.

Then there's the title of post - "At least 19 people have been killed in the last 24 hours." Obviously, when you average 16 murders per day, it's not that unusual that you will have days where the total number of murders will reach 19. That's how averages work - some days below and some days above. The Latin American Herald Tribune picked the story up as well.


My hope that the coverage of violence Central America would improve this year isn't looking so good.

Here are some other posts since Friday in case you were busy with football or the NH debate.

Salvadorans Continue to Disappear - but what about Guatemalans?

Guatemala doesn't count?

Some links that I never got around to

Guatemala murder rates (1995-2011)

Salvadorans Continue to Disappear - but what about Guatemalans?

In addition to the 4,354 people murdered in El Salvador in 2011, the Institute of Legal Medicine reports that they are aware of another 2,007 reported disappearances (1,598 men and 409 women). And that is just in the capital of San Salvador.

While we read about the disappeared in Mexico and El Salvador, I've seen no comparable stories in the Guatemalan press. Are disappearances contributing to the disconnect between a declining murder rate and the increased perception of insecurity in that country?

Guatemala doesn't count?

From Jorge G Castaneda's opinion piece on Good times down Latin America's way up at Al Jazeera.

Three elections were held in Latin America in 2011. Two - in Argentina and Peru - went well; the other - in Nicaragua - was marred by egregious fraud and heavy-handed government intervention in favour of the incumbent. Still, two out of three is not bad in a region where, previously, if elections were held at all, disputes about the outcomes were the norm.

You can say that Guatemala's election wasn't as important, regionally speaking, as those in Nicaragua, Peru, and Argentina, but ya gotta include it. Maybe he's got something against Guatemala.

So, what's the reason why the United States is only sending its Peace Corps Director (to check out country conditions for himself?), US Ambassador to Guatemala, Senator Mary Landrieu, and the USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin America to Otto Perez Molina's inauguration? 

Like Castaneda, does the US not place much of a priority on Guatemala? Or, are we sending low-level dignitaries (no offense) because we don't want to have the big guns standing with an alleged war criminal? Has anyone heard who, if anyone, is going to Nicaragua?

Some links that I never got around to

Taylor Dibbert has a piece in Foreign Policy Journal on Amnesty and Guatemala's Civil War.

Annie Bird has a long article in Counterpunch on Marching Towards the Past in Guatemala.

The Independent has a profile on Francisco Dall'Anese. 

Jose Miguel Cruz has an article in Latin American Politics & Society on Criminal Violence and Democratization in Central America: The Survival of the Violent State.

Finally, congratulations to Greg at Two Weeks Notice on his promotion to full professor.