Informe Derechos Humanos. Federación Luterana Mundial

Report on
Human Rights
and Confict in
Central America
2011-2012
REGIONAL TEAM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING AND ANALYSIS IN CENTRAL AMERICA
Gratitude:
The Regional Team for Human Rights Monitoring and Analysis in Central America would like to give thanks to:
Eva Ekelund, Regional Representative of the Lutheran World Federation
Rosala Soley, Regional Advocacy Offcer, Lutheran World Federation
Giovanni Magaa, Regional PME Offcer, Lutheran World Federation
Catholic Agency For Overseas Development -CAFOD-
The following organizations collaborated in the compilation and composition of the information about Costa Rica: The Ret-Costa Rica,
Mesa Nacional Indgena (National Indigenous Working Table), Sindicato del Banco Nacional (National Bank Union), Las hijas de la Negrita
(The Daughters of la Negrita), Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Empresa Pblica y Privada (Public and Private Business Workers Union)
Final editors:
Sal Baos
Rosala Soley
Omar Flores
Design: maurigalvez@gmail.com
Organization Name E-mail
SEDEM Arturo Chub arturochub@riseup.net
CALDH
Fabiola Garca coordcomunicacion@caldh.org
Juanita Batzibal batzibal@yahoo.com.mx
CODEH Andrs Pavn andres@codeh.hn
CESPAD
Francisco Saravia pacosaravia@yahoo.com
Eugenio Sosa jesosai@yahoo.es
CENIDH
Marln Sierra cenidh@cenidh.org
Georgina Ruz direccion@cenidh.org
FESPAD
Sal Baos saulbanos@fespad.org.sv
Omar Flores omarmf@fespad.org.sv
FPV Valeria Morales redjovenes@futbolporlavida.org
GAM
Daniel Alvarado esvinag@gmail.com
Karla Campos kalocaf@yahoo.com
ILCO Rubn Chacn rubchach@hotmail.com
CONTACTS
Organizational makeup of the Regional Team for Human Rights Monitoring and Analysis in Central America.
(All acronyms for names in Spanish.)
Asociacin para el Estudio y Promocin de la Seguridad en Democracia (Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in Democracy) SEDEM (Guatemala)
Centro de Accin Legal en Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Legal Action Center) CALDH (Guatemala)
Comit para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos en Honduras (Human Rights Defense Committee of Honduras) -CODEH-
Centro de Estudio para la Democracia (Center of Study for Democracy) -CESPAD- (Honduras)
Centro Nicaragense de Derechos Humanos (Nicaraguan Human Rights Center) -CENIDH-
Fundacin de Estudios para la Aplicacin del Derecho (Foundation for the Study of the Application of the Law) -FESPAD- (El Salvador)
Fundacin Ftbol por la Vida (Soccer for Life Foundation) FPV- (Costa Rica)
Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (Mutual Support Group) -GAM- (Guatemala)
Iglesia Luterana Costarricense (Lutheran Church of Costa Rica) -ILCO-
INTRODUCTION 7
REGIONAL CONTEXT 8
CHAPTER I
INSECURITY AND VIOLENCE
Violence in the region 10 1.
Femicides 13 2.
Organized crime 15 3.
Militarization and security policies 18 4.
Human rights defenders 22 5.
CHAPTER II
OBSTACLES TO THE ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Access to justice and impunity 25 1.
Judicial Independence 27 2.
Penal system 31 3.
The abuse of power 33 4.
CHAPTER III
CRISIS OF THE DEMOCRATIC MODEL
Limitations on the exercise of citizenship and authoritarianism 37 1.
Citizen participation 37 1.1
Criminalization of social protest and violation of freedom of expression 40 1.2
Political institutionalism refuted in electoral processes 43 2.
Weakened electoral processes 45 3.
CHAPTER IV
NEOLIBERAL MODEL AND INEQUITY IN CENTRAL AMERICA
Poverty, human development and social inequality 48 1.
Enforceability and justiciability of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights 52 2.
Right to adequate nutrition, and food security and sovereignty 52 2.1.
Right to a dignifed job 53 2.2.
Right to healthcare access 56 2.3.
Right to a quality education 58 2.4.
Right to dignifed housing 61 2.5.
Impact of extractive industries and megaprojects 63 3.
CHAPTER V
SOCIO-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL DISCRIMINATION
Rights of the migrant population 67 1.
Rights of the LGBTQ community 69 2.
Womens rights 71 3.
Rights of handicapped people 73 4.
Child and youth rights 74 5.
CHAPTER VI
RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 78
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 87
ACRNYMS Y ABBREVIATIONS 95
BIBLIOGRAPHY 98
Regional Team for Human Rights Monitoring and Analysis in Central America 7
Introduction
This year, the Report on Human Rights and Confict in Central America is written in times of fnancial crisis, with cuts in
bilateral cooperation and new focuses for relationships between Central America and Europe.
Every year, this report written by the Human Rights Monitoring and Analysis Team is a remarkable event, given that it is the
only regional view of the state of human rights from a civil society perspective in this region. Once again, these geographically
disperse organizations have been able to come together and create a quality product with an increasingly regional focus.
The report is based on six themes: insecurity and violence, obstacles to the access to justice, the crisis of the democratic model,
the neoliberal model and inequity, socio-political and cultural discrimination, and the rights of indigenous peoples. It refects
a critical, alternative and more avant-garde vision, which surely will be of great support in your work of contextual analysis,
in the search for new sources and in the defense of the rights of every boy, girl, woman and man in Central America.
As in earlier years, the Lutheran World Federation has proudly worked with the team made up of professional human rights
activist organizations in an environment that gives witness to a situation that is increasingly more threatening to human
rights defenders. This is a reality in which civil society is challenged and questioned about its intentions, its work methods and
its independence; questioned about the very legitimacy of its actions. An environment of criminalization of civil organizations
exists in societies where the criminal elements intrude on life and civilian roles, and where the response of the State is to
involve the military in decision-making about public security policies.
The paradox is ever-clearer: the civil State is being infltrated by elements of organized crime, and the response has been to
turn to ex-military to fll government positions, and to militarize internal security. In this context, citizen organizations that
carry out their role of denouncing human rights violations are pointed out and attacked by governments for being uncivilized,
and for taking a stand against the status quo.
We must remember the principal element of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: human rights based on the dignity
and value of each person are universal, and they have to be applied, equally and without discrimination, to all people.
These rights are inalienable; no one can take away or restrict a persons human rights. They are indivisible, interrelated and
interdependent. However, if this was really true, the world and Central America would be different.
I hope that this report is helpful for you, and inspires you in your advocacy and work in defense of human rights on a national,
regional and international level.
May the voices of the discriminated and marginalized never be silenced.

San Salvador, November 23, 2012
Eva Ekelund
Regional Representative
Lutheran World Federation
8 Report on Human Rights and Confict in Central America
Regional Context
Central America is a region of great contrasts in terms
of human rights. The high concentration of wealth, its
distribution, and the maintenance of this situation have
been principal causes of the historical conditions of
structural violence that have violated, and continue to
violate, the rights of the population.
The human rights situation in Central America presents
high levels of violence and human insecurity. The region
is characterized by a structural governmental weakness.
Regional governments also display an authoritarian
political culture toward the general population, but a
simultaneous complacency with the de-facto powers,
which have a high level in governmental decision-making
and control.
Within the time period of this human rights report, the
region can be characterized by three tendencies:
- Criminalization and persecution of human rights
defenders.
- Re-militarization and implementation of security
policies as a response to drug trafficking, organized
crime, gangs and migration.
- Territorial and social conflicts caused by the models of
investment and international cooperation promoted
by governments.
Grave violations against the physical and psychological
integrity of diverse human rights defenders have been
confirmed. These continue to be treated with total
impunity. These violations have happened in the process
of denouncing other violations of fundamental liberties
which recur in the region, such as the right to adequate
nutrition, access and ownership of land, dignified
housing, access to a quality education, and a healthy
environment Governmental protection programs for
human rights defenders are not sufficient in their design
and functioning. This is principally true in Honduras.
Governmental protection programs for human rights
defenders are not sufficient in their design and
functioning. This is principally true in Honduras.
In accordance with the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights (IACHR), The increasingly systematic and
reiterated way in which baseless penal actions are initiated
against defenders has become visible with increasing
intensity in the region
1
and has become a problem that
deserves priority attention from governments. It is an attack
on the leading role that defenders play in the consolidation
of rule of law and the strengthening of democracy, and
also an attack on the credibility and legitimacy of their
activities in the defense of human rights. This makes them
even more vulnerable to attacks
2
. The tendency has
been to persecute, punish and criminalize social protest
activities and the legitimate vindication of those who
promote and defend human rights, especially in cases
related to the protection of territories due to foreign
investment.
Another of the tendencies in Central America is re-
militarization, which is characterized by retired military
members in decision-making positions, participating in
matters of criminal policy and public security. The pattern
1 Report presented by Ms. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary General on the matter of human rights defenders, A/HRC/7/28, 7th period of sessions by the Human
Rights Council, January 31, 2008, Para. 45.
2 IACHR, Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas.
9 Regional Team for Human Rights Monitoring and Analysis in Central America
is that regional governments justify the involvement of
military forces under the arguments of high levels of
crime, few police to control phenomena of violence, and
the approval given to the army as an entity of supreme
efficiency in combating delinquency and organized
crime.
Currently, the Central American Integration System (SICA
in Spanish) has 22 projects aimed at controlling and
preventing violence, and offering rehabilitation. Eight of
these programs have been financed, 70% of which are
destined for armies for control of weapons, organized
crime and drug trafficking. The latest tendencies in El
Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have been to weaken
civil security systems in favor of military security
mechanisms, very similar to the plans in the 1980s.
On the other hand, in the context of global crisis, the
modality of investment and international cooperation
has changed in such a way that, within the free trade
agreements and association agreements, capital
is accumulated and concentrated in transnational
corporations. This provokes forced displacement, disputes
and territorial conflicts. The principal people affected
are farm workers, indigenous and Afro-descendants.
Therefore, the region must seek to construct and open
spaces of dialogue and debate about the structural
problem of systematic rights violations. It should continue
strengthening the different levels of social oversight
for the compliance with, respect for, and protection of
rights.
It is imperative to continue to develop and link monitoring
and advocacy networks, and to generate exchange and
reaction in terms of rights. International mechanisms for
denunciation and visibility must be used to make known
the conditions in the region.
CHAPTER I
3
Violence in the Region 1.
Central America has become one of the most violent
regions in the world, especially the Northern Triangle
Zone, composed of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
This translates into fear and anxiety for its inhabitants
and for those whose destination is the region.
According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, of the
158 countries evaluatedwhere Somalia occupies position
158 as the most violent, and Iceland in position 1 as the
least violentCentral American countries present high
levels of violence. This is principally true for Honduras,
in position 129; Guatemala, in 124th; and El Salvador,
in 111th. The following table of positions illustrates the
aforementioned.
On average, the region presented a 9.4 point rise in the
position table, with the exception of Guatemala, which
improved its positioning by descending from 125th to
124th.
The human rights situation in the region is marked by
factors such as economic crisis, poverty, unemployment,
political conflicts, citizen insecurity, discrimination
and other factors which lead to continual human rights
violations. These end primarily in violence. This is due
to the persistence of historical-structural conditions
such as high concentration and unequal distribution of
wealth.
Along the same lines, the Secretary General of the
United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, declared that the Central
American region presents the highest level of homicides
in the world: 400 times higher than the average in
countries with low levels of violence
6
.
Crime and violence constitute the key problem for
development in Central American countries. As was
already mentioned, in El Salvador, Guatemala, and
Honduras, the levels of crime and violence are among
the three highest globally, while in Costa Rica, Nicaragua
and Panama, the levels of crime and violence are
significantly lower. A sustained rise in violence levels
Table 1
Central American countries according to the Global Peace Index Ranking-GPI-
Country Position year 2011
4
Position year 2012
5
Islandia 1 1
Costa Rica 31 36
Panama 49 61
Nicaragua 72 81
El Salvador 102 111
Guatemala 125 124
Honduras 117 129
Somalia 153 158
Source: Proprietary production, with statistics from the Global Peace Index.
3 Violence is defned as a relationship of force between a victimizer and a victim. The victimizer, or violent agent, has objectives to achieve; for example, to control a territory or
resources, to accumulate strength and power, and to prevail. Furthermore, violence has a foundational justifcation. That is to say, narratives of violence exist. These narratives
are codes and symbols of violence. For example: the rituals of crime, cemeteries, religious symbols and songs that make reference to violence. We live in a world where crime
is popular and where public spaces are reduced by criminals who control spaces, territories and borders in every country. [As defned by Rossana Reguillo (2008)].
4 Institute for Economics & Peace. Global Peace Index 2011, Pag. 10-14. Retrieved on September 24, 2012 , from http://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/
PDF/2011/2011%20GPI%20Results%20Report.pdf
5 Ibd., Pg. 8-9.
6 UN News Center. (May 16, 2012 ) Central America has the highest homicide rates in the world. Retrieved on September 24, 2012, from http://www.un.org/spanish/News/
fullstorynews.asp?newsID=23463
in recent years is cause for concern. In an attempt
to put the magnitude of the problem in context, we
resort to a comparative analysis. In this case, the total
population of Central America is approximately the same
as in Spain; nevertheless, in 2006, Spain registered
336 assassinations (less than one per day) and Central
America registered 14,257 assassinations (almost 40
per day)
7
The above graph refects that in the year 2011, the
Northern Triangle countries presented the highest
homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants; particularly in the
case of Guatemala, which shows a rate of 39 homicides
for each 100,000 inhabitants. From there, the situation
worsens: according to a report from the Mutual Support
Group (GAM in Spanish), which uses statistics from
the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF in
Spanish), the statistics reached 42 homicides for each
100,000 homicides, which is proof of the terrible situation
of violence in the region.
According to the INACIF report, in the last trimester of
2011, Guatemala had a balance of 1,581 violent deaths. In
the month of June of 2012, the rate of violent deaths rose
to 2,891, which positions the country as one of the most
violent in the region. It is vital to mention that, according
to the National Human Development Report from the
United Nations Development Program UNDP, youth are the
most affected by violence, and primarily those between
the ages of 18 and 24 years old.
8
In El Salvador, the year 2011 is considered to be that which
registers the highest homicide rate since the 1992 Peace
Accords. The Attorney General of the Republic reported
4,368 homicides, which generated an average of 12 deaths
daily, with a rate of 70.2 homicides for each 100,000
inhabitants
9
.

Together with Guatemala and Honduras, El
Salvador is one of the Central American countries with
the highest levels of violence in all of its expressions:
political, youth, domestic, common crime and organized
crime.
Honduras is also among the most violent countries
in Latin America. Added to this alarming situation is
the involvement of current and former members of the
National Police in organized crime groups, carrying
out crimes like bank robberies, kill-for-hire, extortion,
kidnappings, drug and weapons trafficking. Among the
Honduran governments largest problems are the violent
deaths of people linked to special groups, like sexual
diversity, journalists and lawyers. The journalistic
profession is the most affected, with 30 deaths between
January 2010 and December 2011, according to the
registry of the Human Rights Defense Committee (CODEH
in Spanish.)
Graph 1
Source: Proprietary production with statistics from Military Balance (2011)
and the Department of State, of the United States.
7 World Bank. Crime and Violence in Central America: A Challenge to Development. Year 2011, Page ii. Retrieved on September 24, 2012, from http://siteresources.worldbank.
org/INTLAC/Resources/FINAL_VOLUME_I_SPANISH_CrimeAndViolence.pdf
8 UNDP. Guatemala: A country of opportunities for youth? National Human Development Report 2011/2012 Page 76. Retrieved on August 30, 2012, from http://desarrollohu-
mano.org.gt/sites/default/fles/INDH%202011_2012.pdf
9 Attorney General of the Republic. Boletn Geoestadstico de Homicidios. Year 2011. Edition #: 3. Retrieved on June 20, 2012.
Homicide Rate per 100,000
Inhabitants of Central America
Far from the levels of violence registered in Guatemala,
Honduras and El Salvador, in Nicaragua, there are two types
of distinguishable violence: political violence, related to
the demand for rights and the power struggles of social
and political groups; and social violence, which includes
criminal violence related to social decomposition, which is
a phenomenon which spans the region. Additionally, there
are problems of insecurity, which manifest themselves
daily in criminal acts, and which translate into a growing
sense of fear in the population.
The reappearance of political violence in Nicaragua, with
all of its crudeness, has triggered acts of aggravated social
violence in electoral contexts, violating the right to life.
This is the case in the arbitrary execution of 3 members
of the Torres Meja family, from the community of El
Carrizo, Municipality of Cusmapa, Madrid; and the death
of Ronaldo Martnez Herrera, the Political Secretary of the
National Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN in Spanish) of
Cooperna, Siuna, in the context of national elections in
November of 2011, along with the deaths registered in the
context of municipal elections in November of 2012. These
are added to the violent acts registered before, during and
after election day.
Violence in the electoral context continues to be a lasting
phenomenon in the region. In the 2011 presidential
elections in Guatemala, the GAM counted a balance of 43
political activists dead and 20 injured as a product of the
violence in that context.
Government-propelled security policies to combat violence
have not generated the expected results, and the tendency
toward a rising homicide rate in the region is a continuing
risk.
In the case of El Salvador, it seems that public policies
to control the high levels of violence are oriented toward
repressing crime. Plans have been created under this
logic since the year 2002,such as: Iron Fist, with the
administration of the ex-president Francisco Flores; and
Super Iron Fist, with the administration of Elas Antonio
Saca. The current governmental administration has not
been an exception.
The referenced plans have not yielded the expected results.
During the frst months of 2012, the homicide rate followed
the same registered tendency of 2011. A signifcant fall
in homicides did not happen until March, with a truce
between the principal gangs
10
. Despite that decrease,
when comparing the years 2011 and 2012, the security
policies that the current government carries out continue
to show little effectiveness. What actually has happened
is a mutation toward the disappearance of people, which
is then not counted among homicides.
Author: CENIDH, Nicaragua.
Repression of a civic demonstration during and after elections.
10 In the month of March of 2012, soldiers in charge of Salvadoran public security delegated a representative of the Catholic Church and a representative of civil society to
negotiate an agreement between the gangs, which they called a gang truce. This truce was an agreement or negotiation where the gangs committed to diminish homicides,
extortions, threats to public schools, and the handing over of frearms. This was in exchange for receiving some benefts for jailed gang members: access to cable television,
telephone communication, different foods than what are offered normally at the prison, and more fexibility with intimate visits, among others.
Given the relative success of the gang truce, even the
Organization of American States (OAS) has expressed its
support. The Secretary of Multidimensional Security of the
OAS, Adam Blackwell, visited El Salvador to verify the gang
truce and carry out various meetings to strengthen citizen
security. Blackwell attended the frst Coordination Technical
Committee Meeting, in which the gang truce mediators
participated()
11
.

Due to its effectiveness in homicide
reduction, emulating this situation has been proposed in
the other countries in the region, particularly in neighboring
Guatemala and Honduras. This is despite the fact that
the presidents of these countries had originally declared
themselves opposed to negotiation with these groups.
Femicides/Feminicide 2.
12
In the region, violence against women continues to be
a theme of utmost concern, which is why it is necessary
not only to make it visible, but to furthermore work to
eradicate it. In accordance with the statistics presented
by the Small Arms Survey, of the 25 countries with the
highest rate of Femicides, El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras are the countries of the Central American region
that present the highest rate.
13
El Salvador closed 2011 with the highest rate of registered
feminicides in the past decade. According to the registries
of the Salvadoran Women for Peace Organization (ORMUSA
in Spanish), 647 women were reported assassinated around
the country in that year.
14
Also according to the ORMUSA registry
15
,

in 2012 the
Civilian National Police reported 231 assassinations of
women in the frst seven months of the year. The same
period of 2011 left a total of 349 a decrease of 118 deaths.
Nevertheless, despite the decrease, women continue to be
assassinated with extreme cruelty.
January of 2012 held a legal advance, with Special Integral
Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women coming into
effect
16
.

Its application is an attempt to prevent gender
violence against women. This law includes as crimes,
among others, feminicide and aggravated feminicide,
which are not taken into account in the Salvadoran
Penal Code. These crimes can be punished with prison
sentences of between 20 and 50 years.
Honduras is the only country of the three in the Northern
Triangle that does not have a specifc law against femicide,
which lays a foundation for impunity in the justice system
upon dealing with these crimes. According to the Womens
Rights Center of Honduras, in the period between January
and June 2012, 396 women were victims of violence. At
least 113 women were victims of sexual violence and 225
women died at the hands of criminals whose identities
remain unknown.
Guatemalas scenario doesnt differ; violence against
women is also a critical subject here. During the year
2011, the statistic of women who died from violent causes
11 Elsalvador.com. (09/25/ 2012). OEA verifca tregua de pandillas. Retreived September 2, 2012, from http://www.elsalvador.com/mwedh/nota/nota_completa.
asp?idCat=47859&idArt=7286761
12 Femicide is the extreme and mortal expression of violence against women. It is understood that this violence is based on power relationships that are historically unequal
between women and men. Some authors defne femicide as hate crimes against women; as a combination of forms of violence that conclude in the assassination of women.
Marcela Lagarde defned the act of assassinating a woman, based only on her belonging to the feminine sex, as feminicide. She was attempting to give this concept a poli-
tical meaning, to denounce inactivity and a clear lack of governmental follow-through with international conventions that mandate effcient, forceful, serious and infexible
action against these brutal crimes and their authors. To achieve this, she chose the term feminicide to denominate the combination of acts that make up these crimes, and the
disappearances of women when they coincide: silence, omission, negligence, and inactivity of the authorities in charge of preventing and eradicating these crimes. Feminicide
exists when the State doesnt give guarantees o women and does not create safe conditions for their lives in the local community, the home, the workplace, the public eye,
or in recreational spaces.
13 Small Armas Suvery. Femicide: A Global Problem. Retrieved July 25, 2012 http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fleadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-14.pdf
14 ORMUSA. Feminicidios. Observatorio de Violencia de Gnero Contra la Mujer. Year 1, November - December 2011. Retrieved on July 26, 2012. http://observatoriodevio-lencia.
ormusa.org/articulos/documento3.pdf
15 ORMUSA. Feminicidios Primer semestre 2012. Observatorio de Violencia de Gnero Contra la Mujer. Retrieved on August 30, 2012. http://observatoriodeviolencia.ormusa.org/
feminicidios.php
16 Legislative Assembly of the Republic of El Salvador. Decree No. 520
was 711. In the frst semester of 2012, the INACIF data
shows a total of 337 violent deathsan average of 56
per month. In a report presented by the Attorney General
and the Public Prosecutors offce, there were 40,000
denunciations in 2010 of violence against women, and
from January to July of 2012, there were 25,387.
Economic violence is another factor that continues
to affect the lives of women in Guatemala. Of 15,413
denunciations fully attended by the Integral Support
Centers for Women Survivors of Violence (CAIMUS in
Spanish)
17
,

the majority of women reported economic
violence as the most recurrent. This continues to be a
mechanism of subjugation, expressed in diverse forms on
the bodies and territories of women.
Despite the fact that Guatemala has a law against femicide
and various institutions that work to prevent violence
against women, it has not been able to diminish the high
index of attacks against women, and violations of their
fundamental rightsa situation which makes obvious the
weakness of the Guatemalan justice system. This situation
presents serious obstacles to true access to justice.
In Nicaragua, despite the increase of the denunciations
made in the Women and Children Commissionswhere
there are approximately 100 registered denunciations per
daymany of those are not processed speedily, leaving
the aggressors in impunity. This lack of access to justice
and of violence prevention mechanisms leaves women and
their children vulnerable to greater risks, and many of
these cases end in femicide.
According to the Network of Women against Violence
18
,

in 2011, 76 women were registered assassinated, and in
the frst semester of 2012, the count was 48. Two of those
were girls younger than 12 years old. Of all of them, 14
had turned to the Commissions, and 8 were raped before
being assassinated; contradictorily, offcial statistics only
report 17 femicides in the same time period.
In the femicide cases, the negligence or lack of capacity
of the authorities in the investigations has prevailed
19
,

This is also true with the pursuit of the victimizer. This
is obvious upon reviewing the total of registered cases in
the year 2011, and upon knowing that of these, only 27
of the actors are being prosecuted, and only 6 have been
condemned by tribunals.
20
As in the case of El Salvador, Nicaragua approved in
January of 2012 the Integral Law against Violence against
Women, which came into force on June 22nd. This law
presents advances in terms of the inclusion of new penal
classifcations like femicide, patrimonial crimes, workplace
violence, child abductions, violence in the exercise of public
duty, and the obligation of denouncing sexual harassment.
It also demands the inclusion of precautionary measures,
the creation of tribunals and appellation criminal courts
specialized in violence, and the prohibition of mediation,
among others. Nevertheless, the State does not have the
economic resources necessary for the implementation of
said advances.
In Costa Rica, although the displays of violence are
smaller, 62 women were assassinated in the course of
2011. Of these, only 40 (64.5%) were classifed in the
framework of a wider defnition of femicide, according to
what is established in the Inter-American Convention on
the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence
Against Women Belem do Para. Only 12 limited themselves
strictly in the concept of femicide, which is regulated in
article 21 of the Violence Against Women Penalization
Law, and defnes that the victim and victimizer be
coexisting.
21
17 CAIMUS. Informe de atencin integral a mujeres sobrevivientes de violencia 2008-2011.
18 Women Against Violence Network. Annual Femicide-Feminicide Report. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from http://www.reddemujerescontralaviolencia.org.ni/
19 Ibd.
20 In 2011, the Women and Children Commissions received 33,535 denunciations and in the frst semester of 2012, a total of 18,154.
21 Justice Department Planning Department.
Additionally, according to the statistics generated by the
Justice Department, there were 7 femicides in the frst
semester of 2012. With respect to this number, specialists
in the subject such as Ana Carcedo, the president of the
Feminist Information and Action Center (CEFEMINA in
Spanish), argue that in Costa Rica legislation must be
changed to widen the concept of femicide so that other
types of assassinations of women could be considered.
They also argue that a relationship of coexistence between
victim and victimizer shouldnt be required sine qua non.
For example, a wider defnition would include those deaths
that happen in the framework of human traffcking, rape,
or relationships that dont share a residency, although this
is an unlikely possibility due to the patriarchal power that
dominates in Costa Rica.
Additionally, Carcedo affrms femicides because of sexual
attack are at a concerning levelas high as in the rest
of Central America. This is a very worrisome piece of
information, since this is the most violence expression
of misogyny. This type of crime has grown from 2010
until currently. Also, it must be taken into account that
femicides perpetrated outside of romantic relationships
present noticeable impunity, causing the perception that
there is no unequal relationship between genders. .
This makes it clear that the Costa Rican government must
strengthen legislation that regulates both psychological
and physical aggression against women, and deaths due
to an unequal powerful relationship.
According to the Panamanian Observatory against Gender
Violence (OPVG in Spanish), between the years of 2009
and 2011, 209 women have died in a violent way. 67.5%
of these deaths were classifed as femicides.
22
Organized Crime 3.
In the region, organized crime has constantly and
signifcantly advanced, to the point of controlling territories
and border areas, manipulating electoral processes, and
placing the population at risk in a climate of violence that
marginalizes the region. In a more general explanation,
organized crime has infltrated and/or plotted with the
governmental apparatus, which permits it to act with total
impunity.
Criminal action is correlated with governments. The
structural weakness of governments is evident because
many territories are not controlled by its authority;
instead, by semi-offcial private groups. This leads to a
crisis of legitimacy: governments are incapable of resolving
citizens principal problems. The government fails in its
function as a guarantor of rights.
In Nicaragua, the tendency toward the growth of crime and
social violence is not recent, but such acts are happening
in an alarming manner. They should be urgently attended
to in order to avoid situations like those which happen
in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where organized
crime and narcoactivity have permeated governmental
institutions. Proof of this is the case of Henry Farias,
which evidences the presence of organized crime and the
operation of connected drug traffcking groups. Julio Csar
Osuna, former Supreme Electoral Tribunal, is implicated in
this case. According to investigations, he was in charge in
transporting the illicit money to Costa Rica, and providing
the Nicaraguan identity cards to Alejandro Jimnez El
Palidejo, who is accused of being the intellectual author
of the crime against the Argentine singer-songwriter,
Facundo Cabral, which took place in Guatemala.
23
22 OPVG, May 2012. La estrella, (07/15/2012) Femicidio en Panam: de la fantasa a una gran pesadilla. Retrieved August 20, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2012, from http://
www.laestrella.com.pa/online/impreso/2012/07/15/femicidio-en-panama-de-la-fantasia-a-una-gran-pesadilla.asp
23 Choy.com (03/12/2012) Quin es el Palidejo? Retrieved August 4, 2012, from http://www.crhoy.com/quien-era-el-palidejo/
Another case that made the vulnerability of the security
system obvious is that of the 18 Mexicans captured
on August 20, 2012, in Las Manos, on the border with
Honduras. They were trying to pass as journalists from the
Mexican company Televisa, and entered the country with
9.2 million dollars for illicit activities.
According to investigations, these people had entered
Nicaragua and Costa Rica on various occasions since 2010.
The last time they had done so was June 7th of the present
year. The detained individualsamong those, the group
leader Raquel Alatorreare being accused of laundering
money earned from illicit activities, organized crime, and
international drug traffcking.
Despite the existence of cases like the aforementioned,
Nicaragua continues to be one of the most secure countries
in the region. It reports a low percentage (6.9%) of
high-danger crimes. In accordance with police statistics,
by August of 2012, 22 criminal organizations had been
broken up, capturing 262 members of these groups.
Additionally, they have been able to take strong strides
against international drug traffcking and organized crime,
the principal threats to national security. In only one
year, from August to September 2012, the army reported
having captured 6,765 kilograms of cocaine and destroyed
almost 8,000 marihuana plants. They also captured 1,288
people, both locals and foreigners, for connection to drug
traffcking activities which are carried out principally on
the Caribbean coast.
For Costa Rica, the penetration of drug traffcking into
organized crime has meant a rise in homicides and left
a new tint on the situation: kill-for-hire. In 2011, 17
assassinations were due to hit men. Added to this, the
quantity of fatalities in multiple crimes rose from 11 to 21
in the mentioned period. Additionally, in all of 2011, 44
legal minors were identifed as murderers.
24
Without a doubt, social exclusion, lack of opportunities
and poverty are aggravating factors in a system that grows
daily, and festers in the countries of the Central American
region. In Panama, drug traffcking and organized crime
have converted into something very common: executed
people are found in the streets of unpopulated zones.
Police connect such crimes to the operation of drug
cartels.
As a means to control organized crime, the Panamanian
president Ricardo Martinelli has improved salaries for the
security organisms and has equipped them with the best
resources. The leader also propelled, together with the
rest of the Central American isthmus, the installation of
an Operative Security Center for Central America.
To fght drug traffcking and organized crime, Panama
established a strategy of strengthening the National Border
Service and the National Air-Sea Service. The former is in
Author: Reuters.
Capture of false Televisa journalists (Nicaragua).
24 La Nacin. (06/01/2012) 44 menores participaron en homicidios en el 2011. Retrieved on June 6, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-06-01/Sucesos/44-menores-
participaron-en-homicidios-en-el-2011-.aspx
charge of protecting the border with Colombia, and the
latter, the coasts.
25
In El Salvador, there is a tendency to make organized crime
invisible. This is done by attributing violence from organized
crime to two other foci, which also generate violence: gangs
and common crime. The activities of organized crime have
a great reach and impact on governmental institutions,
through corruption and blackmail. Because they consist
of silent violence, and can be confused with violence
provoked by gangs and common delinquency, the activities
of organized crime can go unnoticed. Nevertheless, these
activities continue undermining social coexistence, and
nourishing other violent practices linked to drug traffcking,
and weapons and human traffcking, among others.
Unfortunately, the Salvadoran government does not openly
confront it in a determined way, even though government
representatives know that gangs criminal activity is linked
to organized crime. The Salvadoran governments answer to
the fght against drug traffcking points to its participation
in the Operacin Martillo (Hammer Operation)
26
,

just as Honduras and Guatemala have done.
When it comes to organized crime, once again the countries
of the Northern Triangle of the region are those where the
conditions necessary for impunity are present, and it therefore
fourishes. In Honduras, one of the factors that has generated
an increase in the activity of drug traffcking and organized
crime is the modifcation of the drug traffcking route of
some South American countries to the United States.
According to statistics provided by a report from the State
Department of the United States, the transfer of illegal
drugs through Honduras has been facilitated by direct
airline fights from South America (especially Venezuela),
maritime vessels, and the Panamerican Highway, which
crosses southern Honduras. Diverse estimates place
Honduras as one of the principal disembarking points in
South America
27
.

These statistics establish that Honduras
is a country with weak institutionally, which leaves certain
zones of its territory vulnerable.
The organized drug traffcking gangs and groups fnd in
Honduras an appropriate place to carry out their illicit
operations. The geographical situation and the small
presence of governmental institutions in some regions allow
these groups to operate almost totally free from government
coercion. This is the case with the eastern region of La
Mosquitia, which is a principal landing zone for ships that
transport drugs.
According to the same State Department report, other
criminal groups exist that are known as gangs. This is the
case of the 18th Street and MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha). These
gangs participate in the local distribution of drugs and other
illicit activities, such as extortion and pirated merchandise.
Nevertheless, the same report highlights that there is little
information about the connection between Honduran gangs
and international drug traffcking organizations.
The reform of the justice system in Honduras is urgent,
because the effects of organized crime are refected in
the fact that 27% of homicides are carried out under a
kill-for-hire scheme.
28
At the same time, in the two most
important cities in the country (Tegucigalpa and San Pedro
Sula), it is not governmental authorities that control some
territories, but instead, the criminal bands, who extort the
population with the so called war tax cry.
25 Spanish News Cn. (05/11/2011) Panam afronta narcotrfco y violencia en las calles, Retrieved on June 6, 2012, from http://spanish.news.cn/iberoamerica/2011-05-
/11/c_13869891.htm
26 This is a multinational operation that is part of the regional security strategy of the government of the United States, and the Central American Regional Security Initiative,
to combat organized transnational crime. The following European and Western Hemisphere countries, among others, also participate: Canada, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador,
France, Guatemala, Honduras, Holland, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
27 United States, Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law. Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report Volume I Drug and
Chemical Control March 2011. Pag.293. Retrieved September 24, 2012, from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/156575.pdf
28 Instituto Universitario en Democracia Paz y Seguridad IUDPAS-, BOLETN Enero-Diciembre 2011, p3. Recuperado el 3 de septiembre de 2012, de http://iudpas.org/pdfs/
NEd24EneDic2011.pdf
Guatemala maintains a constant struggle against organized
crime. To this end, it has a Law against Organized Crime,
which includes organized criminal groups or criminal
organizations from any group made up of three or more
people, which exists for a certain time and acts in concert,
with the purpose of committing one or more crimes.
29
With
this law, a small step has been taken to typify and condemn
these groups; nevertheless, Guatemala have been unable
to prevent corruption from permeating governmental
institutions, and as with other countries in the region, it
is constantly linked to organized crime.
The impact of the violence that organized crime generates
in Guatemala is strong, with repercussions of high levels of
violence and an increase in kill-for-hire (which is already
an extensive phenomenon in the region.) According to the
monitoring done by GAM, in the year 2011 alone, 104
massacres were carried out, which left 466 people dead.
In the month of July of 2012, 40 massacres were counted,
with a total of 102 deaths.
The countries of the region have created laws to try to
address this problem. Although it is true that this is a step
of extreme importance in order to change this situation,
alone, they are unable to generate changes. It is necessary
to contribute forces also from the distinct governmental
sectors and institutions, as part of a strategy that makes
it possible to visualize advances in combating organized
crime in the region.
Militarization and Security Policies 4.
Given the lack of effective security policies that allow for
control of the phenomenon of violence, the governments
of the Central American region have pushed actions and
strategies that represent a relapse into authoritarianism
and militarism. The fact that governments justify the
involvement of the military forces in public security has
been nearly a regional pattern, under the argument that
high existing criminality, small quantity of police to
control the phenomenon of violence and the approval given
to the army as an entity of high effciency in combating
delinquency and organized crime.
In Nicaragua, the increase in delinquency, the new threats of
organized transnational crime and the insuffcient capacity
of the police forces in many municipalities of the country
have justifed the army carrying out patrols together with
the National Police, especially on the Caribbean Coast. This
has generated diverse violent clashes that are affecting
security, life and ancestral traditions because of the abuse
of authority exercised by some government offcials in the
zone. An example is the execution of Johnny Isaas Chow
Shiffman on November 10, 2011, in an antidrug operation.
It took place under the responsibility of the Bilwi Army
Naval Forces. A denunciation made by the family members
of Rubn Obando, a member of the Indigenous Community
of Kuamwatla, reported that Obando was captured by the
Naval Foces and his lifeless body later handed over, which
presented various broken bones.
30
The contexts in which the principal violations of the right
to life have happened are: the abuse of authority and the
combined operatives between the army and police in the
pursuit of crime, electoral violence and the military response
29 Law Against Organized Crime, Article 2 (Ley Contra la Delincuencia Organizada.) Retreived on October 10, 2012, from http://www.sedem.org.gt/sedem/sites/default/
fles/8.4%20LEY%20CONTRA%20LA%20DELINCUENCI%20ORGANIZADA.pdf
30 CENIDH. Annual Human Rights Report in Nicaragua. Year 2011.
Graph 2
Source: Proprietary production, Transparency Monitoring Area of GAM
Massacres in Guatemala
Massacres Massacres
Year 2012 until the month of July Year 2011
Deaths Deaths Wounded Wounded
to the presumed presence of armed groups with political ends.
In 2011, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH
in Spanish) received 31 denunciations about violations of
this right. Another expression of militarization is the
increase in active or retired offcials in elected or appointed
roles, which leaves the old doctrine of national security to
be interpreted as the incapacity of civilians to administer
the public thing, and they should turn to soldiers because
they are obedient and disciplined. It should be remembered
that militarizing is not only the visible action of soldiers
on urban and rural patrol, but also the naming of soldiers to
institutions to guarantee vertical and coercive centralism.
As a consequence, in November of 2011 with this
militarized scheme of public security in the region, the
President of the Republic of El Salvador named the general
David Mungua Paysuntil then, the Minister of National
Defenseto the front of the Justice and Public Security
Cabinet. He also named the general Ramn Salinasuntil
then, the Vice Minister of National Defenseas Director
of the Civilian National Police. Before these appointments,
the military deployment in the territories of the country
was already obvious, especially in working-class areas.
In February of 2012, a group of citizens presented an
unconstitutionality suit against such appointments, and
the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice
admitted the case. It currently awaits resolution.
With the arrival of the two generals to public security tasks,
criminal policy has hardened. In this environment, even a
reform to the Constitution of the Republic was proposed
to allow dodging of the basic human rights guarantees
and other established regulations in the Peace Accords
of 1992, justifying these pretensions as mechanisms to
remove obstacles in the fght against delinquency.
Finally, the new minister proposed the creation of a judicial
system made up of tribunals and special attorney generals,
parallel to those that the Constitution of the Republic and
the laws determine. He also spoke about imposing a public
security policy like that in the favelas of Brazil. Until the
moment of the gang truce, the regressive and repressive
deployment did not show its effectiveness in combating
crime (on the contrary, extortions and homicides were out
of control: almost invariably with a daily average of 14
people assassinated.) For August of 2012, the daily average,
according to the registries of the Ministry of Security, was 5
people dead per day. Nevertheless, disappearances continued,
and in this case, no precise statistic has been available.
In El Salvador, the tendency is to continue with an ever-
higher participation of soldiers in public security. For
example, in Operacin Martillo, the participation of the
Special Antiterrorist Command in of the Armed Forces
(CEAT in Spanish) was announced, which will patrol the
public buses of the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador.
31
Author: CENIDH.
Soldiers from the Nicaraguan army threateningly address the population of
Siuna, Municipality of the Autonomous Region of the North Atlantic (RAAN
in Spanish), who protested in front of the installations of the Municipal
Electoral Tribunal, demanding an identity card.
31 La Prensa Grfca, (07/30/2012). Comando militar antiterrorismo cuidar buses. Retrieved September 4, 2012. http://www.laprensagrafca.com/elsalvador/judicial/280222-
comando-militar-antiterrorismo-cuidara-buses.html
In Honduras, the situation is not very different. Given the
incapacity of the police to contain crime and protect the
citizenry, the government of Porfrio Lobo Sosa approved
in 2012 a legislative decree that the armed forces would
assume police duties. This decree was later ratifed for a
second period.
What led the political class to authorize the militarys
participation in operatives in the principal cities of the
country is a combination of factors: the inability to
respond to citizen complaints about the defenselessness
that they suffer amidst daily delinquency, and the lack of
citizen confdence in the police, caused by recent evidence
of the involvement of police and offcials in criminal acts.
Many social sectors and organizations have criticized this
role of the armed forces, highlighting above all that its
training makes it inappropriate for security duties.
These criticisms had a foundation when, for example, a
military patrol gunned down a legal minor on May 27th.
Ebed Haziel Ynez Cceres was aboard a motorcycle and
had skirted a police and military check-point in the
neighborhood of Villa Vieja, to the east of the Honduran
capital, in the early morning hours. The questions about
this incident are based on the fact that the operation was
exclusively military, especially given the fact that there
was a police delegation in operation one block from where
the incident happened.
The constant criticism obligated the Attorney General
for Human Rights to present on June 14th a request for
indictment in the Tegucigalpa Penal Court against the
soldiers Elezar Abismael Rodrguez Martnez, Felipe de
Jess Rodrguez Hernndez, and Josu Antonio Sierra, but
only the frst was sent to prison, while the other two were
left with alternative measures to prison.
Also, the naming of active or retired soldiers to public
posts was almost derived from the coup detat of 2009.
While leading the de facto government, Roberto Michelleti
proceeded to name soldiers who had a decesive role in
the coup to political posts and positions which have a
strategic profle and which involve directing civilian
authorities, such as the telecommunications company,
the leadership of the merchant marine, the Institute of
Agricultural Marketing, and the Immigration and Aliens
Department. During the present government, Porfrio Lobo
ratifed these appointments.
One additional element of this process of remilitarization
has been the consecutive budget increase assigned to the
armed forces, since the Coup of 2009. According to the
Center for Democratic Studies (CESPAD, in Spanish), the
military allocation went from 4% in 2009 to 7% in 2011.
That is, it nearly doubled.
32
On the other hand, priority
social expenses suffered cuts, or were maintained at earlier
levels, despite their urgency.
Panama, like other countries in the region, suffers the
buffeting of militarization in public security duties. The
presidency of Martn Torrijos (2004-2009) introduced
confusing elements into the tasks assigned to the National
Police. Subsequently, since President Ricardo Martinelli
began the frst magistracy, the militarization of the police
has quickly expanded. Instead of creating an army to patrol
the borders, or control air space or territorial waters, a
militarized apparatus to control all aspects related to the
political functioning of the country has been created.
One of the elements implemented during the years of armed
confict in the countries of the Central American region
was the specialization of soldiers to detect and combat
citizens who opposed governmental policies. Similar cases
can be seen in Panama, where offcials and agents from
the Panamanian police are being trained to treat the
population as potential enemies of the State. Many of the
offcials do not even have training as police, and come
directly from military academies. The police are retrained
in academies in North America, Israel and Colombia to
learn repressive and military control tactics.
33
32 CESPAD. Toward a Negotiated End to the Honduran Political Crisis. (Hacia una salida negociada de la crisis poltica hondurea.) Prospective political analysis report. April 2011.
33 Marco A. Gandseguih. The Country is at War. Retrieved on August 28, 2012, from http://alainet.org/active/53720&lang=es
Guatemala has been unable to leave behind its past of mi-
litary dictatorships. The security policy applied by the new
government of the ex general Otto Prez Molina has imple-
mented the so-called Task Forces
34
with the participation
of the army, in citizen security. Since its beginning, it this
action has been criticized because of the lack of training
the army has to interact with civilians. The accuracy of
the criticism was demonstrated on October 4, 2012, in
the department of Totonicapn, in the western part of the
country, when security forces of the army and the National
Civilian Police tried to control a group of protesters from
various communities. The protesters were supporting stu-
dent teachers, because the government was attempting
to lengthen the teaching degree time from three to fve
years. They also protested out of discontent with the high
cost of electrical energy, and because of the reforms that
they were attempting to make to the Political Constitu-
tion. Amidst this situation, army members shot their high
caliber weapons, killing 6 people. Eight soldiers, along
with Coronel Juan Chiroy, who was in charge of the opera-
tion, are currently being processed for the incident. It is
therefore clear that the army is incapable of controlling a
civilian situation, and instead is trained to subjugate and
eliminate its opposition.
The Guatemalan armys violent acts in 2012, along with the
naming of eight high-ranking military members to public
offces, show a clear militarization. When considered
alongside millionaire transfers sent to the Ministry of
Defense, this confrms a long-standing speculation: the
country is on the road to remilitarization.
The Peace Accords in Guatemala established the necessity
of reforming the law to more effectively regulate the
actions of the Civilian National Police (PNC in Spanish). It
ordered the establishment of a police degreean as-yet
uncompleted action. According to the Accords, the army
is limited to maintaining the sovereignty of the country.
This has been demonstrated to be clearly untrue, and this
is a set-back for the fulfllment of the Accords.
The PNC has been greatly discredited. Additionally, the
population interprets the presence of the army in the streets
as a means of control and submission, since public security is
being militarized in the same way as in the years of internal
armed confict in Guatemala, when the army was the entity in
charge of putting into order those people in disagreement
with governmental policies. Currently, it is feared that their
involvement in public security could devolve into continuing
violations of the fundamental rights of people.
In the region, it is necessary to attack organized crime
and drug traffcking head-on, and to seek citizen security.
However, the road to militarizationwith iron fst policies,
intimidation, overestimation of the armys capacity to
maintain control over delinquency, and the takeover of
political posts by the high military hierarchydoes not
seem to be the correct method. The lessons of the past
have demonstrated that these control mechanisms only
work for the beneft of a few through the use of brute
force, generating a high index of human rights violations
against the citizenry.
Author: El Peridico.
Army repression of protesters in Totonicapn, which ended in 6 deaths.
34 The Task Forces are special units of the Guatemalan National Civilian Police, which are designed to combat extortion, femicides, vehicle robbery, kidnappings and hire-for-
kill.
Human Rights Defenders 5.
The Central American region suffers a tendency toward
concealing violations against human rights defenders.
34
Governments are one of the principal precursors of these
violations, a result of policies disguised as social order or
control which maintain a transfer of particular interests
to few sectors. In such cases, human rights defenders are
accused of causing social unrest, and that they should be
controlled by governmental security forces, which abuse
their authority in the majority of cases. This has even
arrived to the point of taking the lives of some human
rights defenders.
In Guatemala, although human rights defenders are explicitly
recognized as such, cases of aggression against them are
constant. The majority are carried out by government
authorities. They take place principally in indigenous
communities, whose members struggle to defend their
lands, sometimes through protests against the exploitation
of natural resources. This is the case for seven community
leaders from Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, who
on multiple occasions proclaimed themselves against the
trampling of their community by the hydroelectric power
station, Hidro Santa Cruz. In the frst four months of 2012,
the Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit of Guatemala
(UDEFEGUA in Spanish), estimated an average of 1.80 daily
aggressions against human rights defenders.
36
In Nicaragua, the year 2011 was a diffcult one, with multiple
rights violations against human rights defenders. Death
threats, hostile positions taken by police chiefs and offcials
in some municipalities, and the continuing defamation and
disqualifcation campaign by high-level functionaries has
put the lives of defenders at risk, considering the climate
of tense polarization that the country faces. Human rights
defenders have been accused of being political adversaries
and traitors, among other descriptions.
Also, there is systematic verbal and media aggression
toward the president and personnel of CENIDH. This happens
through the vast radio and electronic media that belong to
the government of President Daniel Ortega, and which is
used to incite hate in fagrant violation of the precautionary
measures awarded in 2008 by the Inter-American Human
Rights Commission (IACHR). The situation has reached
a point of exposing the CENIDH president to high risks,
and threats of supposed plans for her assassination. The
case is the same for Dr. Gonzalo Carrin, the Defense and
Denunciation Director of CENIDH. Both incidents were
shared with police authorities, and any advances made in
the respective investigations are still unknown.
Added to the aforementioned is the hostile attitude of high-
level functionaries, such as the President of the Supreme
Court of Justice, which publically and baselessly belittles
CENIDHs work. This is also true of some functionaries who,
in an abuse of authority, create obstacles to the work of
human rights defenders.
35 According to the Human Rights Defenders Declaration, Article 2 establishes: States have the primordial responsibility and the obligation to protect, promote and make effec-
tive all human rights and fundamental liberties. If the State fails in the fulfllment of this obligation, people have the right, individually or collectively, to protest peacefully
in the case that their rights are being blocked and/or violated.
36 UDEFEGUA. We are Women and Men of Corn Page 2. Retrieved September 25, 2012, from http://www.udefegua.org/images/Informes/informe.pdf
On September 1, 2012, a CENIDH team led by
Alberto Rosales, the Estel subsidiary coordinator,
was assaulted by members of the National Police,
who threw tear gas bombs directly at the vehicle in
which he drove. Since the early morning, Rosales
had been trying to begin talks with authorities to
stop the use force against protesters. The protesters
decried the governments lack of follow-through on
agreements made for the regulation of the prices of
basic products. Rosales negotiated to avoid violent
situations that would threaten the physical and
psychological integrity of the population of the
sector. This was rejected by the police in charge
of the operation, who told him that they were not
negotiators, but simply followed superior orders.
Unlike other countries of the region, in Costa Rica the
systematic processes of persecution of human rights
defenders have not been publicized consistently. This is
despite the fact that various organizations, frequently
and in different environments, make claims and provide
evidence of government actions that infringe upon
the integrity of people who work in defense of human
rights.
For years in the province of Limon, located on the Eastern
extreme of Costa Rica, popular discontent protests meet
with repressive persecution of movement leaders from
the police forces. They are implementing actions similar
to those described in the case of Guatemala.
It is important to emphasize that the Costa Rican system
has an intelligence apparatus appointed to the Presidency
of the Republic, which is in charge of having lists of
people who promote and defend rights. The purpose is
to have record of them. From 2011-2012, two instances
of great relevance compromised the actions of people
in charge of certain movements. One is related to the
persecution of union leaders, and the second is the
persecution of environmental activists.
The first case happened in the province of Limn in
June 2012, when union organizations from the province
held a strike about initiatives to privatize docks that
the government propels through the Atlantic Watershed
Administrative Board (JAPDEVA in Spanish). In the event,
there were acts of police repression and a subsequent
opening of judicial processes against labor leaders,
criminalizing public protest in so doing.
The other case is one of various environmentalists who
decidedly oppose the actions of the company Infinito
S.A., which has tried to fruitlessly carry out a process
of mining exploitation in the northern zone of the
country, in the so-called Crucitas Case. After having
lost the judicial process that would propel contentious
administrative proceedings, the company began a lawsuit
against the academic Jorge Lobo, trying to intimidate
him in this way, as it was he who presented the judicial
case.
That persecution is permanent, as in June of 2012, the
mining company sent a note with a frank intimidating
character to the authorities of the University of Costa
Rica, demanding that it prohibit a seminar the academic
was to give in the second semester in the University.
37
In El Salvador, human rights defenders are not recognized
as such. Instead, they are considered to be bothersome
people and institutionswho, by insisting on human
rights and denouncing violationsinterrupt real work.
The State has no program of protection for human rights
defenders. Nor does civil society, which keeps them in
constant vulnerability because of the work they carry
out, especially because they are not recognized and
protected as such.
Existing cases show abuses and violations against
defenders, such as that of the jailed union leaders.
Eduardo Recinos, manager of the Salvadoran Social
Security Institute Workers Union (STISSS in Spanish).
He was kept in provisional detention for more than two
months, and has been criminally processed for public
disturbance crimes together with two other members of
the same union.
38
There are registries of incidents against environmentalists
that work to stop metallic mining. These include practices
to discredit individuals, organizations, families, and
communities. They have been the targets of threats,
torture, kidnapping and assassinations. Indigenous and
rural community leaders who struggle against investment
37 Semanario Universitario. (08/01/2012) Industrias Infnito pide modifcar curso de la Escuela de Biologa de la UCR Retrieved on September 14, 2012, from http://www.
semanariouniversidad.ucr.cr/index.php/noticias/pais/6605-industrias-infnito-pide-modifcar-curso-de-la-escuela-de-biologia-de-la-ucr.html
38 In El Salvador, public protest is labeled as a crime, according to Articles 348 and 348-A of the Penal Code.
megaprojects have also been victims. They are constantly
threatened, attacked and criminalized to try to coerce them
into abandoning their territories to allow hydroelectric,
mining and tourism projects to happen. Also, members
of some organizations suffer intimidation, along with
churches that do violence prevention, rehabilitation and
reinsertion work. They are particularly stigmatized, as they
are accused of protecting criminals. They continuously
suffer attacks, intimidation and defamation.
For example, the Foundation for the Study and Application
of Law (FESPAD in Spanish), due to its constant work for
the defense of human rights, has been frequently called
out and questioned by diverse political, governmental and
business groups in the country. They use the media to
carry out systematic campaigns to disqualify its work.
The continuous attacks on human rights defenders in
the region represent a risk to democracy. They put the
fundamental rights of the population they represent in
danger. Recently, the United Nations Special Rapporteur
about the Situation for Human Rights Defenders visited
Honduras. After the visit, the Rapporteur declared that,
Honduras confronts serious challenges in combating
violence and insecurity. Impunity reigns. The absence
of effective investigations of human rights violations
upsets the administration of justice and deteriorates the
societys confdence in its authorities. The coup detat of
2009 increasingly aggravated institutional weakness. It
furthered the vulnerability that human rights defenders
face, and provoked a more extreme polarization of the
Honduran people. Due to their leading role and the nature
of their activities, human rights defenders continue
to be vulnerable; therefore, they continue to suffer
extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, torture
and mistreatment, death threats, attacks, harassment and
stigmatization.
39
The Rapporteur also emphasized that within the category
of human rights defenders in Honduras, the most vulnerable
are journalists, workers from the National Human Rights
Commission, lawyers, prosecutors and judges, along with
those that struggle for the rights of women, children,
the LGBTQ community
41
, indigenous and afro-Honduran
communities, and those who work in subjects related to
the environment and land rights.
41
39 Lawyers for Human Rights (Abogados por los Derechos Humanos.) (02/14/2012). Declaracin Relatora Especial de las NNUU sobre la Situacin de los Defensores de DDHH al
concluir visita a Honduras.
40 LGBTQ: Collective group of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transexuals and Intersex individuals.
41 Ibd.
CHAPTER II
THE OBSTACLES TO ACCESS TO JUSTICE
The Access to justice can be defned as the fundamental
right to demand the protection of a legally recognized right,
through institutional mechanisms. This implies access to the
administrative and judicial institutions that are competent
in resolving conficts and recognizing rights. This chapter
identifes the principal obstacles that the Central American
citizenry faces in accessing justice. It explores the problems
of impunity and institutional conditions necessary to
guarantee human rights.
Access to justice and impunity 1.
Access to justice has become the principal indicator of
insecurity in democratic institutions. This institutional
precariousness manifests itself in the incapacity of public
functionaries to apply justice and respect due process. The
vices of the system continue to be the same: impunity, lack
of respect for due process, and the lack of equality before
the law.
Impunity does not know limits in some societies, where not
even the minimum element of rights is respected: the right
to life. The problems of the justice system respond to power
structures in each country, and equal treatment before the
law does not appear to be the norm. For that reason, it is
possible to prove that the problems of justice are the same
in each of the countries in the region.
One of the gravest cases is Guatemala. This country has
two structural problems that are refected in the exercise of
the right to justice. One is the situation of impunity which
Guatemalan society faces, inherited from the time of the
internal armed confict. The other is a weak rule of law,
refected in all areas of national life.
In relation to the justice system, a 95% impunity rate exists
in investigation and litigation of the different crimes that
are daily committed in the country. The cases derived from
the internal armed confict have not been the exception.
After more than 45,000 disappearances, the hundreds of
thousands of extrajudicial executions and 626 massacres,
only four cases of forced disappearance have advanced: the
case of Myrna Mack, the assassination of Monsignor Gerardi,
three massacre cases, and the genocide denunciation in the
Ixil region.
42
Although, after more than 10 years, judicial processes have
begun in relation to these crimes, the survivors of the
internal armed confict have still been unable to have their
truth recognized. This was evident during the frst six months
of the current government, when, on different occasions,
governmental representatives from the President to the Peace
Secretary have denied that there was genocide in Guatemala.
They have appealed to a forgive and forget philosophy as
a new way of seeing Guatemala, and they have delegitimized
the sentences passed down by the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights and international justice entities.
One of the frst actions taken by the government of
president Otto Prez Molina, which caused another step
back in access to justice, was the closing of the Peace
Archives. These were created in 2008 with the function of
digitalizing and archiving all of the declassifed documents
from the time of the civil war. The archives contain fles
that the army and national police created about possible
Marxist subversives, along with a military diary with
the names of dozens of disappeared from the internal
confict that devastated Guatemala for 36 years.
43
This
action blocks the search for justice for thousands of family
members of victims of the armed confict who maintain
hope for justice.
42 The Ixil Area, made up of the municipalities of Chajul, Cotzal and Nebaj in the department of El Quich in Guatemala.
43 El Peridico. (05/31/2012) Protestan por cierre de archivo militar. Retrieved on July 2, 2012, from http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20120531/pais/212978/
Another grave example of impunity is Honduras. According
to the Coordinating Committee of Family Members of the
Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH in Spanish), after the
coup detat, the country reverted 50 years in terms of
human rights, since it has lost institutionalism. There
are institutions, but they dont work. During and since
the political crisis COFADEH has sent 600 requests for
precautionary measures to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights for victims in cases of torture,
following, illegal detention and assassinations.
44

What is clear in El Salvador is the lack of respect for due
process and the presumption of innocence for the accused.
Since the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992, El Salvador
improved little by little in institutional confguration and
functioning. This provoked a generalized sensation that the
administration of justice had advanced substantially. This
sensation spread, despite the fact that the performance
of some judges in particular was questionable. Recent
statistics offered by the Supreme Court of Justice
report, which covers through January 2012, report 977
denunciations of judges. All of these await resolution in
the Judicial Investigation Section.
These were added to 219 denunciations of judges during
2011, which have not been resolved. Through the end
of August 2012, the Supreme Court continues stacking
up complaints about judges. The Department of Judicial
Investigation accumulated 1,085 denunciations of judicial
functionaries. Of these, 487 involved judges, out of a
total of nearly 600 judges in the entire country. There
are judicial functionaries that accumulated more than
one denunciation. One judge for example, accumulated 63
denunciations.
Impunity in Nicaragua has been linked to the ineffciency
and ineffcacy of the institutions in charge of imparting
justice. According to declarations from the Attorney
General of the Republic, Julio Centeno Gmez, the lack of
a suffcient budget for the Offce of the Public Prosecutor
affects the penal justice system. For that reason, he has
solicited from the National Assembly a budget increase to
contract more specialists, and to be able to carry out more
investigations and avoid the multiplication of impunity
cases in the country. The Offce of the Public Prosecutor
requires 1,000 prosecutors, but currently has only 292,
along with 116 assistants.
Among the recommendations given by the UN Human
44 Honduras Tierra Libre. (02/21/2012) Sistema de Justicia, Derechos Humanos e impunidad son los temas que interesan a diputados y juristas alemanes. Retrieved on July 20,
2012, from http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2012/02/sistema-de-justicia-derechos-humanos-e.html
One particular case that reflects the levels of (in)
justice in general in El Salador is that of Sonia
Tabora, who, at 20 years old, suffered an involuntary
abortion. After a judicial process, she was condemned
in the year 2005 to 30 years in prison for aggravated
homicide. After a series of investigations on the case
carried out by womens organizations, it was reviewed
in court. In August of 2012, after diverse legal and
social actions, the new sentence was given, granting
Tabora liberty. She had been imprisoned for seven
years. The sentence highlighted that there had been a
judicial error in evaluating the evidence.
Despite the fact that the Inter-American Court
on Human Rights has awarded more than half of
the precautionary measures, this leaves it to the
government to actually offer them. It is clear
that Honduras defies international human rights
agreements. It has not implemented the protective
measures. The Human Rights Defense revealed that
the country has also created a series of laws that
attack the State itself, along with human rights and
general society. This alludes to the Wiretapping Law,
a law which confers powers on the military that are
normally exclusively for the police, the Law against
Terrorism, and the Expatriation Law, among others.
All of this happens amidst the militarization of the
Honduran society.
Rights Council to the government of Nicaragua during the
Universal Periodic Review is to allow victims effective
access to justice, and to give them judicial protection in
conformity with the recommendations of the Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights Committee and the Human
Rights Council of the United Nations. Nevertheless, the
victims continue confronting diverse obstacles to the
access to justice. Among them are: meeting evidence
requirements, the rotation of prosecutors on a case in
different judicial stages, reprogramming hearings and
sentencing, expert failure to appear at hearings (police
and coroner), lack of information, and victims lack
of economic resources, among others. These barriers
discourage them from continuing to demand their rights
within the system.
Nicaragua has grave impunity registries. One example is
a case of sexual violence, in which victimizer Farington
Reyes, a supporter of the current governing party, received
protection and a favorable sentence. He was condemned
to 4 years in prison for the rape with prejudice of
Ftima Hernndez, although the mnimum sentence is 12
years. The court argued that the accused was in a fit of
madness caused by ingesting alcohol, and qualified the
victims conduct as collaborative and permissive. They
later awarded house arrest to the victimizer.
Another clear example of impunity is the rape of a 13 year
old girl which impregnated her, making her a child mother.
The Public Prosecutors Office accused Jimmy Gonzlez,
professional baseball player, of the crime. Despite the
existence of a paternity test, it was not thorough, and
therefore, the prosecutor asked in a public hearing that
the judge reject the accusation because of a lack of legal
requirements for its admission. Additionally, the girls
familywhich had negotiated with the accusedjoined
the request to archive the case, since the accused was
taking responsibility. The family argued that the girl has
been at fault, and therefore, the victimizer was innocent.
This is despite the fact that legislation prohibits
negotiation in these cases and obliges authorities to
prosecute crime by virtue of office.
Justice System Independence 2.
There are various ways of analyzing or evaluating the role
of justice organisms in guaranteeing access to justice and
equality before the law. This is possible by observing the
different areas of the application of the law, such as in
the workplace, or in civil or criminal spheres. In each of
these areas, it is possible to evaluate the access to, and
application of, justice. When it is not applied or simply
ignoredtherefore promoting impunitythe law doesnt
have much value. Impunity produces greater levels of
corruption, which leads to the weakening of institutions.
In Nicaragua, the lack of judicial Independence is
noteworthy. This stems in great part from the high levels
of corruption and subjugation of political parties, causing
a delay in justice and impunity. Many cases show how
these grave irregularities are chained into the system.
Among these cases, that of Marvin Vargas
45
stands out.
Vargas is the leader of the Patriotic Military Service War
Veterans Foundation. He was arrested for supposed acts
of terrorism, and fraudulently accused and condemned
by a jury of peers which deliberated for no longer than
fve minutes before declaring him guilty. This makes clear
the use of the justice system by the government party
authorities.
Along the same lines, it is important to emphasize that
in Costa Rica, the justice system is also contaminated by
party interests. Within the Costa Rican political reality that
has come about in recent years, criticisms of the unstable
republican form of government are increasingly frequent.
Earlier years have seen constant criticisms of the election
process of the highest members of the Justice Department.
These members should be chosen by Parliament, according
to the Political Constitution; nevertheless, there have been
political infuences that distort these processes and violate
constitutional precept. This impedes choosing judicial
45 CENIDH. 2001 Human Rights in Nicaragua Report. Page 21
functionaries by their ftness. The District Attorneys
Offce has also been criticized on this subject. This is the
organ of the justice system in charge of carrying out penal
accusations. It was criticized because it questioned the
nomination of the person responsible from the accusing
entitythe Attorney General of the Republicwhich fell
onto one person, who had a position of trust in the current
government (and had also earlier been the Vice Minister of
Justice, under President Laura Chinchilla).
A similar criticism of the Attorney General is that he refused
to criminally accuse the ex-minister of the presidency, Rodrigo
Arias Snchez , of consultancies from the Central American
Economic Integration Bank (BCIE in Spanish).
46
The case
dealt with funds that this banking entity conceded to the
administration of ex-president Oscar Arias Snchez (2006-
2010), which were administered by his brother (Rodrigo),
who is currently postulating as a presidential candidate with
the party of current President Chinchilla. The Attorney General
of the Republicthe legal representative of the State
objected to this decision. Nevertheless, it was sustained out
of the desire to not impede his political aspirations.
47
The District Attorney dropped the criminal accusation against
Rodrigo Arias Snchez. In one press release published on
December 27, 2011, the Attorney General said that the
investigation was fnished due to lack of proof that legitimized
the hypothesis posed at the beginning of the criminal process,
despite the exhaustive collection of evidence.
48
There is additional evidence of the actions that the powerful
economic interests carry out with the objective of achieving
favoritism for their businesses. One such case is of a lawyer
from a private legal offce who represented powerful interests
in the country, and held the role of substitute judge for
the maximum judicial hierarchies (the magistrates.) It was
questioned by the superior entity of the Judiciary (the
full chamber) for its responsibility in incidents related to
the case known as Crucitas.
49
The lawyer who is being
investigated for a relationship with the mining company has
also held hierarchical roles within the National Liberation
Party (currently in power).
The full chamber decided in an extraordinary session to open
an investigation of a substitute magistrate, Moiss Fachler
Grunspan, for the disappearance of the draft of the sentence
in the case of the Crucitas mine, beknownst to the First
Chamber. The ex-speaker of the mining company testifed
that in the previous October, people from this frm met with
a substitute magistrate, who handed over to them copies of
the draft of the sentence. This verdict would decide the future
of the Crucitas mining project, in Cutris of San Carlos.
50
It seems that similar vices exist in the judicial system
of Honduras as in the cases of its regional peers. One of
the ways to evaluate justice organisms is to identify the
number of resolutions emitted in the total of known cases.
One example is visible with domestic violence, and the
number of resolutions in this area adopted by the judicial
organ. The same justice-governing organ recognizes that
during the years 2010 and 2011, almost 50% of cases of
domestic violence accumulated without a resolution. This
is an indicator of a lack of access to justice because of
institutional incapacity.
Likewise, in Honduras the same phenomenon of the lack of
judicial Independence is reproduced, which has to do with
the possibility that a judge has of applying justice without
46 La Nacin. (12/28/2011). Fiscala desiste de acusar a exministro Rodrigo Arias. Retrieved on July 23, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-12-28/ElPais/fscalia-
desiste-de-acusar-a-exministro-rodrigo-arias.aspx
47 La Nacin. (06/15/2012) Procuradura pide a Fiscala no cerrar caso de Rodrigo Arias. Retrieved on July 23, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-04-13/ElPais/
procuraduria-pide-a-fscalia-no-cerrarcaso-de-rodrigo-arias.aspx
48 La Nacin. (12/28/11) Fiscala desiste de acusar a exministro Rodrigo Arias. Retrieved July 23, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-12-28/ElPais/fscalia-desiste-de-
acusar-a-exministro-rodrigo-arias.aspx
49 La Nacin. (02/05/2012) Corte investiga a magistrado suplente por fuga de fallo. Retrieved July 23, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-11-16/Portada/Corte-
investiga-a-magistrado-suplente-por-fuga-de-fallo.aspx.
50 Ibd.
any conditions. In the opinion of the United Nations Special
Rapporteur, The absence of an autonomous organ that
guards judicial Independence and supervises the naming,
promotion and regulations of the judicial profession has
been undermined by political interference. This puts
its legitimacy at risk. The rapporteur observed that the
uncertainty that exists about the judiciary is detrimental
for the successful exercise of the functions of judges.
The gravest danger in guaranteeing the Independence of
justice is party politicization. This implies that political
sectors manipulate or interfere in the application of the
law.
In Guatemala, obstacles to access to justice continue to
appear. Some of these are refected in State agencies,
such as in the case of the Congress of the Republic,
in which deputies tried to reform the Access to Public
Information Law. Their objective was to impede the search
for information to clear up cases of corruption and past
human rights violations. Fortunately there was strong
social protest, and therefore the approval of said legal
changes was avoided.
The Guatemalan State still does not offer suffcient
economic resources to the judicial system, particularly for
the Public Prosecutors Offce, whose budget is insuffcient
for the immense demand that exists. That is especially
true in the face of exacerbated violence: a product of
organized crime, common delinquency, and violence
against women.
Nevertheless, it must be emphasized that the Guatemalan
justice system has made small steps forward in the
struggle against impunity. One piece of evidence of that
is that it has been able to process retired generals for the
crime of genocide. Even today, legal processes continue
in regards to this crime, against General Jos Efran Ros
Montt, General Hctor Mario Lpez Fuentes, and Coronel
Jos Mauricio Rodrguez.
Despite the fact that a genocide case exists which charged
and linked to the crime the high command of the general
Jos Efran Ros Montt, and other parts of the military
structure, the facts that were utilized within these processes
are only a minimum part of the violations documented
and reported to the Commission for Historical Clarifcation
(CEH in Spanish)
51
. In regards to this advancement of
justice, the President of the Republicretired general
Otto Prez Molinahas publically stated that there was
no genocide in Guatemala. This refects a clear intention
of intervening in the justice system. The Peace Secretary
and the Director of the National Program for Compensation
have also publically stated the same. This is a judgment
call that only the System of Justice is competent to make
in this moment.
Author: Danilo Valladares.
Protesters demand that the disappearance of Cristina Siekavizza and her
children be investigated.
51 The Historical Clarifcation Commission (CEH) was the truth and reconciliation commission of Guatemala. The creation of the CEH was ordered by the Esquipulas Accords of
1993, which attempted to put an end to the three decade civil war, during which it is estimated that 200,000 people lost their lives. The CEH tried to investigate the numerous
human rights violations perpetrated by both sides in the armed confict, to inform Guatemalan society about what exactly had happened in the country, and how, between
January of 1962 and the signing of the peace accords on December 29,1996.
On the other hand, various investigations are pending
for other cases of forced disappearance, such as the
engineering student Edgar Fernando Garca, disappeared
in the year 1984,
52
Edgar Enrique Senz Calito, agronomy
student, disappeared in the year 1981
53
and the case of El
Jute, a municipality of the department of Chiquimula,where
the armed forces of the army disappeared eight people in
said community in the year 1981.
54
Currently it is very diffcult to be able to resolve these
cases in less than 1 year, despite the fact that Guatemalan
criminal law clearly establishes that the maximum period
for preventative prison is 3 months (article 324 1 bis,
from the Guatemalan Criminal Code). After this period, the
investigation stage concludes. This situation has provoked
an overpopulation within the prison system in the country,
as neither the judges nor the Public Prosecutor have been
able to respond to the large quantity of cases presented.
In El Salvador, the confict between powers of the State
has brought into question the functioning of judicial
system independence. In 2011 and 2012, El Salvador has
been the stage of incidents without precedent in terms
of the struggle for judicial independence. Four of the fve
magistrates of the current Constitutional Chamber, installed
in 2009, broke a deeply-rooted custom where the majority
of magistrates are subjected to whoever had supported their
nomination within the Legislative Organ. It also showed
its independence from the economic pressure groups in the
country. This has allowed the functioning of the judiciary
to undergo a radical transformation, converting itself in a
third check on the power of the State, instead of an organ
at the service of the other two state entities and political
and economic pressure groups.
There have been two trials by fre that this Constitutional
Court has had to negotiate. The frst was when the
Legislative Assembly approved Decree 743, which briefy
reformed articles 12 and 13 of the Organic Judicial Law.
It obliged the Constitutional Court to give resolutions
unanimously (fve votes), and not by majority, (four
votes), as it had been done in the past. The decree was
sanctioned and sent to be published in the Offcial Diary
on June 2, 2011, by the president of the Republic in an
unprecedented rapid period of time. The urgency with
which it was approved, sanctioned and published, and
the temporary nature of it, left it evident that this was
a political maneuver that awarded the current Legislative
Assembly unlimited powers and sought to silence the
Constitutional Chamber, so it wouldnt continue emitting
uncomfortable sentences that were uncomfortable for its
interests.
The second trial by fre happened in 2012, with an inter-
institutional confict which involved the three organs of
the State: the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The motive was two sentences from the Constitutional
Court, which one group of political parties represented in
the Legislative Assembly refused to obey. The sentences
referred to the election of the 2 generations of magistrates
of the Supreme Court (SCJ) from 2006 and 2012, and it
declared these elections unconstitutional because they had
been carried out by one legislative confguration, which
had already elected an earlier generation. Additionally, it
ruled that the selection process for the SCJ functionaries
did not fll the requirements to prove the ftness of those
nominated.
In this confict, which lasted a little over two months,
52 Fernando Garca case. (10/28/2010 ) Yo lo quera devuelto con vida. A Tale of the Edgar Fernando Garcia Case from the Inside, from the Torre de Tribunales. Retrieved on
August 3, 2012, from http://casofernandogarcia.org/post/1423326048/yo-lo-queria-devuelto-con-vida-un-relato-del-caso
53 Prensa Libre. (08/22/12) Condenan a 70 aos de prisin a exjefe de extinta Polica Nacional. Retrieved on August 3, 2012, from http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/
justicia/Condenan-anos-exjefe-Policia_0_760124053.html
54 GAM. (06/27/2011). Presidente de la Repblica de Guatemala, pide perdn por las violaciones a los Derechos Humanos cometidas por las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado, en
el caso El Jute, impulsado por el Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo -GAM-. Retrieved on July 30, 2012, from http://areajuridicagam.blogspot.com/2011/06/presidente-de-la-republica-
de-guatemala.html
there was a highly questioned intervention of the Central
American Court of Justice. Both cases ended in a political
solution. This does not necessarily imply that the confict
had been overcome, since the majority of political parties
carry on without accepting the existence of independent
judges.
Penitentiary System 3.
The situation of the penitentiary system in the region is
a refection of a lack of justice and the guarantees of due
process and human rights for inmates.
The most emblematic case in the region is that of Honduran
jails, where the conditions of neglect and overpopulation
caused a tragedy in the Comayagua National Penitentiary
on February 14, 2012, in which 361 people died.
The IACHR verifed in a visit to the prison that in 75
square meter spaces, which have a capacity for 20 people,
between 100 and 110 people were being confned. They
were arranged in small niches of bunks, one atop another,
in an area no larger than 80 square centimeters.
The application of the law and the respect for due
process are observable in the way that a penitentiary
system functions. There is a tendency toward accelerated
growth in the penitentiary population: from 10,988 in
the year 2007, it grew to 12,171 in 2011. The growth
of infrastructure and resources to be able to handle this
growing population is not equivalent.
According to the IACHR, the principal problems of the
penitentiary system in Honduras are overpopulation;
overcrowding; the lack of appropriate and safe physical
installations for inmates; deplorable hygiene and
healthcare conditions; a lack of adequate nutrition,
potable water provisions, and medical attention; a lack
of study and work programs; a lack of adequate spaces to
receive visits, including intimate visits; a lack of effective
judicial control over the legal aspects of incarceration in
all of its stages; the lack of separation by category; the
dispensation of justice.
The inadequacy of the Honduran system is visible in the
lack of respect for due process for inmates. Until 2011,
barely 47% of the inmates had been sentenced, and the
remainder of the population was amidst a long wait to be
sentenced.
The state of Salvadoran jails is similar to that of Honduras.
In theory, El Salvador has legal tools to orient the
penitentiary system in a modern and democratic way, on
par with the contemporary world. Nevertheless, the reality
is different: prisons are honest and prominent monuments
to the disregard for human dignity. The deplorable, unjust
and inhumane conditions in which the 27,019 prisoners
55
survive and suffer in the penitentiary systemwhich
has infrastructure to shelter only 8,400 inmatesare
irrefutable. Poor health care, overcrowding, defcient
legal support, ineffcient medical, hospital, psychological,
and nutritional attention, among other weaknesses,
are an irrefutable demonstration that the written norm
and the reality are different worlds and, many times,
contradictory.
The Offce of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH
in Spanish), receives constant denunciations about
mistreatment that inmates face in temporary holding cells,
correctional facilities, and jails
56
. Cases of torture, human
traffcking and degrading treatment have been denounced.
A similar situation happens to family members who visit
jails. This is especially true for women visitors, who are
55 General Management of Jails. (09/24/2012). Estadsticas Penitenciarias. Retrieved on September 27, 2012, from http://www.dgcp.gob.sv/images/stories/Estadistica%20
Penitenciaria/2012/Septiembre/Estadistica_Penitenciaria_al_24_de_Septiembre_2012.pdf
56 CoLatino. (05/30/2012). PDDH recibe denuncias de violaciones a derechos en bartolinas policiales. Retrieved on September 22, 2012, from http://www.diariocolatino.com/
es/20120530/nacionales/103982/PDDH-recibe-denuncias-deviolaciones--a-derechos-en-bartolinas-policiales.htm
subjected to invasive body examinations, violating their
physical integrity and their dignity.
57
All of this occurs
because of the concept that the authorities have, that
a detained or condemned person in a delinquent, and as
such, that person has no rights that must be respected.
This is the vision that the media with the largest readership
also have, which makes this a widely spread theory. They
carry out high-visibility campaigns that work to reject any
type of penitentiary beneft or attempt to humanize the
detention centers and jails.
Similarly, the Salvadoran state does not establish effective
control mechanisms to guarantee that inmates, whether
they are in the investigation process or have already
been found guilty and sent to jail, live in conditions
that meet legal standards. On the contrary, the current
conditions how a total absence of opportunities within
the penitentiary system. The system becomes increasingly
far from the objective of being a means of rehabilitation
and reinsertion into society.
The precariousness of the penitentiary system is also clear
in Nicaragua. The prison population of the country currently
is at 8,846 inmates, located in different jails. There are
an additional 1,200 who have been sentenced and still
remain in preventative cells run by the National Police.
This statistic increases between 15 and 17% every year,
which deepens the problem of deteriorated infrastructure
and overcrowding of the jails in the country. This causes
unhealthiness, which has generated riots in diverse jails
and police centers. Added to this is the arbitrary decision
by some authorities which oblige sick inmates to remain
in jails, contrary to the rules established by the Legal
Medicine Offce. These rules are not recognized by the
Ministry of the Interior.
A signifcant riot was registered in the La Esperanza
Penitentiary Center in Estel. The warden, Ins Rocha,
was retained for eight hours by a group of inmates after
a riot which caused at least 11 injuries. The warden was
liberated after writing a draft of an agreement between
the authorities and representatives from the inmates, who
demanded improvements in nutrition, fairer prices in the
small store that operated in the jail, better treatment by
jail offcials and changes in the living conditions in this jail
that has a capacity for 700 inmates, but at the moment of
the incident, housed 838.
In August of 2012, the vice president of the Supreme Court
of Justice informed the media about a decision made by the
Inter-Institutional Commission of Criminal Justice, which is
made up of the Attorney General, the police, the judiciary,
and the Ministry of the Interior, among other institutions.
The decision was to beneft about 1,000 inmates with
conditional liberty, as a way to decongest the penitentiary
system. He explained that in order for inmates to opt for this
beneft, they would have to undergo an analysis to study the
danger he or she represents, whether the inmate is a repeat
offender, and the length of time that he or she has been in
jail. Another measure agreed upon was the transfer of those
inmates who were still in police cells to penitentiary system
centers. These measures have still not been applied.
The General Director of the Model Penitentiary System,
prefect Mara del Carmen Salgado, announced
58
that President
Daniel Ortega guided the construction of a new high security
model, which offers better conditions to inmates. One
of the priorities of the Penitentiary Centers in Nicaragua
has been to strengthen this institution, which is why the
construction of high security models will guarantee that
outcome, along with improving the living conditions for the
inmates, emphasized Salgado. The Minister of the Interior,
57 Contrapunto. (02/16/2011). PDDH tiene 158 expedientes contra militares. Retrieved on September 20, 2012, from http://www.archivocp.contrapunto.com.sv/dere-choshu-
manos/pddh-tiene-158-expedientes-contra-militares
58 La Voz del sandinismo. (09/29/2012). Construirn nuevo mdulo de mxima seguridad en sistema penitenciario La Modelo. Retrieved on October 3, 2012, from http://www.
lavozdelsandinismo.com/nicaragua/2012-09-29/construiran-nuevo-modulo-de-maxima-seguridad-en-sistema-penitenciario-la-modelo/
Ana Isabel Morales, announced that the construction
would be carried out with $7.2 million dollars, which will
come from the $9.2 million that were confscated from the
individuals captured while trying to disguise themselves as
employees of the Mexican company Televisa. Additionally,
she explained that those that arrived to the high security
jail will be those sentenced for crimes like drug traffcking,
money laundering and organized crime. Also, farms will
be built for inmates in Len and Bluefelds, explained the
Minister. However, in no moment have improvements been
mentioned in the jails to reduce overcrowding,
59
separate
minors from adults in the jails and detention centers, and
harmonize the juvenile justice system with internationally
recognized norms, to guarantee inmates rights.
In Guatemala, the penitentiary system is little different from
the rest of the countries in the region. It has a defcit in the
quantity of guards. The existing guards have few incentives:
uncertain salaries and little training in inmate treatment.
Additionally, the impunity and lack of transparency that the
country faces makes jails a strategic place for mafas, which
order extortions and kidnappings from within.
The Minister of the Interior has mentioned that in 2012, they
have carried out more than 700 confscations in the jails.
These confscations are an attempt to diminish the quantity
of crimes that are carried out and ordered from within the
jails. This takes into account that 90% of extortions are
ordered from within jails. Extortions have been on the rise
for over two years.
60
The Abuse of Power 4.
Another of the obstacles to access to justice is the abuse
of authority. This happens when institutionalism and law
are not respected by public offcials.
Public offcials act by omission when they distort regulations
as it benefts them. Judges, police and offcials commit
abuses of authority. For instance, according to CODEH,
the Honduran police show corruption and involvement in
criminal acts, such as kill-for-hire and others.
The Nicaraguan police show a pattern of abuse of power
and mistreatment of citizens, such as irrational use of force
and weapons. Denunciations against the Nicaraguan police
for mistreatment, physical and psychological aggression,
illegal forceful entry of homes, and arbitrary detentions
and liberations have all increased in the past two years.
The most unfortunate are acts that have ended with a
violation of one of the most fundamental rights: the right
to life. Such was the case with police offcers, Luis Urbina
and Jorge Snchez, who are accused of causing the death
of an unarmed motorcyclist on October 20, 2012. The
motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet, and the patrolling
offcers rerouted him into a chase in the streets of Managua.
According to declarations from First Commissioner Aminta
Granera, and the director of the police, the offcers were
suspended and are being investigated by the Attorney
General.
Additionally, the police have been denounced for being
involved in rape cases. These instances have obliged
police leadership to dishonorably reduce in rank 173
offcers. They have also had to administratively sanction
62 superior offcials and 252 low ranking offcers during
2011.
The judiciary likewise abuses power through inaction
and ineffectiveness in their duties. It takes advantage
of the citizenrys lack of knowledge, basing actions on
a false state of wellbeing, and showing a conduct based
on hierarchical and unequal power relations. This violates
what is established in Art. 432 of the Criminal Code.
61
59 Recommendation No. 37 of the Universal Periodic Review, accepted by the government of Nicaragua.
60 La Hora. (09/10/2012 ) En las crceles, criminales han ganado y siguen ganando el pulso al Gobierno. Retrieved on September 15, 2012, from http://www.lahora.com.gt/
index.php/nacional/301-reportajes-y-entrevistas/165230-en-las-carceles-criminales-han-ganado-y-siguen-ganando-el-pulso-al-gobierno-?format=pdf
61 The mentioned article claims, The authority, offcial or public employee that abuses his or her position by ordering or committing any act against the policies, laws, or rules
of the Republic of Nicaragua, in prejudice of the rights of any person, will be sanctioned with a penalty of six months to two years of prison, and disqualifcation to exercise
the role of public employee for between 6 months and 4 years.
In El Salvador, similar situations also happen with respect
to the abuse of power. Institutions that make abusive use
of force or physical power are the Civilian National Police
(PNC in Spanish) and the armed forces. The PNC and the
Attorney General of the Republic are mistrusted by human
rights defenders, given that they are sometimes used to
repress the work of defenders, using disproportionate force,
and promoting processes in which defenders are accused
and criminalized. Massive operatives, forced entries without
court orders, and illegal captures in communities by the
PNC are examples of the illegal actions that authorities
carry out. This violates the right to protection that the
State should guarantee the population.
Since several years ago, members of the police and military
have been discovered to be involved in different crimes,
for which the Attorney General and the Human Rights
Ombudsman have investigated several cases. For example,
in a homicide case that happened in the municipality of
Apopa, to the north of San Salvador, nine soldiers and three
corporals from the armed forces of El Salvador are being
investigated. Another example is one that involves members
of the armed forces in aggravated homicide and procedural
fraud, which is being heard in the Justice of the Peace of
Panchimalco. The incident on March 22, 2012, took place
in Balboa Park, in the small town of Planes de Renderos.
The victim was a young man who was with his girlfriend
inside a vehicle, and was gunned down and assassinated by
the soldiers. There are other examples that, like these two,
are unquestionably cases of extrajudicial executions, which
come about because of the lack of training that soldiers
have in situations of confict or crisis.
The current Salvadoran government began its tenure with
a different policy from those of earlier governments, in
terms of not using police forces to dissuade or intervene
in social protest. Nevertheless, as public security has been
militarized, there has also been more common abuse of
force. Also, the government tried to purge police agents
who transgressed their normative framework of action.
Under the leadership of the PNC General Inspector
Zaira Navas, 450 agents were sanctioned, of which, 63
were removed from the police for violations of personal
integrity. Nevertheless, Inspector Navas was repeatedly
questioned by different groups inside and outside of the
police for her work to purge the institution, especially
by those current police who in the past belonged to the
armed forces. They accused the inspector of carrying out
a witch hunt against them. When members of the military
were named as the Minister of Justice and the Director of
the PNC, she renounced her post under these pressures.
One case to emphasize which depicts the turn that the
PNC took in its action, and also the attitude that some
judges show in terms of respect for human rights, is
a forced eviction in June 2012, in the municipality of
Intipuc , in the department of La Unin. The Justice of
Peace accompanied an ample contingent of specialized
units of the police as they violently evicted 117 families,
inhabitants of the Los Ranchos community, from the
aforementioned municipality. Some community members
were detained, along with the internment of people in
health clinics; momentary disappearances of children;
people wounded with pellet guns; homes and crops
Author: FESPAD.
Police violently evict 117 families from their homes in the Los Ranchos community, in the municipality of Intipuc, La Unin.
destroyed; psychological stress, especially in children;
and loss of basic tools for homes, such as beds, clothing,
cooking utensils and food.
Guatemala continues to show daily constant abuse by
security forces. For the population, police represent not
only security, but also insecurity. To be able to be an
agent in the National Civilian Police, a citizen should
be trained in an academy, during which the citizen is
instructed in the use of weapons, management of violent
situations, and of course, proper interaction with civil
society.
Nevertheless, there are constant instances of aggression in
which security agents create victims due to their defcient
training and poor formation processes, which impede
them to act responsibly. For this reason, it is common
to observe that the police act with violence and abuse
of authority when attempting to control crowds to try to
reestablish order.
It is an open secret that the police are often involved
in assaults, extortions and abuses of force. It is common
that in any operative, they abuse authority and diminish
human dignity. One recent example that manifests police
abuse of authority is what happened during a dialogue
session between authorities from the Ministry of Education
and student teachers, which was an attempt to build a
consensus during reformation of the teaching degree,
around which there were accusations of insuffcient
consultation during decision-making. The protest was
met with a contingent of anti-riot security forces that
attacked students and teachers with violence, who were
then submitted to order with clubs and rocks.
Criminalization of social protests, and the use of military
force in duties which do not correspond to the army, has
left as a consequence the death of 6 community leaders
from the 48 towns in Totonicapn. On that occasion, they
were protesting against the uncontrolled rise in the price
of electricity, against proposed constitutional reforms,
and against the change in the teaching degree.
Author: Nuestro Diario.
Anti-riot police attack student teachers using rocks
Author: Jess Alfonso. El Peridico.
Anti-riot police attack student teachers.
CHAPTER III
CRISIS OF THE DEMOCRATIC MODEL
Recent years in Central America have seen the passage
from dictatorships to democratic regimes. This historical
process spanned revolutions, civil wars, and pacifcation
provided by Peace Accords.
Nevertheless, almost three decades since the signing of the
Accords, serious relapses in the democratic process have
been seen in the countries of the Central American region.
These are hybrid systems that combine democratic and
authoritarian characteristics, with grave problems of social
exclusion, especially in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua,
which, according to the latest Report on the State of the
Region, possess a hostile environment to democracy.
62

They have weakened their own institutionalism to increase
their authority, progressively altering the constitutional
order in a systematic and constant manner.
The process of transition to democracy, initiated in 1980,
ended without having been fully established.
63
An example
is Honduran democracy, which could not confront the old
structural problems of poverty and inequality. The coup
detat of June 28, 2009 was an indicator of this erosion
of democracy, and at the same time, it is the cause of the
deepening of the crisis of the democratic model which
maintains civil and political rights under constant threat.
In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega abused power through
a totally arbitrary Presidential Decree, guaranteeing his
continuity in power and winning re-election. He has
maintained more than 25 offcials in their posts, despite
the nomination powers awarded to him by the National
Assembly having expired, according to what is established
in the Constitution of the Republic. This allowed him to
take control of the National Assembly, in order to approve
laws and policies aimed at centralizing increasing political
power and imposing his will on the other powers.
In Guatemala, the spirit of the Peace Accords, and the
Accord for the Strengthening of Civil Power and the Function
of the Army in a Democratic Society, were designed to
democratize governmental administration. They attempted
to do this through the promotion of civilian leaders and
the subordination of the armed forces to civil authority.
Nevertheless, the participation of the armed forces in
matters of citizen security has not been blocked in the
last decade. On the contrary, it has been legalized by the
current government of President Otto Prez Molina, with
the Governing Accord 40-200064,
64
which has left space
for the majority of the posts from the National Security
System to be occupied by military offcials in retirement.
These retired offcials have not gone through any process
of investigation about their possible involvement in human
rights violations committed in past decades.
In El Salvador, democratic institutions confront a grave
challenge due to constitutional violations, such as the
election of magistrates to the Supreme Court of Justice.
The majority of magistrates, including its new president,
were chosen illegally. The legitimate president of the
court was arbitrarily removed from the post and blocked
from fulflling his functions, based on a decision by the
Constitutional Court. This anomaly generated conficts
62 State of the Region Report, 2008-2011 written by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Organization of American States (OAS).
63 UNDP. Our Latin American Democracy. UNDP/OAS. Mxico, D.F. 2010 (In: 3. A balance of achievements and failures of democracy, page 57)
64 Decree No. 40-2000, Support Law for Civil Security Forces. Published in the Offcial Diary, June 16, 2000. Retrieved on August 10, 2012, from http://www.sgp.gob.gt/Pagi-
naWeb/Decretos2000/DG40-2000.pdf
between social powers, and posed obvious problems of
legal insecurity. However, the most serious aspect is that
it represented a rupture in the basic rules of democracy,
upon a de facto partial integration of one of the powers
of the State.
65
In terms of Panama, human rights violations continue to
happen, due to the lack of effectiveness of justice, along
with corruption, abuse of authority, and the existence of
limitations on the freedom of expression, among other
aspects. Discrimination persists for ethnic and racial
reasons, and against women, and due to the insuffciency
of resources to protect and promote human rights.
Indigenous populations are being forcefully displaced
and evicted from their lands in favor of the construction
of touristic, hydroelectric and mining projects. A critical
situation in terms of the penitentiary system continues,
including limited access to potable water.
A report written by the Bertelsmann Foundation (BTI)
66

of Germany, which measures the democracy and market
economy development process in 128 emerging and
developing countries, emphasizes that Costa Rica has
the highest points in the region in the quality of its
democracy, followed by El Salvador. The report takes into
account that the reforms carried out by the ex-president
Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, and those of Daniel Ortega in
Nicaragua, weaken political institutions, and particularly
the Rule of Law. In the report, Nicaragua is located in
the category of very defective democracies. In the case
of Guatemala, the problem is the fragility of the State,
associated with extreme violence from drug cartels and
organized crime.
The insatisfaction and disregard that Central Americans
have for democracy as a political system, and as a system
of regulating individual and collective matters, is evident.
This is clear given the restrictions on freedom of expression
and the Rule of Law, and the increase of citizen insecurity
and openly coercive or unclear policies which prevail in
the region. Added to this is the presence of organized
crime, which directly impacts some political systems,
especially in Guatemala.
Limitations on the exercise of citizenship and 1.
authoritarianism
Citizen Participation 1.1
In Central America, citizen frustration reigns given the
inequality in wealth distribution and the exercise of
power; and given the weak popular participation in public
matters, public and private corruption, citizen insecurity
and state weakness, which leads to, among other aspects
of dismantling the rule of law that encourages exclusive
models of participation.
One principal matter in terms of democracy in Central
America is participation and political representation of
the citizenry in decision-making spaces. Governments
assumed a commitment to promote participation on all
levels in the signing of the Peace Accords. In this sense,
in 2002 in Guatemala, what is known as the trilogy of
participation laws was created. This basically created the
Development Advice System, which ideally is a mechanism
to make social participation effective. At the same time,
it should provoke substantive representation in policies,
programs and government projects.
Nicaragua has an extensive legal framework about citizen
participation in the management of public policies,
especially on the municipal level. Nevertheless, there is an
observable breech in the true exercise of this right, due to
65 This confict between powers was later overcome. The Legislative Assembly carried out nominations in observance of the law, and the current magistrates and the president
of the SCJ are not legally nominated.
66 Active Transparency. (03/22/2012). El Salvador and Costa Rica lead democratic advances in Central America. Retrieved on July 20, 2012, de http://www.transparenciaactiva.
gob.sv/internacional/2012/03/el-salvador-y-costa-rica-lideran-avance-democratico-en-centroamerica/
the centralist character of the national political system,
the inertial weight of a vertical and exclusive political
culture that predominates among political leaders, the
limited time of drafting and exercise of Law 475, the Law
of Citizen Participation, in the framework of a young
process of democratic transition in the country. The only
expressions of citizen participation that the government
recognizes are the Citizen Power Cabinet, the Family
Councils and the social groups favorable to the government
party, which systematically come together in public plazas
and hold meetings connected to political parties, which
make irresponsible decisions of national interest without
the type of consultation established in Law 475, therefore
blocking the participation of civil society organizations.
In the case of El Salvador, despite not having an
ample citizen participation legal development, it has
constitutional, international and secondary legislative
norms that protect this right. But these regulations
have not had suffcient weight to eliminate the deeply-
rooted political culture of impeding citizen participation,
despite recognizing substantial advances in the present
administration. It is a fact that the current government
of President Mauricio Funes has shown more receptivity
to establishing dialogue spaces with diverse sectors
of society for discussion, principally within the social
movement and the business sector. With these sectors,
they conformed multi-disciplinary councils to discuss
diverse themes without greater development for debate,
following through with the Global Anticrisis Plan. The
aforementioned plan established three core concepts: 1)
Call to National Dialogue for the defnition of a national
development strategy; 2) Creation of the Economic-Social
Council, and 3) Creation of public policies with a focus on
citizen participation.
Salvadoran society recognizes that the changed focus
in the design of public policieswhich includes the
participation of civil societyhas made some advances
in legislative material. One example of this is the
approval of the Integral Protection Law for Children and
Adolescents, and the institutionalization of the governing
entity of the sector, the National Council for Children and
Adolescents (CONNA in Spanish). This council includes
the participation of representatives from civil society
in the leadership council. The National Youth Policy
also forecasts the construction of a youth identity and
autonomy, and the improvement of its social integration
and its participation. Another example is the presentation
of the 2012 draft bill of the General Water Law for the
Legislative Assembly, on the part of the offce holders in
the Ministry of the Environment. This has the end desire
of guaranteeing sustainable management of the resource,
and the populations right to its access and quality.The
legal proposal is the result of a citizen consultation in
which different sectors participated from civil society
and institutions linked to the water theme. Nevertheless,
despite this openness, communal organizations have
manifested having been excluded from these processes.
67
In Costa Rica, the democratic model shows ruptures which
deepened mainly in terms of citizen participation, and the
exercise of power by non-institutions. The Costa Rican state
has lost its dialogue with diverse sectors that defend their
right to participate in the decisions that concern them.
The most notorious case has been that of the Invisibles
Movement, a group of human rights defenders that includes
university students, non-governmental organizations and
independent people who organized themselves in response
to the decisions that the Human Rights Commission of
the Legislative Assembly has made, particularly against
the election of the President of this commission, who
has been characterized by his rejection of the LGBTI
community.
68
Nevertheless, none of their petitions was
67 FESPAD. A tres aos de una difcil herencia, Informe del estado de los derechos humanos en la actual gestin presidencial, 2009 -2012, page.151. Retrieved on June 20,
2012, from http://www.fespad.org.sv/documentos/informe-3-anos-funes-completo.pdf/
68 Invisible Movement. Retrieved on August 15, 2012, from http://www.movimientoinvisibles.org/
taken into account by the Legislative Assembly.
In Honduras, the effects of the coup detat in the exercise
of the citizenry, civil and political rights, and the
deterioration of democratic institutions continue being
felt strongly in Honduran society. The principal limitations
on the free exercise of citizenship and citizen participation
come from structural problems like poverty, an increase in
violence and citizen insecurity, generation a culture of
fear in the population. One of the most immediate effects
is the reduction or limitation of the use of public space,
such as free circulation in order to exercise rights without
the fear of being harassed, kidnapped or assassinated.
The incapacity of the State to give answers before the
historical and recent demands of the citizenry has
provoked the erosion of citizen confdence in state
institutions. The institutions with the highest grade of
mistrust in the citizenry are the police, and the Supreme
Court of Justice.
69
Nevertheless, the demand for citizen
participation grows continually and systematically within
the Honduran population, which discursively takes form
in the demand that spaces be built for the exercise of a
participative democracy
One of the most concrete expressions of participative
democracy is the level of consensus that the Honduran
society has in its support of the call to a National
Constituent Assembly,
70
just as a poll revealed in February
of 2012. 65% of Hondurans had a favorable opinion.
However, this demand for citizen participation and
exercise of a participative democracy has not had an
answer on the part of the ruling government. The current
government of Porfrio Lobo Sosa has been characterized by
approving laws without carrying out wide and transparent
consultation processes. This is despite the fact that in
2010, a constitutional reform widened Article 5 of the
Constitution of the Republic, so that the citizenry could
be consulted without restrictions about any theme of
national interest. This constitutional reform still does not
have the regulations required so that the population can
exercise its right to decide through mechanisms such as
plebiscite and referendums.
The citizen participation from Indigenous peoples
in Central America is noteworthy, given the fagrant
violation of Agreement 169 of the International Labor
Organization (ILO). This agreement was ratifed by the
majority of the Central American governments. The right
to free and informed previous consentawarded by this
international instrumentis being violated when the
executive branch makes arbitrary decisions. It does this
despite the systematic, peaceful and legal opposition that
the defenseless citizenry carries out, although they live
with a lack of protection due to authorities inaction.
This situation is aggravated by the expansion of
monocropping, and concessions for exploitation of natural
resources through extractive activities in their respective
territories. This process lets loose repression and violence
against indigenous communities, farm worker organizations
and human rights defenders. Crimes committed remain in
impunity, which facilitates the repetition of these human
rights violations.
In Guatemala, the violation of the right of these
communities begins with a State authority that does not
respect their free determination to decide how to use their
land. This is the case with the Hidrosantacruz Company,
which is developing the Cambalam project in Santa Cruz
Barillas, in the department of Huehuetenango. This mining
and hydroelectric dam construction project was rejected by
46,479 people, and approved by only nine. The situation
has caused confrontations between the population and
69 CESPAD 2012, Honduras.
70 President Zelayas proposal to consult the citizenry about a call to the National Constituent Assembly was one of the sources of confict that led to the coup detat.
the companys security offcials, due to the community
struggle to conserve the resources in their territory
71
In the case of Nicaragua, the Great Canal Law
72
could
have an adverse effect, and even lead to the confscation
of a great part of the lands belonging to the Rama
Indigenous People and the Kriol Communities. The
imminent implementation of the Great Canal Law on their
territories causes fear, insecurity and anxiety in the Rama
and Kriol people. addition to the fear, Additionally, the
canal proposal has already turned into further adverse
consequences for these communities, with the increase
of the invasion of new squatters and land speculators.
These people are generally armed and supported by
powerful groups, with the objective of taking over the
land. These actions constitute new violations against
physical integrity, security, and life itselfespecially for
the members of the Monkey Point and Rama communities.
Criminalization of social protest and 1.2
violation of freedom of expression
The policy that past and present governments have of
criminalizing social protest, and the consequent detention
of human rights defenders, is a concept and practice that
violates human rights. This worsens with the application of
State policies that aim to protect the interests of governing
parties, private capital and big business. This continues
and deepens the pillaging of the natural resources of
communities. In this sense, mining, hydroelectric power
stations, agro fuel, and factories, added to the traditional
forms of exploiting labor and natural resources, are
causing population displacement and the seizure and
appropriation of the lands that belong to indigenous and
farm worker communities. It has the ultimate effect of
more exploitation, oppression and misery.
The aforementioned has generated a series of legal cases,
concessions, and diverse types of popular struggle. Social
protest is one of the most effective resources that citizens
have legitimately used to demand that authorities respect
and obey their rights. Social protest is necessary to
strengthen participative democracy, but it is almost always
repressed and distorted, and currently is even criminalized.
Such is the case with Nicaragua, where people who have
protested and demanded respect for their rights have been
victims of aggression, retention, illegal imprisonment and
have been put through legal tribunals.
The themes in the repression of social protest have been:
militarization; violent evictions; police repression of
protests; complicity of the police and army, by omission or
action, in attacks and assassinations of farm worker leaders,
indigenous people and union members; and the anomalous
capture and judgment of social and religious leaders. These
are accompanied by the use of riot squads and parastate
forces, such as volunteer police and private security agents,
to repress and plant fear in the citizenry, so that it stops
demanding justice and abandons the struggle for its rights.
Such was the case in Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala,
where one farm worker was killed, two were wounded,
and 17 community leaders detained when private security
agents, police and military soldiers repressed a protest
of neighbors who were opposed to the construction on
the property of a hydroeletric complex, Canbalam I, by
the Spanish frm Hidralia. The answer of President Otto
Prez Molina was to declare martial law for 18 days in
the municipality, and to send army troops and police with
the mandate, according to what the president declared, of
capturing those responsible. This is a response similar to
what was done during the civil war.
In Honduras, the latest acts of repression and criminalization
show that the authorities still maintain the same biased
71 El Peridico. (05/03/2012). Santa Cruz Barillas: las dos versiones de los disturbios. Retrieved September 16, 2012, from http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20120503/
pais/211650/
72 Law No. 800, Ley del Rgimen Jurdico del Gran Canal Interocenico de Nicaragua y de creacin de la Autoridad del Gran Canal. Published in La Gaceta on July 8, 2012.
posture against the farm worker communities involved in
an agrarian confict, therefore blocking the possibility of
a just, peaceful and sustainable solution. Violence, human
rights violations and impunity persist, due to the disinterest
of responsible authorities in investigating and punishing
those guilty of the attacks and assassinations of members
of farm worker groups in the region.
According to the group Va Campesina, 53 supporters and
members of the farm worker groups of the Bajo Agun,
along with a journalist and his partner, were assassinated
between September 2009 and August 2012, in the framework
of the agrarian confict that afficts the region. According
to statistics from the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights,
there has been no serious investigation in any of these
crimes, and the threat of forced evictions continues against
the farm worker communities favored by strong sentences
that restored their right to the land.
74
In Nicaragua, repression is constant during election
processes, despite the recommendations given by the Human
Rights Council of the UN in the Universal Periodic Review
(UPR). These recommendations spoke to the protection of
the rights of all citizens, collectively and individually, to
the right to association, peaceful association, participation
in the equality of conditions in public matters and the
management of the State, along with the right to formulate
petitions, denounce irregularities and to make constructive
criticism. Nevertheless, the criticisms of the government
and the demand for guarantees and respect for human
rights will continue to generate aggressions, persecution
and retaliation in fagrant violations of civil and political
rights and of the Nicaraguan population.
In 2011, the emission of identifcation cards in a discriminatory
manner motivated numerous protests by Nicaraguans who
were violently repressed by the police, making use of frearms
and tear gas bombs. The result was people injured, wounded
and arrested. Many communities of the northern zone
75
were
militarized. These communities observed an indulgent police
behavior toward supporters and members of the FSLN, provoking
confrontations and aggressions toward the protesters, with
homemade mortars when their use is prohibited by law.
Additionally the police used anti-riot techniques, launched
tear gas, which affected even the local population who was
not participating in the protest.
In Honduras, on July 23, 2012, approximately 300 members of the police and army arrived to Bajo Agun region
with ski masks and M-60 machine guns to carry out an eviction of the farm workers from the Authentic Farm Worker
Vindication Movement of the Agun (MARCA in Spanish). On August 21, 2012, before the Supreme Court of Justice in
Tegucigalpa, the police violently dispersed a peaceful protest of hundreds of farm workers from the Bajo Agun who
demanded a meeting with the President of the court to ask him to impartially judge the case of the three farms that
were in MARCA possession, and to put an end to the criminalization of the farm worker struggle. Instead of accepting
the petition for dialogue, the police proceeded with an excessive use of force against the protesters, leaving three
hospitalized and wounded, among them, a 16 year old minor. On August 23, the 27 detained in Tegucigalpa were given
conditional liberty, and 25 of them were accused of illegal protest and association and damages. The alternative
measures involved in the detention include the prohibition to leave the country, and from participating in public
protests, along with the obligation to arrive to the court once weekly. That same day, the tribunals in Tocoa, Coln,
decreed alternative measures to the 19 detained in Planes,including the three minors and two elderly. On August 27,
Jos Braulio Daz Lpez, the secretary of the El Tranvo Associative Farm Worker Production Company and member of
MUCA was assasintaed by strangers with frearms.
73
73 CESPAD, 2012.
74 Human right contained in Article 13 of the American Human Rights Convention, and its limitation should not contain threats of jailing, according to the resolution from the Inter-
American System for Protection of Human Rights (Herrera Ulloa Vs. Costa Rica Case, Sentence from July 2, 2004, Inter-American Court of Human Rights).
75 Violent incidents have been registered in Ro Blanco, Matiguas, Sbaco, El Tuma-La Dalia, Estel, Muelle de los Bueyes, El Ayote, Camoapa, San Lorenzo, La Concepcin Masaya and Managua.
Hundreds of retired soldiers have carried out multiple
protests demanding the fulfllment of agreements made
by the government of President Ortega, who on March 17,
2011, named a Commission to oversee the implementation
of agreements made during the disarmament process (1990).
Among those was the turnover of parcels of land, deeds,
specialized medical attention, and life insurance pensions.
Given the lack of follow-through, on June 1, 2012, they
protested in front of the National Assembly and tried to
enter the front yard of the building. They were contained by
the National Police, when the protesters opted to take over
the streets near to the Augusto Cesar Sandino International
Airport. This led to a confrontation with anti-riot agents,
which resulted in three retired soldiers wounded and a
dozen detained. Taking into account the level of military
preparation of the protesters, the General Director of the
Police was present, the First Commissioner Aminta Granera,
who ordered the cessation of police aggression, and mediated
with the ex-soldiers to avoid unfortunate incidents.
Another concerning situation in Nicaragua is the repression
of the media, independent journalists and citizens who are
in disagreement with the current governments thinking. Of
the more than 20 television channels, radios and newspapers
that are published or circulated in the capital, only three
operate with no government strings attached. In other
media, coercion, blackmail and economic pressure have
caused self-censorship decisions, out of fear that a law that
regulates radio and electronic spaces be used against them.
This was the case with Channel 15 of Condega, which was
closed due to pressures that the private owners received
from agents from the party in power.
In Costa Rica, large private companies are attempting
to limit and lessen the right to freedom of expression,
through a modifcation of the Criminal Code which proposes
a punishment with a prison sentence for journalists who
reveal secret political information. The approval of the
Informational Crimes Law, also known as the Gag Law,
is an attempt to modify Articles 196 and 288 of the Criminal
Code. It aims to punish with prison sentences those who
obtain undue secret political or security information. The
law does not clarify what is meant by political information,
which is why the interpretation of the law is imprecise and
leaves an open door sanctioning of whatever conducts the
on-duty judge considers improper.
Various social organizations have protested against the
proposed reform, claiming that it will affect journalistic
investigations that are of great public interest. Journalists
from the Semanario Universidad, a publication at the
University of Costa Rica, argued that the approved
modifcation would be an obstacle for investigative
journalism, which has the end objective of overseeing
public administration. They gave the example that future
cases like the Fear Memorandum
76
could be punished
with prison for publishing confdential information. The
aforementioned case consists of a 2007 document that
a congressperson and the then-Vice President of the
Republic directed to scar and Rodrigo Arias, the President
and the Minister to the Presidency. The document offered
suggestions to facilitate the approval of the Free Trade
Agreement between Central America, the Dominican
Republic, and the United States (CAFTA-DR). Among those
suggestions was to stimulate fear among the population,
and to sow discord within the oppositional movement
to the agreement. The president of the Journalists
Association manifested that the director of the university
publication would have had to spend 4 years in prison for
the publication of this case. If this arbitrary limitation
on the freedom of expression continues to be in force,
investigative journalism will be coerced from denouncing
cases that have national importance.
Another example is the investigation carried out by the
newspaper La Nacin about irregularities in the tax payments
of one of the companies owned by the then-Minister of
Finance, Fernando Herrero. The investigation provoked his
resignation. Due to the protests by organizations linked
to the area, the government committed to clearing up
the modifed regulation. This reform to the Criminal Code,
included within the Chapter on Espionage, doesnt do
anything other than criminalize the obtaining of political
information that has public interest. This is due to the
extensive spread that the written press has offered in the
past year, which has threatened the legitimacy of these
groups within power structures.
Another element that attacks democratic stability in Costa
Rica is related to the exercise of institutional actions
by particular sectors or groups that have economic and
political power. This is an attack on the legal authority of
the State as a representative of society, and, at the same
time, impedes the existence of a due process as the solution
for certain conficts.
It is important to emphasize what happened in the Medio
Queso community of los Chiles, Alajuela, where more than
250 families, while trying to solve their problem of a lack
of housing were systematically attacked and evicted by
private security hired by Elmer Varela, a landowner in the
zone. This resulted in 4 wounded leaders. The Institute for
Agrarian Development (IDA in Spanish) stated that this
confict is not its responsibility, given that it depends on
the litigation of the Justice Tribunals.
77
Political Institutionalism refuted in election 2.
processes
The constitutionalization process that was done in the
decade of the eighties was understood as the right to
monopolize the representation of popular will. This is a
legally supported partocracy, which has been substituting
the fundamental rights of its members and of the general
citizenry. This is true both in decision-making about
shortlists of three candidates as in public policies, because
important decisions are reserved for the party leadership.
The same happens in the moment of nominating candidates
for positions in which they will be popularly elected, where
the party becomes an indispensible vehicleand sometimes
the only one. They therefore become considered more as
electoral machines, and not organizations that represent
currents of thought.
Added to this is the politicization of electoral tribunals.
These have been questioned for their composition, lack of
transparency, and impartiality. Additionally, the regulations
do not provide adequate tools to oversee the amounts and
origin of the funds that political parties receive and use in
their respective campaigns.
76 National Association of Public and Private Employees (Asociacion Nacional de Empleados Publicos y Privados). Memorndum del miedo: La memoria popular no lo archivar.
Retrieved on September 20, 2012, from http://www.anep.or.cr/article/memorandum-del-miedo-la-memoria-popular-no-lo-arch/
77 IDA. (2012) IDA no puede intervenir en conficto en medio queso. Retrived on September 12, 2012, from http://www.ida.go.cr/noticias/noticias12/IDA%20NO%20PUEDE%20
INTERVENIR%20EN%20CONFLICTO%20EN%20MEDIO%20QUESO.html
In El Salvador there have been advances in the 2011-2012
electoral processes. An example of this is the un-enrollment
of political parties that had been illegally maintained in
the electoral system: the Christian Democrat Party (PDC
in Spanish) and the National Conciliation Party (PCN in
Spanish). This was carried out by the Supreme Electoral
Tribunal (TSE in Spanish), in June of 2012, to follow
through with the Constitutional Chambers sentence. Once
the Tribunals resolution was emitted, the affected political
parties turned in an appeal for review to the Tribunal. This
situation provoked an impasse in the conclusion of the
procedure, since the resolution of the resource demanded
four of the fve votes that made up the Tribunal.
The lack of regulation of these situations has created legal
insecurity. Two of the TSE magistrates, in clear violation
of the sentence from the Constitutional Chamber, refused
to give their votes for the cancelation of the referenced
parties. Nevertheless, through a resolution on September
20, 2011, the TSE resolved to confrm the earlier resolution
and defnitively cancelled the PCN and PDC political parties.
A petition was fled before the Court for Contentious
Administrative Proceedings, which declared illegal the
TSE resolution that cancelled the referenced parties.
Nevertheless, the inscription of the PCN and PDC continues
to be unconstitutional, and the TSE should again being the
cancelation process. To date and during the elaboration of
this report, this problem has not been resolved.
Another signifcant event in El Salvador was the electoral
reform that contributed to the sentence
78
emitted by the
Constitutional Chamber, which opened the possibility of
non-party candidates and the opening of the political party
lists for congressional elections. This generated a democratic
opening in the country. The aforementioned reforms allowed
the citizenry to participate in electoral processes, without
belonging to a political party. The elections carried out
in March of 2012 were the frst to have participation from
non-party candidates, and with unblocked party lists. In
said election, there were fve citizens who exercised their
right to be elected as non-party candidates.
79
In Honduras, primary and general elections will be carried
out (November 2012 and November 2013, respectively) for
a new government period. The citizenry has high levels of
mistrust in the TSE, which is clearly controlled by traditional
bipartisianism (National Party and Liberal Party). This lack
of trust is based in the fact that the members of the TSE are
the same that organized and directed the November 2009
elections, in the framework of the coup detat and the de
facto regiment.
During the present electoral process, it is important to note
that traditional bipartisianism has lost hegemony. After the
coup detat, four new parties have cropped up and incorporated.
One of them is the Libertad y Refundacin (LIBRE) party. The
emergence of new political forces has awoken a renewed
interest in citizen participation in the current elections: 73%
of the population expresses that they will participate in the
next general elections in November of 2013.
80

In Guatemala, the 2011 general elections made clear some
faws that impede the strengthening of democracy, like the
fact that electoral propaganda is widely distributed before
the call to general elections, which is the offcial starting
point according to the Electoral and Political Party Law. This
is because the laws sanctions are inversely proportionate
to the gravity of the violations committed. The fnes that
are imposed on political parties do not go beyond US$125
for any type of infraction.
One example of weakening democracy was what happened
in the 2011 elections, in the department of Quich, where
some arbitrary actions were committed, because of which,
some candidates were left out of the electoral campaign.
Among them, one to highlight is the omission of the printing
of an election ballot for Mayor and Municipal Corporation of
Nebajmunicipality of Quichand the annulling of the
election of a congressperson from the political left, from
78 Unconstitutionality, 61-2009, emitted on July twenty-ninth, two thousand and ten.
79 None of the non-party candidates reached the minimum necessary to be elected to congress.
80 CESPAD, Honduras 2012.
the department of Huehuetenango, despite the fact that
the Ofcial record of the departmental Electoral Tribunal
listed him as the winner.
Costa Rica is a country known worldwide for its political and
democratic stability amidst a confictive region, but despite
the legal obligations it has acquired, it has not been the
regional exception. According to the declarations of Vladimir
de la Cruz, the Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty and the
Director of the Institute of Labor Studies of the National
University of Costa Rica, Neither processes nor policies are
visible that propose innovations or a new way of administering
the government, nor that work to modify the constituted
order or some of its aspects. It would seem that, for now,
there are only conservative proposals for reforms of the
existing political model, where all of the parties are trapped
in a reality which there is little possibility of changing.
81

Even though the process for presidential elections of 2014
should begin in 2013, the electoral campaign has already
begun. This is despite the voices that try to do as ostriches
do: to hide what began a long time ago. This is defned in
the electoral calendar posted by the TSE. The Full Chamber
has also already named two substitute electoral magistrates
to make up the TSE with its fve members for the electoral
period.
In terms of Nicaragua, the exercise of political rights and
fundamental liberties is undervalued. This is visible in the
criminalization of the freedom of opinion and expression.
Neither the Constitution of the Republic nor the laws are
in command. There is no independence of powers, as the
hegemony of the party in power determines decisions in the
legal, electoral and legislative sphere. It reforms or interprets
the law according to the individual interests of those who
aspire to power, which makes the law something fexible. One
example of this is the declaration that the constitutionally-
established prohibition of reelection is inapplicable.
Similarly, the approval of the reforms to Articles 19 and
34 of the Municipal Law (Law 40), which obliges political
parties to nominate women and men in the same proportion
as candidates for the roles of mayor, vice mayor and
council people in the next municipal elections, was carried
out without any previous consultation. The reforms also
establish new tasks to vice mayors, which is seen as an
underhanded change to the Political Constitution by the
government of President Ortega to maintain its hegemony
in power.
82
With this reform to the Law in Article 34 inc.
9, power is awarded to the Citizen Power Cabinets (GPC
in Spanish) to approve and reject budgets that come from
the mayors of Nicaragua. This violates the representative
democracy contemplated in the Constitution.
Weakened Electoral Processes 3.
From the political point of view, the time period from 2011
to 2012 was one of great electoral intensity in the Central
American region. Elections have happened, or will happen, in
Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, and in the following
year, Honduras.
These processes have happened within a framework where
the responsible institutions have lost much credibility with
the population, which is expressed in the levels of electoral
abstention. To that is added the weakness of the parties, and
their limited establishment in Central American societies,
which favors personalistic schemes and unipersonalistic
representations, contributing to a return to authoritarian
governments and blocking the true exercise of citizenship in
decision-making.
In the 2012 elections in El Salvador, residential voting
was offered as an option in some municipalities of the
metropolitan area. Nevertheless, the level of abstention did
not diminish: from an electoral registry of 4,564,969 voters,
only 2,369,450 went to the ballot boxes. That is, 48% of the
81 La Repblica. (08/15/2012). La prxima oposicin poltica. Retrieved on August 20, 2012, from http://www.larepublica.net/app/cms/www/index.php?pk_
articulo=5330181
82 El Nuevo Diario. (03/09/2012). Reforma 50-50 aprobada por 90 diputados. Retrieved on August 20, 2012, from http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/politica/244337-reforma-
50-50-aprobada-90-diputados
constituent population voted.
83
The aforementioned statistic
makes one think that political parties have an important
volume of votes, but also have been discredited to a large
extent. One aspect that affects the loss of citizen confdence
and credibility that political parties have experienced is the
prevalence of negotiations that are not very transparent
between the parties, in order to achieve objectives that are
not in the interest of the population.
The frst leftist government, as the presidential mandate 2009-
2014 is known, was possible through an alliance between
progressive sectors and the FMLN. Before 2009, an alliance
or coalition between the FMLN and a political party from the
political right, like GANA, was unthinkable. Nevertheless, the
tendency in the 2014 presidential elections indicates this.
Nevertheless, this alliance or coalition would represent costs
for the FMLN. First, they would have to have ceded to GANA
leadership positions in the Legislative Assembly, negotiated
the nomination of some magistrates to the SCJ in the August
2012 election and the Attorney General of the Republic, whose
nomination was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional
Chamber in 2012. Despite this, the FMLN refused to fulfll this
sentence in the Chamber. Secondly, and not less importantly,
is the loss of trust that the population has in the FMLN and
its political project could translate into an electoral defeat in
2014. This would mean the loss of the only opportunity to carry
on with a project that is alternative to that which has been
pushed in the past twenty years by the ARENA government,
along with all of the projects by the political right that have
existed in the history of El Salvador.
Slanderous and early electoral campaigns are the common
denominator in electoral processes in Central America. In
the case of El Salvador, the Constitution establishes periods
to develop electoral propaganda that are relatively short:
four months prior to presidential elections, two months prior
to congressional, and one month prior to municipal council
elections. Despite this, there is a constant campaigning
that goes on, with the excuse that any activity that doesnt
explicitly call for a vote cannot be considered campaigning.
The magistrates of the TSE allege an inability to do anything
to regulate this situation, because they do not have the
necessary legal tools.
84
This converts the TSE in an organism
with little controlling power, not only with political parties,
but also with the processes that decide the make-up of the
Departmental Electoral Commissions (JED in Spanish) and
the Municipal Electoral Commissions (JEM). Small political
parties were not able to obtain representatives within these
bodies, and they are the electoral entities responsible for
organizing and developing the elections on the operational
level.
Despite high levels of abstention already alluded to in this
report, the Salvadoran electoral system has advanced very
little in the adoption of a system of residential vote. Also,
little has advanced in the development of mechanisms to
make the foreign vote possible, even when it is known that
more than two million Salvadorans reside outside of the
country, principally in the US.
The TSE has repeatedly pointed out that in the March 2012
elections, the education process for the population did not
begin with prudent anticipation, given that these elections
83 La Pgina, (03/20/2012). Abstencionismo gran protagonista de los comicios 2012. Retrieved on August 20, 2012, from http://www.lapagina.com.sv/
84 La Prensa Grfca. (August 28, 2012). TSE admite que hay campaa adelantada. Retrieved September 25, 2012, from http://www.laprensagrafca.com/el-salvador/
politica/279870-tse-admite-que-hay-campana-adelantada.html
After the presidential elections of 2009, ARENA went
through a split that happened as a result of the creation
of a new party, called GANA. This party participated in
elections for the frst time in March of 2012, for mayors and
congresspeople, obtaining more than one dozen seats in
parliament. This allowed it to join the Legislative Assembly,
and to form a simple majority with other small parties and
the FMLN (43 votes). This union has named itself The
Block. This has allowed them to make certain controversial
decisions, such as that of not accepting some resolutions
from the Constitutional Court. (See chapter two: The
Obstacles to Access to Justice: Judicial Independence)
were the frst in which the ballot displayed the faces of all
of the congressional candidates by political party, in each
department, in addition to the independent candidates and
the party fags. This meant radical changes, which in some
ways, caused diffculty for the population to be able to carry
out their rights.
The electoral observation carried out in the most recent
elections of March 2012, by different people and national
and international institutions, indicate that problems persist
that contradict the existence of a transparent electoral
process. Problems persist, like the lack of purging of the
electoral registry; people are impeded from voting because
of errors that are the fault not of these institutions, but of
the institutions responsible for the process. Also, procedures
are unclear and not very transparent in moments of scrutiny,
among other problems.
In Nicaragua, the democratic process suffered a rupture in
relevance because of the reelection of President Ortega. He
began his candidacy at a time that the Constitution impeded
him to do so, according to Article 147. The national elections
of 2011, and the municipal elections of 2012, also were not
conducted in a transparent manner, and diverse anomalies
were registered. An example was inhibiting candidates from
the opposition from participating as a form of retaliation for
their criticisms, and inscription of citizens who had died or
were residing abroad as council member candidates.
The report of the electoral observation from the European
Union suggested that the elections on November sixth of
2011 have meant a deterioration in the democratic quality of
the Nicaraguan electoral processes, due to little transparency
and neutrality with which they have been administered by
the CSE. The report emphasized the necessity of making
reforms to the electoral system, including the law of political
parties and the electoral registryrecommendations that
had been made in 2001 and 2006, and never applied. The
report presents a wide and detailed list of irregularities in the
electoral process, endorsed by the Supreme Electoral Council.
Among these is the refusal to accredit national election
observation organizations that have been critical of the work
of the CSE; the traps and deterioration of the accreditation
of prosecutors for the Liberal Independent Alliance Party
(UNE) Party; the late and scarce publishing of the electoral
procedure manual; the useless quality of the copies of
records that should have clearly made known the results from
voting centers; the fact that the prosecutors were removed
from the calculation centers; and the CSEs failure to publish
the fnal results committee by committee. These all affected
the right of the other parties and the citizenry in general to
participate in the election.
The report makes reference to the partisan way in which the
CSE handed in the voting documents. They especially favored
those supporters of the FSLN. The European Mission noted
that the CSE had given repeated proof of a lack of neutrality
and highlighted that the electoral tribunal, which should be
independent, is in reality a partisan body. Therefore, a loss
of neutrality has come from the progressive abandonment of
pluralist positions of the magistrates. In November 2012, the
municipal elections were carried out with the same electoral
magistrates, in which even dead individuals were counted as
candidates. This entailed a high percentage of abstention
and lamentable acts of violence.
Of the 153 municipalities of the country, at least forty
expressed their discomfort due to the imposition of
candidates without taking into account the population, who
have carried out marches, protests, takeovers of highways,
and even have been violently evicted by the police.
Sandinista supporters expressed uncertainty because of
not knowing who the candidates would be in the municipal
elections of November 4, 2012. They also said they did not
know who they would be choosing, since the electoral ballots
did not show printed photographs. Another of the new CSE
methods was to omit the list of councilmen and women
from the ballot, since they claim that due to the increase
in the number of councilors, the list would be too long.
The measure was adopted so that citizens could exercise
their vote in the fastest possible way. Nevertheless, that
has generated more distrust in the population. Situations
like these are detonators of conficts in which unfortunate
happenings, such as those in El Carrizo and Cooperna in the
past elections, when the right to life was violated.
CHAPTER IV
THE NEOLIBERAL MODEL AND INEQUALITY IN CENTRAL AMERICA
For the Central American region, the decade of the 1980s
was a period of civil wars, and additionally, of structural
reforms with which the neoliberal model was installed in
Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Later, in
the decade of 1990, the entire region adhered to the ideas
and policies that make up structural adjustment programs.
To the present day, neoliberal policies in Central
America have consolidated in a dynamic that is based
in inequality, exclusion, and low human development,
which is an attack on human rights.
Poverty, Human Development and Social Inequality 1.
The reality is the region is far from having a human
development
85
that permits an adequate standard of
living for its inhabitants, and everything indicates that
this situation will not change in the immediate future.
The average of the Human Development Index (HDI) in
the region is 0.662. If Central America as a region were
incorporated into the list of 187 countries that the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP)
86
, evaluates, it
would be located in position 109, with a medium HDI.
This statistic seems encouraging; however, it is only 16
positions away from the global average.
Currently, there are considerable differences between the
countries in the region. In this case, the human development
differences between Panama and Nicaragua with respect to
the position they hold on the list is 71 positions.
The following chart shows the HDI value, classification
and position of each Central American country in the list
of the 187 countries that the UNDP evaluates.
The means of production and the economic models that
have existed until the present day have been unable to
eradicate multidimensional inequality that exists among
the population. Neoliberalism, far from diminishing
the referenced inequality, has generated conditions to
catalyze and deepen it.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT NDEX (HDI) IN CENTRAL AMERICA
87
N Country HDI (Classifcation) HDI (Value)
1 Panama
High human development
Position 58
0,768
2 Costa Rica
High human development
Position 69
0,744
3 El Salvador
Medium human development
Position 105
0,674
4 Honduras
Position 121
0,625
5 Nicaragua
Position 129
0,589
Source: Proprietary production, with statistics from the UNDP.
85 Human development is understood as the expansion of peoples freedoms to carry out a long, healthy and creative life, to achieve the goals they consider to be important;
and to participate actively in giving form to development in an equitable and sustainable way in a shared planet Guatemala: un pas de oportunidades para la Juventud?,
Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano 2011/2012, Page. 5.
86 UNDP. Human Development Report. Year 2011. Page. 153-155. Retrieved on August 23, 2012, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_ES_Complete.pdf
87 Ibd.
The Human Development Index adjusted for inequality
(HDI-I) helps to quantify the differences between the
different segments of society, with respect to the HDI.
88
Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador, despite having the
highest HDIs in the region, are also the countries that
register the highest inequality between their inhabitants.
The following table shows the values of the HDI-I in each
country.
Similarly, the table shows the change in position that each
country would have in the list of the 187 if the UNDP took
into account as a parameter the HDI-I. The countries that
would diminish their positions would be: Panama, Costa
Rica, El Salvador and Honduras, while Guatemala and
Nicaragua would show a slight improvement on the list.
Central America does not only show a low human
development and high inequity, but furthermore, the
concentration of wealth in few hands deepens with the
economic policies implemented in the region, which have
accentuated the conditions of poverty of the great majority.
The highest percentage of population in a situation of
poverty is registered in Honduras, with a 68.9%, followed
by Nicaragua, 61.9%, Guatemala 54.8%, and El Salvador
47.9%. Costa Rica and Panama fgure very low in the Central
American medium, with 18.9% and 25.8%, respectively.
90
The general poverty statistics, HDI and HDI-I, have been noted.
They show certain particularities in each country of the region.
Honduras has a population of 8.2 million people, of
which 5.5 million live in poverty. (1.7 million in relative
poverty and 3.8 million in extreme poverty.)
91
Economic
growth, according to the Economic Commission for Latin
American (CEPAL in Spanish) was barely 3.2%.
92
According to statistics published by the World Food
Programme (WFP), poverty affects more than 70% of the
Honduran population: about 300 thousand children (24.7%
of the population from 0-5 years) suffer from hunger and
severe malnutrition. The offcial estimation indicates
that each year, Honduras loses 14,000,000 lempiras (US$
710,659) because of the problem of hunger. This is
because young people enter the age of economic activity
and cannot fnd work due to the corruption that has created
malnutrition in their productivity and training
93
. The access
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX ADJUSTED FOR INEQUALITY
89

IN CENTRAL AMERICA.
Country HDI adjusted for
inequality (value)
Change in
Classification
Panama 0,579 198 -15
Costa Rica 0,591 153 -7
El Salvador 0,495 170 -11
Honduras 0,427 -3
Nicaragua 0,427 3
Guatemala 0,393 1
Source: Proprietary production, with statistics from the UNDP.
88 The HDI-I will be identical to the HDI if there is no inequality among people, but the higher the inequality is, the less will be the value of the HDI-I. Therefore, there will
also be a higher difference between it and the original HDI. In this sense, the HDI_I is the real level of human development (taking inequalities into account), while the HDI
can be considered the index of potential human development that could be achieved if there were no inequality. Ibid. Page 187.
89 Ibd. pg. 153-155.
90 Regional Program for Food Security for Central America and others. Centroamrica en Cifras. Datos de Seguridad Alimentaria Nutricional y Agricultura Familiar, December
2011. Page. 4. Retrieved on September 20, 2012, from http://www.pesacentroamerica.org/biblioteca/ca_en_cifras.pdf
91 Department 19,The fve-star voice of Hondurans. (December 31, 2011) Honduras empieza el 2012 con 8.2 millones de habitantes. Retrieved on August 25, 2012, from
http://www.departamento19.hn/index.php/nuestragente/reportajes/3087-honduras-empieza-el-2012-con-82-millones-de-habitantes.html National Statistics Institute
(NSI), 2012,
92 Centinela Econmico, (12/21/2011), Honduras creci un 3.2% en 2011, solo arriba de El Salvador con 1.4%. Retrieved on August 25, 2012, from http://www.centine-
laeconomico.com/2011/12/21/honduras-con-un-3-2-sera-la-quinta-economia-de-la-region-en-orden-de-crecimiento-economico/
93 Tiempo. (05/23/2012) PMA: 300 mil nios sufren hambre y desnutricin en Honduras. Retrieved on August 25, 2012, from http://www.tiempo.hn/index.php/honduras/11338-
pma-300-mil-ninos-sufren-hambre-y-desnutricion-en-honduras
to land is a fundamental human right but in Honduras, nearly
300 thousand farm worker families do not have that right,
according to the Offce of Legal Matters of the INA.
94
Nicaragua continues to be positioned among the poorest
countries in the region. Despite the fact that its economy
has shown some improvement, extreme poverty stayed
the same: it went from 14.9 to 14.6% between 2005 and
2009. The Rural Caribbean coast of the country has a 16%
of its population in poverty, and barely receives 11.1%
of the benefits of social programs from the government.
Statistics from the Central Bank of Nicaragua show
a growth in the macroeconomy and a general poverty
reduction of 3%. Despite this, the small acquisitive
capacity of the population and unemployment continue
to be the principal problems that Nicaraguans complain
about.
In El Salvador, living conditions for thousands of families
are qualified as precarious. According to the most recent
official statistics that the 2010 Multi-purpose Survey of
Homes,
95
of a total of 1,580,199 homes, 576,511 exist in
conditions of poverty. Of these, 176,493 were in extreme
poverty, and 400,018 in relative poverty.
96

In Guatemala, the historical inequality breech continues
to be obvious, along with a lack of investment in
education, healthcare, dignified housing, the labor
market, technology, and an overall lack of transparency
in the execution of funds for State programs and
institutions, which have been undermined for decades
in the road to development in the country. Despite the
difficult situation in which the country finds itself,
the HDI indicators reflect a slight advancement: in the
year 2012, the HDI was 0.573973
97
and in 2011, it was
0.574. Actions aimed at solving the mentioned problems
are fundamental in order to successfully take advantage
of resources and labor in a country with more than
14,000,000 inhabitants, of which, 60% are youth.
Given this reality, the governments in the region have
adopted policies that are not very effective, and which
do not counteract the alarmingly high levels of poverty,
inequality and low human development. One example of
this is that in May of 2012, the government of Nicaragua
presented an action plan in the framework of the 2012-
2016 National Human Development Plan, focused on
increasing national agricultural production. Nevertheless,
the government has not followed through on agreements
made in favor of producers, which has caused a series of
civic protests and take-overs of highways where acts of
violence and aggression have occurred by forces of public
order against the protesters, such as those registered in
August of 2012 in Condega.
A lack of confidence persists in the Nicaraguan productive
sector, since the State programs to carry out the Production
Plan seem influenced by the government party. It has
imposed the Citizen Power Councils as a form of control
on all levels: municipal, departmental and national. It
does not recognize other ways and/or organizational
expressions of community. Added to this dynamic are land
possession problems: land ownership continues in a state
of illegality and inequality of distribution, and benefits
mostly those who have economic and political power.
There is a noteworthy pattern of violent encroachment
upon indigenous territories, which are seen as tools for
business and as a means to produce wealth at the cost of
the exploitation of forests and mines. The consequence
of such attitudes is the deterioration of the environment
and the health of the populationa complicated and
expensive problem, especially given the insufficient
State budget destined to indigenous and Afro-descendant
territories.
94 http://www.sjdh.gob.hn/sites/default/fles/Nota%20Prensa%20%20Conversatorio%20Sector%20Campesino.pdf
95 The statistics cited from 2010 are the most recent available upon the writing of the report.
96 Ministry of the Economy. 2012 Multi-Purpose Survey of Homes, p. 102
97 UNDP. Human Development Report. Year 2010
The government of President Ortega has tried to avoid
granting land titles for urban and rural properties. At the
same time, new ways of violating the right to property
have cropped up, normally tied to corruption and abuse
of corrupcin y abuso power on behalf of the government
institutions. This is a situation which has caused conflicts
with serious consequences, such as land grabs, protests,
criminalization with prolonged trials, and the regression
of agrarian reforms.
98
In El Salvadors case, the government has taken certain
actions to reduce poverty, like handing out temporary
vouchers worth US$40.00 to families with limited
economic resources, US$50.00 to the elderly, and within
Program PATI, some for US$100 for a six month period.
These benefits target residents of the 32 municipalities
deemed to be in extreme poverty. The programs are
an enhanced continuation of the social plan called
Solidarity Network, which was developed by the
previous government and failed to resolve the structural
problems that concern the most vulnerable families.
Considering that the countrys condition of poverty
doesnt change, it seems that more than temporary
vouchers are necessary. Instead, access to free, quality,
basic services must be a reality. But, there is yet to be
any sign of such measures to resolve the situation.
Far from modifying the countrys economic structure to
improve citizens quality of life, the current Salvadoran
administration has continued to apply neoliberal policies.
Despite the fact that this hasnt contributed to improving
the populations quality of life, the government continues
on the same path as its predecessors. In November 2011,
they signed a trade agreement with the United States,
called Partnership for Growth. The bi-lateral agreements
purpose is to eliminate the barriers and identify
opportunities for wide-spread growth in El Salvador. One
of the most important identifed barriers to Salvadoran
growth was low productivity of tradables,
99
which will
be addressed by promoting the relationship between the
Salvadoran government and the private sector until 2016.
Based on Partnership for Growths policies, El Salvador has
committed to promoting Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
In January 2012, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes
presented a bill to the Legislative Assembly to this end.
100

The bill pursues the obligatory use of PPPs at various
levels of government,
101
with the objective to provide
more effcient channels for foreign direct investment.
President Funes seems to hold unfounded faith in private
investment. Since the beginning of his administration, and
during the recent April 2012 VI Summit of the Americas in
Cartagena, Colombia, Funes stated, In countries where the
national and international private sector places strategic
importance on production investment, with a medium to
long-term vision, sooner or later, a virtuous cycle will
begin of high sustainable growth, increase employment,
and consequently increase wages for families.
In his first few months in office, President Funes created
the Economic and Social Council (CES in Spanish) to
discuss public policy. The CES strategically drafted the
bill to minimize as much as possible any insinuation of
privatization policies.
Economist Csar Villalona believes that that increased
unemployment is a real risk of the PPP bill. He argues that
employment growth would be within very specifc sectors,
and would depend in large part upon what kind of investment
is generated. For this reason he considers that PPPs would
have a hard time in reducing poverty levels in the country.
98 CENIDH. Derechos Humanos en Nicaragua: Informe 2011 Managua, Nicaragua, May 2012.
99 The other barrier is security and crime.
100 Proyecto de Ley de Asocios Pblico Privados, Retrieved September 27th, 2012, from http://sitansp.fles.wordpress.com/2011/08/proyecto-ley-app.pdf
101 The bill orders Executive branch ministries and their subsidiaries, municipalities and independent institutions, such as the River Lempas Hydroelectric Executive Commission,
to use PPPs .
Enforceability and Justice for Economic, Social, 2.
Cultural, and Environmental Rights.
For a natural human right to be considered a legal right,
those who hold the rights must use their power to demand
that the State comply with its defined obligations. This
power to claim rights is what Latin American literature
has defined as the Enforceability of Human Rights. The
enforceability of a right is an essential element in itself,
in so far as if a right is not enforceable, it cannot be
considered a right in the full sense of the word, but
rather a simple request or desire.
102
In Central America the neoliberal policies pushed by the
regions governments are affecting Economic, Social,
Cultural, and Environmental Rights (DESCA, for its
Spanish name). Minimal regulation, the nearly non-
existent public investment to allow them to be effective,
and the commercialization of many of these rights has
led to their deterioration. Additionally, there is a culture
of non-enforcement among the subjects of such rights.
The Right to Adequate Food, 2.1.
103
Security and
Food Sovereignty
In Central America, the right to adequate food is currently
very vulnerable. 14.2% of the population is considered
under-nourished. Quantifying the state of this right
by country reveals impressive differences; for example,
Costa Rica is the country with the fewest cases of under-
nourished people, with less than 5% of its population
suffering from this situation. The country with the
greatest percentage of under-nourished population is
Guatemala (22%), followed by Nicaragua (19%). While
Panama holds the highest GDP per capita, it ranks third in
percentage of under-nourished people (15%). Honduras
and El Salvador have 12% and 9%, respectively.
104
The Basic Food Basket varies among the Central American
countries. Costa Rica includes 52 products in its urban
food basket and 44 in the rural version, while in El
Salvador only 22 products are included in the urban food
basket and 15 in the rural; followed closely by Nicaragua
with 23 and Guatemala with 26.
Unlike the rest of the countries, Costa Rica and El Salvador
make a distinction between the Basic Food Basket in
urban areas and rural areas.
In this area, a chronic issue is the excessive dependence
on imports and the fundamental influence that rising
prices of food have on inflation levels in Central
102 FIAN Internacional. Cmo promover la justiciabilidad del derecho humano a la alimentacin en Centroamrica. Retrieved July 20th 2012, from http://www.oda-alc.org/
documentos/1307644659.pdf
103 The right to food is an inclusive right. It is not the right to a minimal ration of calories, proteins, and other nutritional elements. It is the right to all of the nutritive
elements that a person needs to live a healthy and active life. WFO. El Derecho a una Alimentacin Adecuada. Informative pamphlet N 34. Pg. Retrieved September 23rd
2012, from http://www.fao.org/righttofood/publi10/FactSheet34sp.pdf
104 Op. cit. Central American Regional Food Security Program and others. Pg. 11 y 12.
COUNTRY BASIC FOOD BASKET
Costa Rica
Urban 52
Rural 44
El Salvador
Urban 22
Rural 15
Guatemala 26
Honduras 30
Nicaragua 23
Panama 50
Fuente: cuadro propio, datos PRESANCA II.
American economies, as with their impact on power of
acquisition and the access that poor populations have to
food. Despite the fact that inflation rates, in general and
for food, tended to stabilize in the first half of 2011 in
Latin America, they continued to rise in the majority of
the Central American countries.
105
According to the Urban Poverty and Social Exclusion Map
in El Salvador, the methodology to measure poverty as
a multidimensional phenomena includes access to food,
which implicates that families in extreme poverty and in
relative poverty do not have access to adequate food.
This is because they do not have the economic capability
to acquire the Basic Food Basket, which in May 2012 cost
US$174.55 (urban) and US$134.50 (rural).
106
A milestone in this subject was the April 2012 passage
of constitutional reforms including the right to food and
water. To formally sanction these reforms, they must be
ratified by the legislature that came into power on May
1st 2012; nevertheless, as of November the same year
they had yet to be ratified.
Nicaragua has one of the highest poverty ratings in
Central America. Working class families suffer the largest
discrepancies between minimum wages and Basic Food
Basket costs. Between January and July of 2012, its
value rose 2%, to a US$438.00 value. The price of the
baskets 23 items rose 2.9%, of which the minimum
wage only covers 25%. The average minimum wage from
non-agricultural work only covers 53% of the Basic Food
Basket value.
The reality of poverty in Guatemala is extremely difficult.
For 2011 total poverty grew 2.71% since 2006. However,
although general poverty increased, extreme poverty
decreased by 1.87%.
107
Factors that aggravate poverty
rates in the population are tied to education levels, which
can create barriers to better employment opportunities.
The Right to Work with Dignity 2.2.
The right to work with dignity should be considered
through two lenses: 1) from the perspective of available
access to it; and 2) from the combined conditions for
favorably carrying out the right to work with dignity.
Work plays a relative role in economic activity that
guarantees the monetary resources to satisfy basic needs,
but at the same time, it serves as an insertion mechanism
for social positioning and personal realization.
108

Ideal work is a distant reality in Central America
considering that labor conditions for many employees are
difficult, with salaries below the Basic Food Baskets value,
and the existence of noticeable age discrimination. This
is in addition to a growing labor pool with increasingly
scarce options.
At the same time, the relationship between access to
decent work with a just salary and the right to food
cannot be dismissed. Decent work is scarce and just
salaries are imperceptible, which complicates acquisition
power for food. The following chart shows the average
minimum wage in each country.
105 ECLAC and others. Responses by Latin American Countrys to price spikes and voliability of food prices and options for collaboration (Respuestas de los pases de Amrica
Latina y el Caribe al alza y volatilidad de precios de los alimentos y opciones de colaboracin). Newsletter Number 1. Year 2012. Pg. 16. Retrieved September 23rd 2012, From
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/6/46236/Boletin_2012.pdf.
106 Ministry of Economy, Statistics and Census Department (DIGESTYC for its name in Spanish) 2012. Retrieved September 4th, 2012. http://www.digestyc.gob.sv/index.php/
servicios/en-linea/canasta-basica-alimentaria.html
107 National Statistics Institute, Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de vida ENCOVI 2011. Retrieved August 5th 2012, from http://www.ine.gob.gt/np/encovi/documen-tos/
ENCOVI_Resumen_2011.pdf
108 Guatemala: A country of opportunities for youth?, National Report on Human Development 2011/2012
The right to work with dignity is in a vulnerable
state in the Central American region, although it has
different characteristics in each country. The qualitative
and quantitative analysis in the following section
demonstrates this situation.
Guatemalas 2011 labor panorama showed an increase in
minimum wage for both agricultural and non-agricultural
work. Daily wages increased from Q 56 (US$7.17) to Q
63.7 (US$8.16), which represents an annual increase of
7.1%. The maquila sectors daily wage increased from
Q 51.8 (6.64) to Q 59.5 (US$ 7.62), (8.2% real). On
one hand, average salaries for all economic activity
increased by 1.6% on average in real terms. On the other
hand, this small wage increase that still fails to cover
the populations basic needs. The Guatemalan National
Statistics Institute (INE in Spanish) reported an increase
in open unemployment from 3.5% in 2010 to 4.1% in
2011, related in large part to the loss of jobs in the
maquila sector.
115
In Guatemala, 69.7% of the population is younger than
30, and 67% of those work in the informal economy. This
is an economically active population of over 5,000,000
people working in the informal economy, principally due
to the lack of adequate work opportunities.
116
Nicaraguas population is 5,962,000 people with an average
income of 1,297 dollars, and its GDP barely contributes
4.5% to the total production on the Central American
isthmus. According to official statistics, from February
2007 to February 2012 there was a 38% increase in the
number of people contributing towards social security.
It reached 9.4% between February 2011 and February
2012, which equals 53 thousand new workers during the
last period. However, this increase is insufficient, since
each year 100,000 new people enter the economically
active population (PEA in Spanish). The government
reports the existence of 2,000,000 workers, but 70% of
them are in the informal sector, which is to say that 1.4
million people do not have access to social securityonly
616,574 contribute to social security.
117
Therefore, one
can see that the Social Security coverage in Nicaragua is
deficient, barely reaching 19% of the PEA.
The above confirms the high social vulnerability that
exists. This is a country with a growing labor pool,
109 The quantity indicates in the chart the average monthly of the 102 kinds of minimum salary detailed in the Executive Decree N 240. Offcial Paper: 26,940-C, from December
28th 2011. The calculation of the minimum salary was made based on the assumption of an 8 hour work day. It is clear that there are other minimum salaries that were not
averaged.
110 The calculation of the consigned salary is the average of nine types of minimum salary, approved through Decree N 36867- MTSS, published in the Paper N 236 from December
8th, 2011. (value of Colon against the Dollar 499.600)
111 The fgure is the average of ten minimum wages consigned via the Ministerial Agreement JCHG-04-08-12 approved by the National Minimum Wage Commission. (crdoba value
against the dollar 23.84)
112 The calculation of the consigned salary in the chart is the average of forty six salaries that were consigned according to the Presidential agreement NSTSS-001-2012. (lempira
value against the dollar 19.70)
113 The fgure is the average of three kinds of salary that refect the governmental agreement N 520-2011 published in the Diario de Centroamrica December 30th 2011.
114 p. cit. FESPAD, A tres aos de una difcil herencia pg. 72.
115 ECLAC, Macro Economic Report, June 2012. Retrieved September 12th 2012, from http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/7/46987/Guatemala-completo-web.pdf
116 INE. http://www.ine.gob.gt/np/
117 Data from the Nicaraguan Central Bank -BCN-. March 2012
MINIMUM WAGE IN CENTRAL AMERICA
COUNTRY LOCAL CURRENCY USD
Panama
109
$ 461,74 461,74
Costa Rica
110
C 334.953, 65 670.04
Nicaragua
111
C$ 3448.51 144.65
Honduras
112
L 6,427.34 323.30
Guatemala
113
Q 2268.08 290.77
El Salvador
114
$ 184.08 184.08
Source: Created by regional team
where the majority is placed in precarious jobs in the
informal sector. The better remunerated jobs require
more qualifications. Only 20% of children and adolescents
come from homes with higher incomes, where their
parents also had access to high school education and
beyond.
The economically active population in Honduras
represents 42.1% (3,452,200 people) of the national
total. According to INEs data from June 2012, there
were 2 million unemployed people in the country. Each
year about 100,00 Hondurans abandon their country
in search of the so-called American Dream. 71% of
them are young people between 18 and 32 years old.
These are forced migrations and not the product of
voluntary decisions, but rather the product of precarious
opportunities for development and subsistence that the
country offers.
118
The lack of employment more harshly
impacts the younger population. According to the INE,
at least 863,000 young people between 12 and 30 have
employment problems, and of those, 480,000 fall into
the invisible under-employed category and 100,000 are
completely unemployed.
119
That last minimum wage increase in El Salvador was
announced a few days before May 1st, 2011, when the
private sector in coordination with the Ministry of Labor
and worker representatives agreed to raise the minimum
wage by 8%,
120
starting that month.
Labor unions and guilds criticized that despite the raise,
the minimum wage doesnt satisfy the most basic needs
of workers. This is especially true for women, who are
traditionally paid lower wages in the maquila and service
sectors. The Constitution orders that salaries be reviewed
and adjusted every three years based on the economic
situation of the time; however, the referenced raise does
not correspond to the Basic Food Basic, much less the
cost of living.
El Salvador measures employment generation in a
determined period based on the number of people
registered in the Salvadoran Social Security Institute
(ISSS in Spanish), as accounted for each month. At the
beginning of April 2012, the Salvadoran government
announced that in the past two years 20 thousand direct
jobs were created at a national level, which represents
31.8% of the new positions during this period (62,796).
According to the government, the ISSS data reflects that
the social programs sponsored by the government have
been the primary factor in generating new employment.
Moreover, the Ministry of Labor placed 10,053 people in
private sector jobs in 2011.
121
Nevertheless, despite the governments explanations of
the benefits produced by the increase in employment
and their consequences, business guilds criticize it. They
opine that the governments institutional growth creates
more bureaucracy and increases operating costs, which
limits the ability of the State to invest in other social
areas.
In Costa Ricas case, workers have registered clear
violations of individual and collective rights, according
to the National Bank Workers Union (SEBANA in Spanish).
The constant salary cut
122
have been the principle labor
118 La Tribuna. (12/19/2010). Cada ao emigran unos 100 mil hondureos. Retrieved July 20th, 2012, from http://old.latribuna.hn/2010/12/19/cada-ano-emigran-unos-100-
mil-hondurenos/ Estudio del FONAMIH, 2010.
119 La Prensa. (May 24th 2012) El desempleo agobia a unos 863 mil jvenes. Retrieved August 15 2012, from http://www.laprensa.hn/Secciones-Principales/Economia/Econo-
mia/El-desempleo-agobia-a-unos-863-mil-jovenes#.UDDjV6kf630
120 The increase of minimum wage was: in the commercial and service sectors for $16.6, equaling $224.30; in the Industrial sector for $16.30, equaling $219.40;in the textile
sector for $13.90, equaling $187.68; in the agro industrial sector for $7.77, equaling $104.97.
121 Op cit. FESPAD, A tres aos de una difcil herencia pg. 69-70.
122 Severance for fring
rights violation. In the case of the National Insurance
Institutes Collective Convention, the Constitutional
chambers decision (8891-2012), which modified the way
employers must pay severance when an employee is fired
and their contract terminated, allowing in some cases the
severance to be reduced to half of what is laid out in the
Collective Conference. For their part, the National Bank
workers have faced a similar situation, via the 2011-6351
decision, where the Constitutional Chamber reduced the
maximum severance pay for 25 to 20 salaries.
Along these same lines, the Costa Rican government clearly
violated union autonomy in two cases in 2012. The first
was the case of the naming of the representative of the
Board of Directors for the Costa Rican Social Security Bank
(CCSS in Spanish)
123
During their Extraordinary General
Assembly, the union representatives overwhelmingly voted
for a single candidate to present before the Executive
power of the CCSS.
123
This autonomous decision of the
organized workers movement has not been respected by
Laura Chinchillas government (2010-2014), which still
maintains an interim member on the CCSS Board, who
was named by the government.
The second case referenced by the SEBANA is the
violation of the labor organizations autonomous
decision to nominate a labor representative for the 101
International Labor Conference of the International
Labour Organization (ILO). Again, the union leadership
met at the Extraordinary General Assembly to select a
candidate, but their choice was ignored. The government
instead nominated a different person.
In terms of the right to strike, the Costa Rican
Constitutional Chamber also limited the practice of this
right, especially in the health sector where they have
expressly prohibited strikes through decisions 2011-
017211 and 2011-017212, both from December 14th
2011. This has left the workers of this sector without an
important mechanism to defend their labor rights. It is
also necessary to mention the governments ignorance,
at the beginning of 2012, of the negotiation process to
determine the public sectors pay raise. The government
broke the negotiations with union leaders and imposed
by decree the raise they deemed fit, without taking into
account the unions proposals.
Unemployment, under-employment, and the work carried
out in the informal sector are the common denominator in
the region. At the same time it is clear that there are clear
violations to the right to work with dignity in Central America,
beginning with scarce access to formal employment, the non-
existent correlation between salary and the cost of living,
and even the violation of organized workers autonomy.
The Right to Health Care Access 2.3.
There have been regulatory advances that in theory
guarantee the right to health care access; however, the
States have not budgeted sufficient funds to effectively
implement the regulations to protect this right.
In an attempt to address 376 deaths in 2011, Guatemala
passed the Maternity Health Law via decree 32-2010. The
objective is to combat maternal mortality, especially among
adolescents. The regulations have yet to be implemented,
however. According to the Reproductive Health Observatory,
births among adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14
have risen to 3,046. In 2011, records show 66,245 people
with HIV (adults and children), for a total of 10,515 new
infections. The calculation for women who need preventative
treatment, the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission
of HIV (PMTCT), in 2012 is 1,480.
124
123 The Costa Rican Social Security Bank is the public institution in charge of social security for the country, through the administration of two large universal and mandatory
securities: health and pensions.
124 National Epidemiology Center. HIV Estimates and Projections for Guatemala 2011. Pg. 3. Retrieved August 7th, 2012, from http://epidemiologia.mspas.gob.gt/semanas/2011/
SEMEPI_41_2011.pdf
El Salvador has also made progress with new regulations.
In September 2011, the Medicine Law was approved,
hence creating the Medicine Management Office. This
entity assumes all responsibility to monitor everything
concerning medicine quality, the lists of mandatory
medicine in the public health care facilities, the registry,
import authorization, sales, production and monitoring
of those who are authorized to prescribe medicine. This
contributes to breaking down the monopoly held by this
industry. Despite these efforts, they have been unable
to overcome some historic problems: persistent medicine
shortages and deficient care in the countrys hospital
system.
The Tobacco Control Law was also passed, which declares
all public and private indoor areas smoke-free, protecting
societys right to public health. However, the regulations
have yet to be approved.
Despite progress in the regulatory area, the public hospital
system continues to have deficiencies, which has created
a propitious environment for the commercialization of
health services.
The governments disinterest in improving health
services is reflected in the resources assigned to attend
the populations needs. The countries of the Northern
Triangle hold the lowest percentage of investment of
their GDP, as shown in the following chart:
In Nicaragua, while it is true that the government
maintains free public health care, it has a long way to go in
terms of improving hospital and clinic infrastructure and
guaranteeing access to medicine. In 2011, the assigned
budget for the Ministry of Health was C$5,875,000
(US$ 246,434),
126
Of this only 23.17% was designated
for materials and supplies. The health campaigns have
brought doctor visits to remote areas, but this effort
is not extensive or sustainable enough, because it only
responds to political contexts like electoral campaigns or
natural disasters and emergencies.
In Honduras the right to health care is most visibly
affected for certain sectors of society. For example, the
maternal mortality rate is 110 deaths per 100,000 living
births and the infant mortality rate is 25 deaths per 1,000
living births, while the mortality rate for children under
5 years old is close to 30 per 1,000. The HIV prevalence
in adults is close to 0.7.
127
125 World Bank, Health Care Costs, Total (%GDP) (Gasto en Salud, Total (%PIB)). Retrieved August 30th, 2012 el 30, from http://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS
126 Ministry for Citizens Health Empowerment, 2011 Health Management Report Managua, Nicaragua, May 2012.
127 Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE for its name in Spanish). Statistics Index for Honduras Retrieved September 27th, 2012, from http://www.bcie.org/
uploaded/content/article/1944368211.pdf
Health Investment in Regional Gross Domestic Product
2007-2010
Total Health Expense (% GDP)
125
Country Year 2007 Year 2008 Year 2009 Year 2010
Guatemala 7,2 7,0 6,9 6,9
El Salvador 6,3 6,2 6,8 6,9
Honduras 5,9 6,0 7,0 6,8
Nicaragua 9,1 9,3 9,6 9,1
Costa Rica 8,4 9,4 10,5 10,9
Panam 6,7 7,3 8,1 8,1
Source: Proprietary production, with World Bank Data.
In Costa Rica, access to health care is being threatened
because the State is not guaranteeing the necessary
conditions so that the CCSS can adequately comply
with its obligations. This institution has faced crisis
throughout 2011. The countrys main newspaper
reported a series of situations that demonstrate the
crisis, including: pharmaceutical shortages,
128
strikes
held by anesthesiologists and CCSS affiliates demanding
recuperative vacations
129
and the private sector and
governments delayed obligatory payments.
130

Nevertheless, the crisis of current funds in the CCSS is
more complex. On May 24th, 2012, one of the institutions
functionaries, Daniel Muoz, presented a lawsuit against
the CCSSs economic and statistics director, who he
accused of falsifying official bank documents. In these
documents, Muoz claimed the falsified documents so as
to hide the financial unviability of salary increases, annual
workers bonuses, and the increase in severance pay for
the institutions employees from 12 to 20 years.
131
The
latter was as a result of a CCSS Board decision (No. 8253
from May 29th 2008) after union negotiations with the
bank in 2008, demanding salary and labor justice.
132
This action threatens the CCSSs possibilities of providing
adequate health care to the population, since they have
put at risk the necessary budget for the task. Whats
worse is the serious fact that a state institution must
choose between protecting their employees rights over
the people who use the service.
Unlike the rest of the region, the current government
in El Salvador registered an increase in health care
investment. Official data shows that social investment
has risen, especially healthcare (30%).
133
Also the
National Integrated Health System was established. At
the same time, while problems persist, there has been
a concerted effort to supply medicine to the countrys
hospital system; as well as initiating efforts to recover
the damaged hospital infrastructure and some clinics.
The Right to Quality Education 2.4.
Central Americas illiteracy and school drop-out rates are
a serious issue in each one of the regions countries.
The challenges in the Guatemalan education system are
large. According to the MDG progress report, the literacy
rate for 15 to 24 year olds was 87%. For every 10 illiterate
persons, 6 are of indigenous origen.
134
School and matriculation coverage for children and
adolescents exceeds 95% in elementary school, but
not in other educational levels. Access is available for
pre-school (2 out of 10 people), kindergarten (4 out
of 10 people), elementary school (4 out of 10 people)
and mixed (2 out of 10 people). These rates arent the
same for all. Girls matriculate 4% less frequently, with
43% of them finishing elementary school and 5.8%
128 La Nacin (05/06/2012). CCSS dej a pacientes hasta un ao sin sus medicamentos. Retrieved September 29th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-06-05/ElPais/
CCSS-dejo-a-pacientes-hasta-un-ano-sin-sus-medicamentos.aspx y http://www.nacion.com/2012-08-13/Portada/12-000-ninos-estan-sin-vacunas-basicas-por-atraso-con-do-
sis.aspx
129 La Nacin (30/11/2011). 3.527 consultas y 152 cirugas canceladas hoy por huelga de mdicos, Retrieved September 29th 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-11-30/
Portada/3-527-consultas-y-152-cirugias-canceladas-hoy-por-huelga-de-medicos.aspx
130 La Nacin (27/07/2011). CCSS 10% de morosos concentra 75% de toda la deuda con la CCSS, Retrieved September 29th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-07-27/
ElPais/10--de-morosos-concentra--75--de-toda-la-deuda-con-la-ccss.aspx
131 El Financiero. (13/08/201). CCSS Empleado de la CCSS denuncia a exjefe por supuesto maquillaje de informes fnancieros. Retrieved September 29th, 2012, from http://www.
elfnancierocr.com/ef_archivo/2012/agosto/19/economia3283937.html y https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mT1kzfjCVXM#at=129
132 La Nacin. (09/11/2011) Cesanta de solo 5 empleados le cost a la CCSS 1.000 millones. Retrieved September 29, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-11-09/Porta-
da/Cesantia-de-solo-5-empleados-le-costo-a-la-CCSS--1-000-millones.aspx?Page=7
133 Tax Ministry. General budget for the Nation for the years 2009 and 2012.
134 Presidential Planning and Programming Secretary. Third report on advances in acheiving the millenium development goals- Objective 2 Achieve universal primary school educa-
tion. Retrieved September 17th, 2012, from http://www.segeplan.gob.gt/2.0/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=472&Itemid=472
continuing through middle school. 23% of indigenous
people dont have access to schools. Also, education
quality is deficient. Statistics reflect the issue to a
degree: Guatemalan students have the highest repeat
rate in Central America (12.5%), which doubles among
the poorest; and the rural drop-out rate is 8%.
135
Hondurass illiteracy rate registers at 15.2% for the 15
and older population. The matriculation rate for grade
school is 96.6%. For the common and mixed semester,
rates vary between 39.5% and 27.6% respectively, while
the tertiary level (high school) is closer to 17.1%. On
the other hand, the rate for repeating a grade is 5.0%
nationally for elementary school (from 1st to 6th) (2010).
Meanwhile, graduation rates for grade school are close to
90%. The limited resources assigned to education explain
in part the weak results, since it creates overcrowding
and material shortages, in addition to scarce training for
teachers. In this sense public education is concentrated
at the grade school level, while its participation is much
less prevalent in the secondary sector. On the other
hand, close to 80% of students study in public schools
at the grade school level, while the percentage shrinks
significantly at the secondary level, reaching only 20%.
Nicaragua presented slight variations in the last five
years. Between 2009 and 2012, they went from 4.1% to
3.7%, maintaining a free grade school education without
improving the quality. This is especially true for the
multi-grade model in rural areas, where one teacher has
up to four grade levels. This can even include the entire
grade school, which translates to deficient education and
a lost opportunity to overcome poverty in a short period.
The majority of youth who enter the work force do so
with minimal levels of preparation.
In Costa Rica the right to education is not guaranteed
for the entire population, due to the inequalities that
persist in terms of access to education and education
quality. These issues are readily evident in both secondary
and superior education. More and more people fail to
complete different levels of their studies, reflecting the
data presented by the Continual Employment Survey,
which shows the majority of people working are those
with partial secondary education.
136
Additionally, during the period of 2011, about 11.1%
of secondary students failed to complete their course
period. This means that 39,032 students of the 352,000
were not in the classroom. In elementary school, the
expulsion rate was 2.6%, while the pre-school rate
reached 4.1%. The causes for the latter are unknown in
secondary education, although the phenomena is linked
to poverty and the disconnect between the education
system and the needs of those who receive classes.
137
To understand the process of the education systems
deterioration, Luis Carlos Moralez Ziga, a professor at
the University of Costa Ricas teacher training school,
indicates that it is necessary to review the education
policies that have been implemented or not in the last
30 years of the neoliberal model. This model is marked by
public spending cuts in education, privatization, and the
segregation of education at every level, the deterioration
of teachers labor conditions, and the training of teachers
abandoned to the invisible hand of the market, knowing
well that there are dozens of universities that train
teachers, of which they have no rationality.
138
Poverty experienced by Salvadoran families is associated
with the educational characteristics that led to the
135 Ibd.
136 http://www.elfnancierocr.com/accesolibre/2012/julio/22/mercado_laboral_costarica.pdf
137 Alliance for Your Rights. (07 /23/ 2012) COSTA RICA: School Drop-out rate raises for frst time in six years. Retrieved September 29th 2012, from http://alian-zaportusde-
rechos.org/article/costa-rica-desercion-colegial-aumenta-por-primera-/
138 La Nacin. (17/07/2012). El problema de la formacin docente en Costa Rica. Retrieved September 15th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-06-08/Opinion/Foro/
Opinion2803899.aspx. Revisado el 17-07-2012.
quality of work held by each household member. The
educational level of heads of households in chronic
poverty is much lower than the average. In general heads
of households have studied for 4.6 years, while heads
of recently poor households or homes beginning to lack
basic needs studied for two extra years. The contrast is
greater for heads of integrated homes, where education
levels reach an average of 10 years. Again, 70% of heads
of households in chronic poverty studied for 6 years or
less, while only 30% of heads of households in non-poor
integrated homes hold that same level of study. The fact
that about one fourth of heads of households in recently
poor homes education exceeds ten years indicates that
education is a necessary condition, but not sufficient in
itself, to escape poverty. It also depends on how well
labor markets value education or how they maximize
performance when associating with other forms of
capital.
139
At the end of 2009 the Salvadoran government released
its education plan Education Transformation Social
Education Plan 2009-2014: Lets go to School. It was
launched not as an closed document, but as part of an
effort that was built upon widespread, inclusive and
error-free consultation, initially carried out by integrated
work groups called Open Social Dialogue.
In 2011 and 2012, three years into the plans activities,
there have been significant results, such as the 18%
increase in educational investment. This has allowed the
government to push forward diverse programs, among
which stands out the National Literacy Program (PNA in
Spanish), Education for Life.
141
Also, programs such as
One cup of milk have been developed, which provides
food for public sector students. Uniforms and shoes have
also been distributed to the same sector. It is important to
mention that the inputs for the aforementioned programs
was contracted out to micro and small businesses, which
benefits small local producers.
It is important to recognize the unprecedented progress
the creation of the National Education and Integral
Development Policy for Early Childhood has had in the
country. According to its mission, it has the obligation
to articulate and orientate coordinated efforts to
guarantee the childs right to education and integral
development. Starting from which, for the first time, the
Ministry of Education (MINED in Spanish) will assume its
constitutional duty to provide educational attention to
boys and girls in the first years of life.
A negative point for education has been the large role
that the new government authorities in the security
ministries have played in student security. This change
diluted and debilitated the MINEDs responsibility over
the education system. This transition was derived from the
shallow excuse that gangs had besieged public schools.
This situation has revealed the involvement of the PNC
and the FAES in the expulsion process of youth from
public schools, alleging their involvement in organized
crime, with no guarantee of due process.
142
The regions governments fail to assign the necessary
budget expenses to guarantee effective coverage for
education, in the name of reducing public expenses.
For example, Guatemala assigns 2.3% of its GDP, far
below the regional average (4%) and the internationally
established minimum norm (5% of GDP). Honduras
assigned 5.4% of its GDP in the last few years and
Nicaragua assigned 3.7%. Scarce national budgeting for
education accompanied an increased investment by the
private sector in this area, converting education into a
139 El Salvador Urban Poverty and Social Exclusion Map 2010, pg. 32,
140 The Ministry of Education declared, as of April 2012, territories free of illiteracy in the municipalities of Comacarn, in San Miguel; San Francisco Lempa and Azacual-pa, in
Chalatenango; Jocoaitique, in Morazn; and Masahuat, in Santa Ana
141 p. cit. FESPAD, A tres aos de una difcil herencia pg. 120.
142 Ibd. Pg. 40.
lucrative business that views people not as the subject
of rights, but rather as a client whose interests must be
satisfied. At the same time, regional governments have
failed to satisfy educational demands and to maintain
students within the educational system.
The Right to Adequate Housing 2.5.
Access to adequate housing supposes, among other
conditions, legal security over land ownership. At the
same time, it is tied to property rights and possession. In
Central America, housing is no longer considered a right,
and has become a business subject to supply and demand.
Consequently, access is tied to each persons acquisition
power, violating the universality of the right.
Central America has a very high housing deficit that
prohibits a guaranteed right to adequate housing. On
average, Central America has a 52.83% deficit; with
Nicaragua and Guatemala in the most critical situation
with 78% and 67%, respectively. Costa Rica holds the
lowest rate, with a deficit of 19%, followed by Panama
at 39%
143
.
The housing deficit in each Central American country
presents different forms and each one has their
particularities.
San Pedro Sula holds 67% of Hondurass housing deficit,
leading the other urban centers where people have
difficulty finding their own homes. 55% of Tegucigalpas
families do not have the money to buy a home. In terms
of the cost of basic housing, the cost in Tegucigalpa
is about $15,073, equal to 16 months worth of wages.
The causes are low-income levels, the impossibility of
registering property, and the absence of credit.
144
For 2012, the overcrowding rate begins with 16.2% in
the first quintile and significantly drops to 1.1% in
the highest quintile. Likewise, there is a relationship
between overcrowding and the head of household
education level. The last housing censuss results show
greater overcrowding when the head of household has
zero education (14.2%), and decreases when the head of
household has a secondary education level (4.4%), and
is much greater when it is university level (0.5%).
145
Guatemala does not have a clear policy that produces
results for families without adequate housing. While
there is a National Housing Fund (FOGUAVI in Spanish),
there is little evidence of their work, considering that
the Guatemala City metropolitan area has 400 squatter
settlements. Of these, 200 are considered precarious,
which is to say that they consist of improvised
architecture, housing construction and urban services,
are prone to natural disasters, and with even a small
event escalate into disaster and possibly cause grave
loss of human life.
146
The governments indifference only
sharpens the problem of access to adequate housing.
143 IDB. (05/14/2012). IDB Study: Latin American and The Caribbean Face Growing Housing Defcit. (Estudio del BID: Amrica Latina y el Caribe encaran creciente dfcit de vivienda).
Retrieved September 26th, 2012, from http://www.iadb.org/es/noticias/comunicados-de-prensa/2012-05-14/defcit-de-vivienda-en-america-latina-y-el-caribe,9978.html
144 Study by the Honduran IDB, The housing defcit in Latin America. 145 INE, 2011.
145 INE, 2011.
146 Human Rights Ombudsman Offce. Communities and Disasters in Guatemala City. Retrieved September 24th, 2012, from http://www.convivenciapdh.org/site/index2.
php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=102&Itemid=30
COUNTRY HOUSING DEFICIT
Guatemala 67 %
Honduras 57 %
El Salvador 58 %
Nicaragua 78 %
Costa Rica 18 %
Panama 39 %
Costa Rica illustrates more violations of the right to
adequate housing. There, the right is being lost to
negligent government management. The government
maintains a debt in terms of housing payments owed to the
Housing Subsidy Fund (FOSUVI in Spanish) between 2006-
2010. These resources were destined for 78,000 houses,
but nevertheless, the National Auditory Office indicated
that the payment has yet to be made. In response to this
State debt, a group of people have organized the Costa
Rican Housing Confederation (CCVI in Spanish). This
organization represents groups who demand housing
construction in the Heredia, Pavas, Alajuelita and the
Vertiente del Caribe settlements and have joined the
cause to defend the right to adequate housing for the
poorest sectors. Among their initiatives they also seek
a luxury housing tax destined to eradicating the 400
plus precarious settlements.
147
In second place, there is the Maritime Zone (MZ), and
the populations that live there. Locals participated
in the writing process for the bill called Coastal
Community Territories (TECOCOS in Spanish), whose
objective is to create costal community territories
as if they were a special concession of social interest
along Costa Ricas peripheries, to benefit the native and
ancestral populations who have inhabited the region for
generations.
148
This bill recognized the historic rights acquired by
these populations (ancestral inheritance, typical
culture, customs, traditions, ways of thinking, and
even linguistic characteristics) and argues that these
populations are capable of generating mechanisms for
development compatible with conservation. This is
much different than other kinds of concessions with
no historic link. However, due to falling behind in the
Legislative Assemblys agenda, the States inability to
resolve fiscal issues, and the protection of the mega
tourism projects owners, the approval of the bill
has been frozenv.
149
This represents a threat to about
400,000 peoples housing, according to Vice President
Alfio Piva.
Nicaragua and El Salvador have carried out some efforts
to respond to housing issues; however, the results have
had no impact on the housing deficit. Nicaragua has
implemented the program Plan Roofs and Houses for the
People, but the actions have been insufficient, and they
still need to build 500,000 homes. Moreover, many of the
urbanization projects failed to implement proper planning,
and even failed to respect the urban development plan.
They did not carry out any environmental impact studies.
Many of the buildings ended up being built in vulnerable,
high-risk, natural areas that were affected by flooding
during the rainy season.
The Salvadoran government has designed a project called
A Home for All, through which 25,000 houses are
expected to be built
150
nationally over the administrations
five year term. Evaluating this program in 2012 (three
years into the presidential term), it seems that they have
failed to fully complete their work. If the government
proposed to build 25,000 homes in five years, that
supposes that each year 5,000 homes would need to be
built. This average is far from what the government has
been able to build.
147 La Nacin. (04/02/2012). Grupos de vivienda se alan para pedir cuentas a Gobierno. Retrieved September 29th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-02-04/ElPais/
grupos-de-vivienda-se-alian-para-pedir-cuentas-a-gobierno-.aspx
148 Proyecto de Ley de Territorios Costeros Comunitarios. Retrieved September 24th, 2012, from http://territorioscosteroscomunitarios.com/newsite/index.php?option=com_con
tent&view=article&id=113&Itemid=174
149 La Nacin. (10/08/2012). Proyecto-contra-desalojos-costeros. Retrieved September 24th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-08-10/ElPais/en-ascuas-proyecto-con-
tra-desalojos-costeros.aspx
150 FONAVIPO. (22/09/2010). Programa Casa para Todos. Retrieved July 2012, from http://www.fonavipo.gob.sv/index.php/temas/item/278-programa-casa-para-todos.html
Moreover, if the program is about reducing the housing
deficit, the programs goal was set very low. This is
especially obvious when data from the Vice Minister of
Housing and Urban Development is taken into account:
the housing deficit is 360,301 homes. Of this figure,
315,918 make up the qualitative deficit and 44,383 make
up the quantitative deficit.
151
The Salvadoran government institutions that develop
the social housing policy seem to have lost the social
from their mission. In the Social Housing Funds (FSV in
Spanish) case, success is measured by the number of loans
made and not the number of homes facilitated to families
with scarce economic resources. So much so that the
institution privileges those who have acquisition power
by granting loans so that they may buy a second home.
Also, the FSV have even held housing fairs in the United
States, with the goal to help Salvadorans living in that
country buy homes in El Salvador.
The problem of people without land looking to build
homes is increasingly serious. It is understood that
through the Agrarian Transformation Institute (ISTA in
Spanish), the government has granted a considerable
number of property titles. However, the Presidential
Offices effort should also focus on guaranteeing access
to property and land possession for families who have
been and are threatened by forced evictions due to the
public and private construction of large infrastructure,
such as: hydroelectric dams, highways, tourism projects,
mines, among others. On top of this, the Special Property
or Regular Estate Possession Guarantee Law, known as
Decree 23, which can allow the expedited eviction of
people; just like what happened in the Municipality of
Intipuc, La Unin. This case was previously discussed
in this report.
The Impact of the Extractive Industry and Mega 3.
Projects
Intensive natural resource extraction is spread through
out the Central American territory. Transnational investors,
protected by a legal framework and defcient regulation
that fails to adequately control extractive activities, have
created important social conficts that go beyond the
range of those carrying out the projects. These activities
mean more deforestation, ecosystem damage, and the loss
of biodiversity. Additionally, they cause fagrant human
rights violations for local populations, who are criminalized
in their attempt to defend and protect their territory.
As proof, in Nicaragua and Guatemala, communities are
being affected by mega projects via fraud, or local or
Author: FESPAD
A child observes what is left of his home after the forced eviction, Intipuc
municipality, La Union.
151 Millenium Development Goals Acheivement Fund. (October 2, 2011). About Us (Quines somos?). Retrieved July 30th, 2012, from http://www.nacionesunidas.org.sv/
fodm-apus/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=120&Itemid=198
national government indifference, or companies which
achieve their goals. Similarly, El Salvadors latent threat
of mining companies persists due to the governments
vagueness on the subject.
Although indigenous peoples and afro-descendants in
Nicaragua have consolidated their territories and the
governments of those territories along the Caribbean
coast, including rights over natural resources,
international corporations are arriving with interest
in taking advantage of these resources. The Israeli
company RKA A.L. Ltd stands out this year, signing
contracts with several of the Autonomous South Atlantic
Region (RAAS in Spanish) territory governments. RKAs
strategy is to co-opt territory leaders, exciting them
with international trips, individual benefits, and
initially offering relatively reasonable development
projects, like agriculture, for example. Nevertheless, the
contracts they make them sign consist of an irrevocable
handover of the all of the territorys natural resources.
This forever prohibits an economic development process
based on principles of the peoples self-determination.
The businesses being contemplated are, among others,
mining, forestry, fishing, petroleum exploitation, carbon
trading contracts.
The Indigenous and Industrial Precious Woods S.A.
(MAPIINICSA in Spanish) business operates in a similar
way. It acquired, through irregular means, about 12,400
hectares of emblematic Awas Tingni Mavangna Saun
Umani (AMASAU) territory. Later, the North American
companies International Explorations S.A., without
consulting the communities and local focus groups, come
in to develop petroleum exploration and exploitation and
natural gas reserves on Nicaraguas Caribbean maritime
platform.
The Guatemalan state, through the Ministry of Energy and
Mines (MEN in Spanish), has licensed mining companies
which are affecting a large part of the national territory
(2,784.53 square kilometers). The exploration licenses
are in 8 municipalities, in 3 departments: Escuintla,
Retalhuleu and Suchitepquez. In total they add up to
292.5 square kilometers. The exploration license extends
2,492 square kilometers, from the Mexican border down
to the border of El Salvador.
152
The communities have been impacted by mining projects
since 2005 by Montana Explorer, a subsidiary of the
Canadian company Goldcorp. One of these is a Maya Mam
community, located in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Department
San Marcos. Today they face health and housing issues,
water pollution, and above all, criminalization. The
company has attacked the community leaders who defend
their territory,
153
going so far as to order their arrest in
2008.
On December 9th, 2011, the Organization of American
States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) modified its May 20th 2010 precautionary
measures. The request to suspend the Marin Mine
operations, to clean up water source pollution and
152 School of Ecological Thought. Ecological Reality in Guatemala. Second edition Published in January 2011. Pg. 22. Retrieved Ausgust 28th, 2012, from http://www.guatemala.
at/navegation_links/archiv/01-2011%20SAVIA%20la%20realidad%20ecologica%202011.pdf
153 The Movement of Indigenous Tzununija Women, in 2011, committed to supporting the legal defense of 8 women of the community gel, San Miguel Ixtahuacn, San Marcos,
who, in 2008, the company Montanta Exploradora, ordered their arrest. Guatemala, S.A. The day May 18th, 2012 their trial was held in the First Penal Court, in the department
capital of San Marcos, to resolve the legal situation of the 8 women. As a result of the trial, the arrest warrant was annulled against: Gregoria Crisanta Prez Bmaca; Patrocina
Meja Prez; Catalina Dominga Prez Hernndez; Marta Juliana Prez Cinto; Mara Santa Daz Domingo; Crisanta Tomasa Yoc Hernndez; Crisanta Hernndez Prez y Olga Bmaca
Hernndez. Movimiento de Mujeres Indgenas Tzununija. (05/19/2012). Guatemala: Comunicado ante el resultado del juzgamiento de las mujeres de la comunidad de gel.
Retrieved September 5th, 2012, from http://www.movimientos.org/show_text.php3?key=20776
attend health problems, has been repressed.
154
In its
place, the Guatemalan state has requested to adopt
measures to assure that communities utilize adequate
water sources for domestic and irrigation purposes. The
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and
Mining Watch Canada expressed deep concern over the
political pressure to change the precautionary measures
placed upon the IACHR, Latin Americas principal entity
to protect human rights. The IACHRs modification of
its order doesnt actually effect the principal petition
currently being revised by the Commission, which affirms
that the government did not receive free and informed
consent from the communities prior to authorizing Marlin
mines activities.
155
Another Guatemalan community struggling in self-defense
is located in San Jos el Golfo, in the metropolitan
area. It is here where El Tambor mine, of Radius Gold
Company, wants to set up operations without consent
from the affected communities. For four months, the
community held guard to defend their territory from this
threat. On June 14th, this resulted in the mines security
guards attacking community leader Yolanda Oqueli. The
Guatemalan government never investigated, nor brought
to justice these individual and collective human rights
violations.
The people of San Jos del Golfo have managed to stall
initial mining operation in their struggle against Radius
Gold. After the attack against leader Yolanda Oqueli,
Radius Gold decided to sell their mining rights to Kappes,
Cassiday & Associates company,
156
which without doubt
will continue to try and recover its investment. Currently
they are dialoguing with community leaders.
The extractive mining industry in El Salvador continues
to be a threat. The country has yet to define a metallic
mining prohibition, since the Legislative Assembly has not
approved any bill to address the issue. Despite previous
studies that demonstrate metallic minings impact on
local contexts, the State via the Ministry of Economy
decided to realize a Strategic Environmental Evaluation.
According to the director of the Ministry of Economys
Hydro carbides and Mines Office, the study will help
understand environmental, social, and economic effects
that mining could provoke and to establish a contextual
foundation.The objective is a study that the Government
can use to make a decision in terms of regulating the
activity.
Nevertheless, the National Roundtable against Metallic
Mining criticized that 6 months after announcing the
completed study, the results had yet to be publically
released. The Roundtable representatives have expressed
their concern about the ambiguity and lack of transparency
with which the subject has been treated; and moreover,
for the serious pollution that the approval of metallic
mining projects could cause in the northern part of the
154 Interesting facts: Marlin mine: The Marlin mine, located in the San Marcos Department, uses 250,000 liters of free water per hour; Until 2009, they imported 3.2 million
kilograms of cyanide and had not paid for their respective environmental license. (12.3 million quetzals, approximately); Until the end of 2010, they registered 3 traffc acci-
dents carrying cyanide being carried from the port to the mine; Over 100 homes near the mine have reported damages and cracks. The communities share that these are the
consequences of mine explosions and the frequent passing of heavy machinery; )) The last release of water from the tailing ponds dyke that was documented and carried
out by Montana without any notice to the respective authorities was realized on September 23rd 2010, which the MARN is now pressing charges against them.Escuela de
Pensamiento Ecologista. Realidad Ecolgica de Guatemala. Second Edition, Published January 2011. Pg. 23. Retrieved August 28th, 2012, from http://www.guatemala.at/
navegation_links/archiv/01-2011%20SAVIA%20la%20realidad%20ecologica%202011.pdf
155 COPAE. Los problemas creados por la mina marlin Goldcorp - en San Marcos, Guatemala, Retrieved September 28th, 2012, from http://www.copaeguatemala.org/articulos-
COPAE/Los%20Problemas%20creados%20por%20la%20mina%20Marlin.html
156 GOLDCORP OUT OF GUATEMALA. (09/21/2012). Resistencia genera cambios en las inversiones mineras, proyecto minero El Tambor. Retrieved September 25th, 2012, from
http://goldcorpoutnews.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/resistencia-genera-cambios-en-las-inversiones-mineras-proyecto-minero-el-tambor/
country. It wasnt until August 2012 that the Government
presented its official posture on the issue, motivated by
the release of the Bill: Special Administrative Procedures
Related to Metallic Mining Projects and Exploration Law.
When the bill was presented, the Roundtable said they
maintained their posture against any mining in the
country and criticized the Government for implementing
temporary measures which are superficial and based on
zero scientific justificiation
157
.
The extractive industry is far from beneficial to the coun-
tries where they install their operations. They cause all
kinds of negative consequences; this is obvious in the
lawsuits submitted by the Commerce Group and Pacific
Rim companies against El Salvador. In the second case,
so far there have been two hearings at the ICSID seat
in Washington D.C. The first was in May 2010 and dealt
with jurisdictional objections presented by El Salvador,
alleging that the arbiter tribunal on this occasion didnt
have the jurisdiction to try the companys lawsuit under
CAFTA-DR regulations, since the company is originally
from Canada, which is not a ICSID member country and
therefore the tribunal couldnt hear the case.
On June 1st 2012, the ICSID appointed-tribunal dismissed
Pacific Rims argument to be heard under CAFTA-DR.
However, the tribunal decided that the proceeding should
advance to the second phase, where the crux of the case
will be decided. This time, the decision will be based on
El Salvadors Investment Law, since article 15 recognizes
ICSIDs jurisdiction for resolving disputes.
On the environmental plane, the current governments
efforts dont seem to be sufficient. It wasnt until May
2012 that they announced the National Environmental
Policy. Moreover they have not made a decision about
prohibiting mining in the country; instead, in August
2012 the Presidential Palace presented the Special
Administrative Procedures Related to Metallic Mining
Projects and Exploration Law. According to the National
Roundtable Against Mining the act is nothing more than
a moratorium that will allow mining exploitation sooner
than later.
In 2012, Honduras had 151 domestic and international
companies register interest in the mining sector by
submitting concession requests and demonstrating
possibilities of investing millions to explore Honduran
deposits. While it is true that governments receive taxes
from mining exploitation, these are minimal compared to
the profits earned by the companies. The resources they
take from local populations and the multi-million dollar
investments the government will have to make to recover
the deteriorated conditions left in the wake of mining
exploitation will far outweigh any tax revenue.

157 CoLatino. (08/09/ 2012), Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minera desestima propuesta del Ejecutivo. Retrived August 20th, 2012, from http://www.diariocolatino.com/
es/20120809/nacionales/106409/Mesa-Nacional-Frente-a-la-Miner%C3%ADa-desestima-propuesta-del-Ejecutivo.htm
In the case: El Salvador versus Pacifc Rim, according
to data provided by the Attorney General, El Salvador
has spent USD $4,300,000 as of July 2012 on legal
fees and services, and paying experts. The cost of
the current trial phase could be as much as USD
$7,000,000.
CHAPTER V
SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL DISCRIMINATION
Rights of the Migrant Population 1.
Migration is principally caused by economic crisis, citizen
security, political polarization, and consequently, the
search for better opportunities in life.
In Nicaraguas case, it is calculated that over one million
Nicaraguans live abroad and 60% of the population has
a relative living outside of the country. Nicaragua is one
of the countries of origin with the greatest number of
irregular migrants in Latin America and Spain. Remittances
(US$1,053 million) sent by Nicaraguan migrants come
mostly from the United States, Costa Rica, Panama, and
Spain.
Despite this reality, there are no public policies to protect
and guarantee the rights of Nicaraguans abroad. On
the contrary, the government demonstrates no interest
in facilitating documents required for these people to
establish residency. In the current context this is even
more complicated where the Costa Rican government
is granting a grace period for irregular migrants in the
country, as established in Chapter III of the Costa Rican
Migration Regulations.
In Honduras about 100,000 people abandon their country
each year in search of the so-called American dream,
according to data from the Honduran Migration National
Forum (FONAMIH in Spanish). Recent years have seen
the feminization of migration, with minors and young
woman as the majority of migrants. In this context,
human trafficking becomes the determining violation.
Some 3,500 Hondurans were victims of this situation
during 2011mostly women and children vulnerable to
sexual and labor exploitation.
In the State Department and consulates, there are 600
files for families who have lost contact with a migrating
family member in 2012. Moreover, the United States has
deported by plane over 15,606 Hondurans over the course
of the year. Many of them accept the return, but the
majority arrives unhappy about having suffered all kinds
of abuses along the migration route and their treatment
in the United States. The official statistics from the first
half of the year show the following numbers for forced
deportations from the United States: 15,325 men; 1,168
women, and 213 minors.
158

In El Salvadors case, the Partnership for Growth,
159

approximates that 20% of the population emigrates.
This is related to citizen security given the number of
homicides, as well as the lack of economic opportunities.
The emigration rate increases among those with a medium
to high education level. The proportion of emigration is
surprising; more than half of the people with medium
to higher education levels emigrate, as well as almost a
third of those with higher education, according to the
same source.
An estimated 2,950,126 Salvadorans live abroad. 88% of
those live in the United States, followed in Canada. For
El Salvador, remittances represent the greatest source of
158 FIDES. (2011/02/18).
159 Joint Technical Team, U.S. Government and Salvadoran Government. Partnership for Growth: Restrictions Analysis. 2011. Pg. 188
income. Just in 2011, remittances totaled US$ 3,648.8
million.
160
El The government has progressed slightly
in terms of granting rights to migrants; it is estimated
that 200 people die each year along the undocumented
migration routes between El Salvador and the United
States.
161
Migration in Guatemala has historically obeyed factors
such as the countrys armed conflict, principally in the
west. Currently remittances play an important role, as they
allow a certain economic push, permitting consumption
and small business generation; nevertheless the rights
of migrants are constantly violated, both along the
migration route and during detention and deportation
processes. Deportation rates in Guatemala are on the
rise, in just the first half of 2011 the deportation rate
was 15,355
162
and for the same period this year the rate
was 20,083 a 23% increase. Given the lack of social and
labor reinsertion policies, these deportation statistics
are an important factor in the rise of violence.
In contrast, Costa Rica continues to be mostly a receptor
country for migrants. The press continues to reinforce
xenophobia through derogatory terms like illegal to
refer to undocumented migrants, and mentioning the
nationality of people who have committed crimes
163
or
any other socially indecorous activity. The news promotes
national stereotypes, such as the Nicaraguan and y
Colombian, unleashing discriminatory attitudes through
social networking tools upon daily life. Moreover, the
Costa Rican government has failed to effectively protect
the rights of migrant workers and refugees. This is evident
in that Costa Rica has yet to ratify the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families.
Its worthwhile pointing out that despite the efforts and
progress that the Costa Rican government, through the
General Office for Migration and Immigration Matters
(DGME in Spanish) has realized in the last two years in
terms of migration; there continues to be human rights
violations in the work environment through pay, insurance,
and employer xenophobia. Many female migrants work in
despicable conditions, suffering stereotypes, xenophobia,
and sexual harassment. They keep working for fear of
being deported or losing their income
164
. During 2012,
46% of Costa Ricas refugees survived on less that $200
a month, while also facing obstacles to education and
social security. For example, of salaried employees,
only 42% were insured, 20% received their bonus, 15%
claimed their severance and 17% claimed vacations.
165

In the Costa Rican context, $200 is an extremely low
income for an adequate life.
Additionally, migrants and refugees over 18 years old
are limited in their right to healthcare, according to
the international organization The Ret. They are denied
this right when health workers are misinformed about
legislation, and practice xenophobia and discrimination.
Rights of the LGBTI community 2.
Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and
Intersex community in the region historically have been
160 Central Reserve Bank. (01/27/2012) El Salvador received US$3,648.8 million in family remittances during 2011. Retrieved Octuber 3rd, 2012, from http://www.bcr.gob.sv/
bcrsite/uploaded/content/category/1367328209.pdf.
161 Peridico Digital Contrapunto (02/06/2012). Migracin: 200 compatriotas mueren al ao. Retrieved August 30th, 2012, from http://www.archivocp.contrapunto.com.sv/
ultimas-noticias/migracion-200-compatriotas-muertos-al-ano
162 Violence Monitoring in the transparency area, Mutual Support Group GAM in Spanish
163 La Nacin. (08/08/2012). Forneo busc a nio y lo mat, sin causa, de un balazo en el trax. Retrieved August 15th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-08-08/
Sucesos/foraneo-busco-a-nino-y-lo-mato--sin-causa--de-un-balazo-en-el-torax-.aspx
164 National Commission for the Improvement of Justice. (02/15/2011) In Costa Rica exploitation and xenophobia threaten domestic workers. Retrieved August 15th, 2012,
from http://conamaj.go.cr/observatorio/index.php/article/costa-rica-en-costa-rica. Retrieved 02-22-2012
165 La Nacin. (06/21/2012). 46% de refugiados en el pas vive con menos de 100.000 al mes. Retrieved August 16th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-06-21/
AldeaGlobal/46de-refugiados-en-el-pais-vive-con-menos-de--100-000-al-mes.aspx. Retrived on June 21, 2012
submitted to discrimination for their sexual orientation,
identity, and gender expression. They are subjected
to violence, persecution, and other abuses; en clear
violation of their human rights.
Despite having a Special Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity
in Nicaragua, the lack of public policy guaranteeing and
granting protection to people as subjects with rights
persists. Aggressions against this population remain
in impunity, leaving them completely unprotected and
generating further insecurity, made even worse when
authorities of the Police Units and the Women and
Children Commissaries are slow to respond.
In March 2012, the Nicaraguan Parliament approved the
general Family Code. The signing of this code provoked
protests in the LGBTI community because they were
not included in the concept of family as written in
the legislation. The LGBTI organization leader, Marvin
Mayorga, reported that there has been a campaign of
aggression, where unidentified persons wounded two
members of the LGBTI community with pellets shot with
a rifle, and others received death threats. One of the
victims, Natalie Dixon, the Miss Gay Nicaragua-2012
finalist, was shot in the chest with pellets and three
activists accompanying her were threatened with fire
arms by individuals on motorcycles with ski masks.
Mayorga also denounced the Catholic Church and the
evangelical churches for mounting campaigns to discredit
the LGBTI community for demanding the legalization of
same sex marriage in the new Family Code, as debated by
the Legislative Assembly.
Among the systematic issues that this population faces
are: criminalization, obstacles to health and education
services, impossibility to enter the work force, lack of
civic participation opportunities, and violence and
impunity in the face of hate crimes perpetuated against
members of the LGBTI community. Evidence of this are
the assassinations of Eddy Ramrez, in Len, and Pablo
Reyes, in Ticuantepe, in February 2012.
Along the same lines, members of the LGBTI community
in Honduras are excluded from society by the state.
According to reports from LGBTI defense organizations,
101 people have died between January 2010 and May
2012, in what appears to be hate crimes. The National
Autonomous Universitys Violence Observatory (UNAH in
Spanish) shows that 26 of these assassinations occurred
in the first five months of 2012.
In January 2011, the Human Rights and Justice Secretary
condemned the hate crimes perpetuated against this
community. In February 2011, the government created a
special unit in the Judiciary in charge of investigating
the assassination of transgender women and members
of other vulnerable groups. In November another unit
was formed in San Pedro Sula.
166
So far, results are still
pending.
Hate crimes against the LGBTI population expand beyond
Honduran and Nicaraguan territory. In Guatemala, a
shadow report given to the United Nations Human Rights
Commission by five LGBTI defense organizations affirmed
that impunity and a lack of registering these crimes is a
serious problem. On May 17th, 2012, in commemoration of
the International Anti-Homophobia Day, the Trans Queens
of the Night Organization (Otrans in Spanish) affirmed
that in 2012 30 people have been assassinated, a figure
that exceeds the 25 registered cases from 2011. Otrans,
as well as Latin American and Caribbean Trans People
Network, associate the violence with the blockage of the
Gender Identity Law, whose objective is to accept and
defend this population.
167
Beyond these violations, the
Shadow Report also highlights health care and educational
discrimination, which deprives the population from fair
166 Humans Rights Watch: 2012.
167 Ultimas Noticias. (05/17/2012). Homosexuales piden Ley de Identidad de Gnero en Guatemala. Retrieved August 18th 2012, from http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/
noticias/actualidad/mundo/homsexuales-piden-ley-de-identidad-de-genero-en-gu.aspx
trial and denies them the right to a family due to sexual
orientation and/or gender identity.
168
Sexually diverse persons still do not have a legal
framework that defends their rights to form a family in
a safe environment in Costa Rica. On June 7th, 2012,
the president of the Legislative Assemblys Human Rights
Commission, Justo Gerardo Orozco, accelerated the veto
of the Coexistence Society Law, which would protect the
aforementioned right.
169
The legislator made this decision
within the context of his first declarations when he took
office, affirming there are sins that can be rectified, but
in this case (homosexuality) it is more difficult.
170

The Commissions veto ignores the Chamber IVs dictate
that the need to regulate in a convenient manner the
ties or rights that come these kinds of unions
171
. At
the same time, the position of Ofelia Taltembaum from
Habitants Defense, is ignored, arguing that minimum
guarantees are required for these people, because a
considerable portion of them live below the poverty
line.
172
Due to the legislators declarations and what
happened in the Commission, the Diversity Movement
threatened to sue the state before the Inter American
Human Rights Commission
By contrast, El Salvador has made progress in its
regulations recognizing the LGBTI community. Proof
of this is the Presidential Decree N56
173
that, among
other things, prohibits discrimination related to sexual
orientation and gender identity in the public sector.
The International Human Rights Legal Clinic of the
University of California points out that in the country,
violent crimes, in their majority, are perpetrated
by private actors, like gangs or police members, with
alarmingly high rates of impunity, since they arent
investigated and none end up with a conviction. Moreover,
they sustain that in the health sector, El Salvador has
continued to strengthen its system to address HIV/AIDS,
but epidemic levels continue to affect the vulnerable
communities, such as homosexual men (17%, the highest
rate in Central America) and the transgender community
(23.7%).
174

In El Salvador, health care services for the LGBTI
community continue to be plagued with problems, such
as harassment in health centers, discrimination by health
care professionals, and unequal access to treatments. In
respect to educational and labor discrimination, the LGBTI
population, and specifically the transgendered, report
difficulties because they are unable to change their name
and gender on identity documents, which do not coincide
with their appearance. Many educational institutions and
employers require that they modify this aspect to match
up with their identity document, or they are subjected
to outright rejection. In addition, many private sector
employers illegally require HIV testing as a requirement
for employment or continued employment.
168 Human Rights Violations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) in Guatemala: Shadow Report. (Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos de las personas Lesbianas, Gays,
Bisexuales y Transgnero (LGBT) en Guatemala: Informe Sombra). March, 2012 New York. Pg. 29.
169 La Nacin. (06/07/2012). Justo Orozco aceler sbito rechazo al proyecto de ley de uniones gais. Retrieved August 20th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-06-07/
ElPais/Justo-Orozco-acelero-subito-rechazo-a-proyecto-de-ley-de-uniones-gais.aspx.
170 La Nacin. (05/30/2012). Justo Orozco: Yo soy cristiano, no puedo ser homofbico. Retrieved August 20th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-05-30/ElPais/Justo-
Orozco---Yo-soy-cristiano--no-puedo-ser-homofbico-.aspx.
171 La Nacin. (05/12/2012). Sala IV resalta deuda del Estado en regulacin de uniones gais. Retrieved August 20th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-05-12/Portada/
Sala-IV-resalta-deuda-del-Estado-en-regulacion-de-uniones-gais.aspx
172 La Nacin. (05/30/2012 ). Defensora: Orozco deber luchar contra discriminacin. Retrieved September 15th, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-05-30/ElPais/
defensora--orozco-debera-luchar-contra---discriminacion.aspx
173 Decree No. 56, Offcial Archives (Diario Ofcial (DO) for its name in Spanish), No. 86, Volume 387, May 12th, 2010
174 University of California, Berkeley, Law School. International Human Rights Legal Clinic. Sexual Diversity in El Salvador, a Report on the Human Rights Situation for the LGBT
Community (Diversidad Sexual en El Salvador: un informe sobre la situacin de los derechos humanos de la comunidad LGBT). July 2012. Pg. 2-3.
Womens Rights 3.
In Nicaragua, womens participation in public and
political affairs increased last year. 23 women (15.1%)
held positions as mayor, 59.2% as vice mayors, and
37 women (42.4%) were elected as deputies to the
Legislative Assembly, resulting in an increase of 18.5%
to a total of 42.4%, in relation to the previous electoral
period (2007-2011).
175
In addition, in March of 2012,
the Law Number 786 was passed, known as the 50-50
law, which requires political parties political nomination
to be of equal proportions for women as for men, and
alternation for elected office.
Despite this significant step, the same does not occur in
relation to womens sexual and reproductive rights. The
rate for contraceptive use barely reaches 69% in urban
zones and 60% in rural zones, reflecting the necessity to
increase access to family planning services and reduce
the gap between actual and desired fertility, especially
for adolescent women.
176
In addition to this, there are currently about 100 women
being tried in the judicial systems for abortion practices,
of which their legal status is unknown because the District
Attorney and police carry out the processes secretly or
with discretion. Therapeutic Abortion is prohibited by the
Law 603, despite a petition for judicial review presented
by citizens. The problem with this prohibition is that
it increases unsafe and clandestine conditions in which
abortions are performed, putting womens rights at risk.
During the period of 2007-2011, a 3% death rate was
reported due to pregnancy interruption.
Womens access to basic education throughout the
country has increased. The rate of women ages 5-18 years
old that attend an educational institution is 60.7%,
while men are at a rate of 57.6%. However, this increase
has not yet translated into improved access to quality
employment or working conditions with optimal incomes.
Women earn 66% in relation to the 100% earned by their
male counterparts for the same work.
177
As is the case in Nicaragua, in Costa Rican government
does not guarantee womens sexual and reproductive
rights, according to the representative of the
experts from the UN Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
178
Amongst the
recommendations, Costa Rica should consider lifting
the ban on in vitro fertilization, strengthen sexual and
reproductive health care programs, take measures to
make modern contraceptive methods available, develop
clear guidelines on access to legal abortion to provide
legal security for health workers, and guarantee womens
rights to decide on this procedure. In addition, they
mention that Costa Rica should consider legal abortion
in case of pregnancy resulting from rape and strengthen
programs to prevent teen pregnancy.
179
Since 2000, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling
prohibiting the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF),
claiming that it affects the life of the embryo. On
September 5 and 6, 2012, the Inter American Human
Rights Court initiated hearings in a process that has
lasted more than 12 years.
180
The fundamental debate
has been contrasting the rights of women and couples
against the possible recognition of embryos as persons.
The court ruling is expected for late November 2012.
175 2011 Annual Report, Nicaraguan Human Rights Center, (CENIDH, for its name in Spanish) . Pg. 156 y 157
176 National Nicaraguan Survey on Demographics and Health, ( Endesa for its name in Spanish) 2006-2007
177 La Prensa. (02/27/11). Nivel educativo de la mujer va en aumento. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from the archives: http://archivo.laprensa.hn/Pa%C3%ADs/
Ediciones/2011/02/28/Noticias/Nivel-educativo-de-la-mujer-va-en-aumento
178 Crhoy. (06/06/2012). Costa Rica debe avanzar en derechos sexuales de mujeres, dice experta. Retrieved September 3rd, 2012,from //www.crhoy.com/costa-rica-debe-
avanzar-en-derechos-sexuales-de-mujeres-dice-experta/
179 Ibd.
180 La Nacin. (10/09/2012). El derecho a decidir ser madre. Retrieved August 23, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-09-10/Opinion/el-derecho-a-decidir-ser-madre.aspx
While therapeutic abortion is permitted by the Criminal
Court System, there is a lack of protocol in cases of saving
a womans life as well as a lack of willingness to do so,
which directly impacts womens access to this service.
Despite initiatives by the Costa Rican Department of
Social Security (CCSS in Spanish) to finalize a guide for
healthcare personnel, it has not been finished.
181
Health
professionals refrain from providing the due process and
ideal care, obligating women to perform clandestine and
unsafe abortions that risk their lives and health.
182
The Costa Rican State maintains its conservative position,
as evidenced in its opposition to recognizing the concept
of reproductive rights in the Sustainable Development
Agreement of Rio+20. This setback for the recognition of
these rights, compared to what was achieved in the 1992
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, means that the final
document refers to family planning and reproductive
health, to avoid issues such as emergency contraception
and abortion. The block that was opposed to the term
included Honduras and Nicaragua. Foreign Minister
Enrique Castillo stated, the term (reproductive rights)
is used by people who advocate for abortion () and the
country does not support the complete deregulation of
abortion. Teresita Ramellinis response to the concept
of reproductive rights is, for the conservative position, a
concept that is too broad. The governments contradictions
are not clear for the majority of the population, who
cannot discern between concepts, but these words are
not so innocent.
183
In addition to this, the document
The Future We Want, does not contain any chapter on
women, although there is mention of them more than 50
times. In not one of these occasions is there mention of
their specific rights.
184
Related to this, women in Costa Rica also suffer from great
discrimination in the workplace, where both wages as well
as their working conditions are significantly lower than
those of men. The average monthly income of women is
13.77% lower than mens income. This situation is critical
in certain employment sectors and in those where women
work independently, where they receive 43.26% less pay
than men.
185
Besides the wage problem, women suffer
from worse working conditions, especially in independent
work. In this population, 73.28% of women in the first
quarter of 2012 were uninsured (37.67% of men). Also,
of this population 50.80% of women receive less than
minimum wage (42.62% men). The underemployment
rate for women who work independently is 27.2%, while
for men it is 12.0%.
186
This information on labor translates into higher rates
of poverty in households headed by women. According
to the National Household Survey of 2011 23.62% of
households headed by women live in conditions of poverty
(the national percentage is 21.64%). Of the households
in extreme poverty, 7.47% are headed by women, 1%
higher than the national percentage.
187
In Guatemala, women (majority indigenous), have
experienced violations of their rights, especially in their
territories. Some examples of this are loss of housing,
violent evictions, and physical, psychological and sexual
violence as a result of the anthropocentric vision of an
extractive and exploitative economic system.
181 Semanario Universitario. (01/06/2011) Autoridades incumplen con acceso a aborto teraputico. Retrieved August 25, 2012, from http://www.semanario.ucr.ac.cr/index.
php/noticias/pais/3871-autoridades-incumplen-con-acceso-a-aborto-terapeutico.html
182 La Nacin. (16/06/2011). El acceso al aborto teraputico en Costa Rica. Retrieved August 25,2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011-06-16/Opinion/el-acceso- al-aborto-
terapeutico-en-costa-rica.aspx
183 La Nacin. Pas se opuso a reconocer derechos reproductivos. July 11, 2012, El Pas ,12A.
184 SERVINDI. Women speak out on serbacks in sexual and reproductive rights at Rio+20, Retrieved August 25, 2012, from http://servindi.org/actualidad/67308
185 Data obtained from the National Household Survey of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC for its name in Spanish), 2011.
186 Data obtained from the Ongoing Employment Survey from the frst quarter of 2012., National Household Survey of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC for its
name in Spanish).
187 Data obtained from the National Household Survey, INEC, 2011.
In 2012 an event occurred that is considered a setback
for womens citizenship rights, which has limited the
democratic participation of womens and feminist
movements in the selection process of the Presidential
Secretariat for Women. The Government published the
Governmental Agreement 34-2012, which repealed Article
4 of the Governmental Agreement 200-2000 (the creation
of the Presidential Secretariat for Women, SEPREM, for its
name in Spanish), and article 10 of the agreement 130-
2001 (entity regulation), which established that womens
organizations were entitled to propose ten candidates, of
which one would be chosen for the position. The new
agreement claims that both rulings have no legal basis
because it violates the Constitution. Thus, both articles
were repealed and instead it was established that the
head of SEPREM would be appointed by the President of
the Republic.
188
This evidences a form of authoritarianism on behalf of
the presidency in Guatemala. This has contributed to
fragmentation of the broader womens movement, among
those people who are close to or sympathizers of the
ruling party and the majority of the movement, who did
not see the current government as an option.
Meanwhile, indigenous womens movements have had a
long struggle to obtain the recognition, exercise, and
protection of their rights as women.
189
However, in the
current context, laws, institutions, and their rights have
been emptied of content and only serve as an image, not
for a real change in the lives of women.
In El Salvador, the situation of the female population
shows precarious conditions and inequality: on a national
level, 24.4% of women live in poverty, 30 out of every
100 adolescents experience early pregnancy, and there
is great labor exclusion and exploitation in industrial
factories, sweatshops, the service industry, and domestic
employment. Regarding violence against women, the
very nature of this phenomenon makes it invisible even
to women themselves. A recent investigation revealed
that 50% of women experience fighting at home, which
sometimes leads to physical or psychological abuse. Of
them, 77% do not tell anyone else.
190
Additionally, the United Nations Human Rights Committee,
upon reviewing the countrys report on the implementation
of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, called the
absolute penalization of abortion unacceptable. During
the hundredth session of this Committee, it was noted
that there is a need for discussion of this issue in
El Salvador. One of the 18 experts that make up the
committee stated that it is very difficult to understand
penalties of up to 30 years in prison for an abortion,
which some women have received.
191
Rights of People with Disabilities 4.
The situation of people with disabilities is constantly
made invisible by the States of the region.
According to the Health in the Americas report by the
Pan American Health Organization, it is estimated that
in Guatemala there is a prevalence of disability of 3.7%
(477,000 habitants).
192
In this sense, Sebastin Toledo,
spokesperson for the National Council for Services for
People with Disabilities (CONADI for its name in Spanish),
explained that there is hope and trust that the political
188 Prensa Libre, (02/02/2012). Prez aparta a colectivos de mujeres para proponer a jefa de Seprem. Retrieved August 29, 2012, from http://www.prensalibre.com/noti-cias/
politica/perez_molina-seprem-postulacion-mujeres-acuerdos_gubernativos_0_638936209.html
189 UDEFEGUA. Protecting ourselves against the threats of the 21st Century. Guatemala, 2009.
190 El Diario de Hoy. Violencia Contra la Mujer., August 19, 2012, Page 28.
191 Youtube Video . (07/24/2012) Judicial System fails Sonia Esther Tabora Contreras, Retrieved September 30 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MjT52s0Zo&feature=
relmfu.
192 Siglo XXI. (02/26/2012). Conadi reclama una poltica de atencin integral. Retrieved August 31, 2012 from: http://www.s21.com.gt/nacionales/2012/02/26/conadi-
reclama-una-politica-atencion-integral
agenda of this population will be taken up by all State
institutions because there should be a commitment to
gradually reduce exclusion. In addition, he reminds us
that the current president of the county committed to
getting such an initiative started.
In the case of Costa Rica, people with disabilities have
diffculties in access to education, and one of the consequences
of this is that it makes it impossible to incorporate into
the job market, which brings an increase in poverty rates
to these families. The National Institute of Statistics and
Census (INEC for its name in Spanish), has expressed that for
2011, the sector represented the following records:
193
These fgures refect that 64% of the population with
disabilities has a lack of economic activity and that 22 to 27
percent are living below the poverty line, when the national
average is 17%
194
. Despite the existence of the Labor Law
for the Inclusion and Protection of People with Disabilities,
in the Public Sector, which holds 5% of its positions for this
population, Both the Civil Service as well as the Ministry of
Labor state that the lack of training for this group of people
makes it diffcult to reach the quota.
195
In the opinion of
Erick Hess, Executive Director of the National Council on
Rehabilitation and Special Education (CNREE for its name
in Spanish), this is due to a the lack of State planning that
marginalizes people with disabilities.
196
In the case of El Salvador, even though the Law of Equal
Opportunities and the Convention for the Rights of
People with Disabilities exist and are in force, the rights
of people with disabilities are not made visible. For the
Human Rights Ombudsmans Offce, these legal codes
are not suffcient tools to secure that disabled peoples
rights are guaranteed. As a result, it is necessary that the
State develop policies that are truly inclusive and beneft
people with disabilities so that their rights to health and
education are guaranteed.
197
The Rights of Children and Youth 5.
Young people do not have the necessary
conditions to be able to develop in an
environment that is free from violence in
all its dimensions, thus running the risk
of being both victims and perpetrators.
43% of Nicaraguas population is less than
15 years old and the country has one of
the highest rates of teen pregnancy. The
most important elements influencing the
high rate of pregnancy amongst girls and
young women (10-15 years) include: The
Handicap University High School Primary None
Total of
people
Intellectual 4 % 15% 59% 22% 34,040
Visual 17% 25% 51% 7% 250,549
Mobility 9% 17% 61% 13% 139,294
Auditory 9% 16% 60% 15% 70,397
Verbal 6% 12% 60% 22% 27,881
Mental 10% 19% 55% 15% 26,636
Manual 8% 19% 60% 14% 48,400
Source INEC in La Nacin. People with more than one disability where counted in various
categories.
193 La Nacin. (07/07/2012). Mayora de discapacitados del pas apenas curso la primaria. Retrieved August 29, 2012, from: http://www.nacion.com/2012-07-07/ElPais/
Mayoria-de-discapacitados-del-pais-apenas-curso-la primaria.aspx#
194 Ibd.
195 La Nacin. (05/30/2012). 64% de personas con discapacidad no tiene trabajo. Retrieved August 30, 2012, from: http://www.nacion.com/2012-05-30/ElPais/64-de-perso-
nas-con-discapacidad-no-tiene-trabajo.aspx
196 La Nacin.(07/07/2012). El Estado no est planifcando. Retrieved August 30, 2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2012-07-07/ElPais/-el-estado-no-esta-planifcan-do-.
aspx
197 La Pgina (03/12/2011). Celebran Da de la persona con discapacidad. Retrieved August 1, 2012, from: http://www.lapagina.com.sv/
lack of information on sexual health, sexual activity from
an early age, sex crimes, and low education levels. It
is estimated that 3.02% of the pregnancies that occur
amongst adolescents between 10 and 14 years of age
are usually associated with gender violence or domestic
violence;
198
usually in such cases there are high rates of
impunity, lack of protection for girls and adolescents,
and discrimination.
Meanwhile, in Guatemala, in relation to violence against
minors, 410 cases of violations of childrens rights have
been documented in 2011;
199
233 for physical, emotional,
and/or psychological violence, 39 for sexual violence,
and 82 for neglect. The justice system registered 994
cases of violence against children in 2011, caused in
large part by the inefficiency of public administration.
In 2009, the Public Prosecutor (MP for its name in
Spanish), received 3,615 reported cases of violence
against children, 59% of them in the capital city. The
total number of cases reported to the MP in 2009 were
392,126 and 13.26% of them were directly related to
children.
200
Sexual violence often is perpetrated in
schools, where 34% of sixth grade students are victims
of bullying.
The Attorney Generals Office is the institution that
constitutionally represents the Guatemalan State and the
functions of advisory and consultancy to state entities.
This institution has specific functions is has been assigned,
such as state representation and the defense of minors.
201
However, it only has 16 departmental offices with an
average of two people per office who are responsible for
receiving all denouncements, including those related to
children and adolescents. In addition, there are only four
investigators at a national level. This entity reported
that from January to October of 2011, there were 259
cases of child sexual and commercial exploitation, and
434 victims. Child sexual and commercial exploitation
continues, despite that the Decree 09-2009 prohibits
it
202
.
Adding to the violence that affects this group is child
labor. According to the United Nations Childrens Fund
(UNICEF), Guatemala is the Central American country
with the highest rates of child and youth labor. The
latest statistics reveal that around 507.000 Guatemalan
children between 7 and 14 years of age work. If adolescent
(14-18 years of age) work is included, the rate increases
to approximately 1,000,000. A large percentage of
these children attend school, but the problem is their
continuing in school, since many leave their studies to
go to work. In the case of adolescents, 3% continue on
to high school. Of the group of children between 7 and
14 years of age, 12% work and study, 8% just work, 62%
study, and 18% do not perform any activity.
203
Youth in Costa Rica are at risk of their rights not being
guaranteed. They do not have access to comprehensive
sex education that guarantees a safe exercise of their
sexuality, even when pregnancy rates amongst adolescents
are increasing. According to the National Statistics and
Census Institute (INEC)
204
: Only in 2011, there were
13,867 births within this group, 70% of which occurred
in rural areas. Of these new mothers, 500 (3.6%) were
less than 15 years old. Sexual relations with minors is a
crime, however, Over a third of the young women became
pregnant by men over 20 years of age. Throughout 2011
198 National Strategy on Sexual and Reproductive Health, MINSA 2007.
199 Attorney Generals Offce
200 Report presented by the Guatemalan Coalition for the rights of children and adolescents in Guatemala, page 5.
201 PGN Qu es la Procuradura?. Retrieved September 4, 2012 from: http://www.pgn.gob.gt/que-es-la-procuradria/
202 Law Against Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Traffcking- LEVET in Spanish.
203 Guatemala UNICEF. Exploitation, Abuse, and Violence Retrieved September 4, 2012 from: http://www.unicef.org/guatemala/spanish/childhood_protection_1521.htm
204 La Nacin. (10/06/2012). 14.000 adolescentes al ao se precipitan a la maternidad. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from: http://www.nacion.com/2012-06-10/ElPais/14-
000-adolescentes-al-ano-se-precipitan-a-la-maternidad.aspx?Page=2
there were 5,200 (37%) adolescents in this situation.
This phenomenon hinders the development of young
people. Jimena Snchez, a young mother, states: I used
to go out a lot with my friends, we used to go to talk or
to eat, but now I dont see them much. I left school,
but I take classes to obtain my baccalaureate in a school
for adults.
205
Despite this situation, there are still debates in Costa Rica
on the facilitation of youth education on this subject.
During June of 2012, the Higher Education Council
approved the implementation of the Comprehensive
and Emotional Education Plan.
206
However, conservative
sectors headed by the Evangelical Alliance filed 2,700
petitions to suspend the plan, making the Board resolve
on August 1, 2012 that the Ministry of Public Education
must establish a form by which representatives of a
minor make an appropriate objection through an agile
and simple mechanism.
207
This means that minors
depend on the person who is responsible for them to
receive the plan. This ruling is considered a violation
of the Convention of the Rights of the Child because it
does not consider the Principle of Superior Interest of
the minor.
208
Indicators of minors who have been condemned for crimes
show that there are a number of conditions that the
Costa Rican State is not providing in order to guarantee
the safety of the population.
Despite the increased penalties in the Criminal Justice
Youth Law, Rosaura Chinchilla, Criminal Appeals judge,
said that, there has been an increase in delinquency
rates for minors in certain types of crimes such as robbery,
attempted murder and murder, and that in the face of
this phenomenon, advocates for making changes in the
legislation. This is surprising in a country with the
highest penalties in Latin America for youth offenders.
In this respect, Chinchilla concludes that the current
law is necessary for the State because they assume a
political commitment to combat dropout rates and job
opportunities.
Said commitments were not fulfilled after the
implementation of the Youth Criminal Justice Law, and
according to Javier Llobet, specialist in criminal law at the
University of Costa Rica, the toughening up of criminal
law and increasing the number of juvenile prisoners is
causing overcrowding that did not previously exist, an
issue the country hasnt worked much on. Repressive
measures are not the necessary response to guarantee
young people an environment free of violence. The main
problem does not have to do with the law, but more
so the lack of special programs for crime prevention
with youth and social and family reinsertion policies for
the convicted, as mentioned by Llobet. However, these
are elements that up to the current date have not been
incorporated.
209
Regarding the rights of children and youth in El Salvador,
there has been legal and institutional progress with the
passing of the Law for Integrated Protection of Children and
Adolescents
210
(LEPINA in Spanish). Several institutions
205 Ibd.
206 Fundacin Paniamor.(06/18/2012). Educational Programs for the Effectiveness and Integrated Sexuality. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from: http://paniamor.org/announ-
cements/programas-de-educacion-para-la-afectividad-y-la-sexualidad-integral
207 http://www.ticovision.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=10424
208 Nicaragua Hoy. (02/08/2012). La Sala IV resolvi amparo sobre guas sexuales. Retrieved September 2, 2012, from: http://www.ticovision.com/cgi-bin/index.
cgi?action=viewnews&id=10424. En esta misma fuente, la Magistrada Calzada y el Magistrado Rueda en el voto salvado de la sentencia mencionada, donde consideran que
la opinin de las personas menores de edad, y no solo la de los padres y madres, siempre debe ser considerada en cualesquiera mecanismos que se instauren a los efectos de
determinar la pertinencia de que una persona menor de edad participe del programa de estudio
209 Semanario Universidad (20/06/2011). Aumenta casi 20% poblacin juvenil recluida en centros: Retrieved September 2, 2012, from: http://www.semanariouniversidad.ucr.
cr/index.php/noticias/pais/4165-aumenta-casi-20-poblacion-juvenil-recluida-en-centros.html
210 Legislative Decree #839 from March 26, 2009, published in the Offcial Diary N 68, Volume N 383, dated April 16, 2009.
have been created
211
that will become watchdogs and
guarantors of the rights of these vulnerable sectors of
society.
However, there have been some difficulties in the
functioning of some of the institutions that make up the
National System for the Integrated Protection of Children
and Adolescents, which is still under construction. In
March of 2012, the Directive Council of CONNA approved
the Organizational and Operation Rules for the Shared
Care Network (RAC in Spanish).
212
;

In May, elections were
held for the civil society representatives of the Board of
Directors of CONNA.
Similarly, the approval of the General Law on Youth213
is a legal step forward. The law establishes a legal and
institutional framework that guides the States action in
the implementation of public policy, programs, strategies,
and plans for the integrated development of the youth
population of the country. The violence involving youth
is a fact that is very relevant and cannot be left out of
this analysis. There are high rates of homicides in the
student sector, which has been a primary concern for
years. In 2011 alone, 126 students were killed. According
to the report made by the Ministry of Health (MINSAL in
Spanish), in the month of August 2011, 1,092 firearm
injuries were reported in the entire health network, from
which 228 people died. Among those treated for bullet
wounds, there were 17 people less than 9 years old and
263 between the ages of 10 and 19 years of age.
214
According to ISNA (The Salvadoran Institute for the
Integrated Development of Children and Adolescents), in
April of 2012 there were 641 adolescents incarcerated.
Of them, 286 had set sentences, and 366 had provisional
sentences.
215
Upon comparing crimes committed by
minors admitted and readmitted to detention centers
between 2009 and 2011, there is an absolute increase in
crimes such as extortion, murder, and robbery.
Figures from the Ministry of Education indicate that by
2011 some 1,713 girls between the ages of 10 and 14
became pregnant, of who 50 (3%) had a second child.
216
211 Amongst the institutions created are: The National Council on Children and Youth (CONNA), Boards for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (Juntas de Proteccin de la
Niez y Adolescencia), Local Committees for the Rights of Children and Asolescents (Comits Locales de Derechos de la Niez y Adolescencia), and Special Courts and Chambers
for Children and Adolescents (Juzgados y Cmaras Especializadas de Niez y Adolescencia.)
212 ISNA. (16 /06/2012) Boletn informativo. Retrieved August 1, 2012, from: http://isna.elsalvadormultimedia.info/
213 Decree #910, Offcial Diary (DO in Spanish), No. 24, Vol. 394, Febuary 6, 2012.
214 El Diario de Hoy, 06/12/11, Pg. 10
215 FESPAD, Three years after a diffcult inheritance, Page 41.
216 La Prensa Grfca, 23/04/12; Pg. 3
CHAPTER 6
THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
In general, the richest lands of Central America are the
ancient cradle of the indigenous peoples of the isthmus.
The environmental potentials, its rich minerals, and
knowledge associated with biodiversity and cultural
heritage that keep their traditions represent goods that
diverse national systems want to exploit for their profit,
especially the large economic interests that govern them.
More than ever, the relations of public-private entities in
the each Central American country enter into alliances of
various forms, with the large extractive industries of the
world (or their branches), to project the growth of the
mining, hydroelectric, oil and even tourist industries.
Since the beginnings of colonization, foreign interests
began to take over the vast areas that were the territories
of indigenous peoples. The development of the region
was based in the usurpation from these peoples. However,
some areas were spared from this greed. But since the
mid-twentieth century and especially after the Central
American armed conflicts, a new, higher-intensity phase
began. Global interests come closer every time to the few
indigenous territories that remain unscathed, now under
new strategies and with the consent of the governments
in place, to exploit natural resources.
From a policy perspective, specifically in reference to the
interests of these peoples, the Convention on Indigenous
and Tribal People in Independent Countries(Convention
169 of the ILO) governs in all of the countries of the
region (except El Salvador and Panama). As a source of
international law, the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples of September 2007 is also in effect.
Problems that indigenous people face are in the first place
related to the loss of their ancestral lands at the hands
of various interests, especially international extractive
industries allied with national ones. Another problem is
the recognition of their cultures. Another common factor is
the diverse concerns involved in the right to consultation
and collective rights. These and other violations to their
rights determine the agenda for human rights claims by
indigenous people in Central America.
In Guatemala, as determined by the National Maya Waqib
Kej Coordination and Convergence, indigenous people
are suffering from the worst impacts of the capitalist
system, taking advantage of globalization and neoliberal
policies implemented by the State, which are manifested
in the plunder and devastation of Mother Earths natural
resources, favoring the business interests of national
and transnational companies. These governmental and
State policies were also lived through the 36 years that
the internal armed conflict went on for, with the aim of
stripping the territories of the indigenous peoples of the
country.
Another expression of the violation of the rights of
indigenous Maya and Xinka people is the racist judicial
system, which is also excluding, criminalizing and
prosecuting their leaders that struggle for the defense
of life and territory. This has been the trend of all the
different governments.
It has been considered that the indigenous Mayas and
Xinkas are those who are suffering the worst impacts of
highly environmentally contaminating activities such as
open pit mining, hydroelectric dams, oil and monocultures,
which threaten human health and the environment.
Despite a prevailing obligation to consult indigenous
people any time that there are legislative or
administrative measures that may affect them, this does
not occur. Because the State violates the right that
grants the communities non-binding decisionsa right
awarded through the Constitutional Courtthe process
of concession of indigenous territories continues. Even
government authorities have tried to mediate this right,
proposing provisions to misrepresent the meaning of the
referendum, as was the case of the draft regulation of
community referendums that was presented by then-
President Alvaro Colom; which due to pressure by the
indigenous movement, was rejected by the Constitutional
Court.
Mining in Guatemala implies a clear process of neo-
colonization for indigenous peoples. It implied the
continued invasion, deterioration, and loss of their
traditional places, impoverishment and destruction of
natural beauty, and therefore the deterioration and loss
of their ancient cultures.
Two cases that show the degree of human rights violations
of indigenous peoples are: the construction of the
Hidrosantacruz hydroelectric dam, where opposition by the
Qanjobal people of Santa Cruz Barrillas, Huehuetenango
provoked the death of a community leader, and unhinged
the repression and implementation of martial law ordered
by government authorities, in collusion with the company,
without the situation meriting such. As a result of this
policy, there are 14 leaders in prison, including two women
who were released after 15 days of being incarcerated.
The 12 communities in the municipality of San Juan
Sacatepquez, in the west of the country, continue to
defend their territory against the installation of a cement
factory of national and Swiss funding. In this situation,
the government has decreed the installation of the military
brigade General Hctor Alejandro Gramajo Morales. This
act evidences the need for the government to advance in
the militarization of the country in accordance with the
defense of capital for mining companies, hydroelectric
dams, and large-scale monocultures.
In Guatemala, discrimination against indigenous people
remains with respect to the beneficiary families of
the Peace Accords on the issue of land distribution.
Indigenous peoples are made invisible and it is mainly
non-indigenous people who are part of the process of
land reclamation.
In Honduras, with an intensity that does not occur in the
other countries of the area, Afro-Honduran communities
claim their rights under the ILO Convention 169. The
indigenous and Afro-Honduran populations amount to
800,000 people and constitute between 8 and 10% of the
total population, as estimated by the National Statistics
Institute in 2008, with the Lecas being the largest
population (4.6%), followed by the Miskit, Garifuna
Chorti, so-called Black English, the Tolupanes, Paya,
and Tawahka.
217
The Report on Human Rights Practices 2011 by the Centre
for Research and Promotion of Human Rights states that
people in indigenous and Afro-descendent communities
continue to face discrimination regarding employment
and occupation, housing, and health services.
218
The report states that one of the main problems that
afflict this population is its lack of representation in
positions of power. These groups lack power in spaces
where decisions are made that affect them, which upon
not having representation in the central government,
Congress, and municipal governments, their human rights
are relegated or forgotten by those that belong to other
sectors of the population who are not interested in
looking after those of ethnic minorities.
The problem of loss of indigenous communities lands is
aggravated by the penetration of drug trafficking, as well
as the threat of construction of hydroelectric projects
in these territories. Garinfuna indigenous leaders have
maintained that groups engaged in drug trafficking and
217 Central American Bank for Economic Integration. Fact Sheet on Honduras, 2010.
218 Center for Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH). National Report on the Fulfllment of the rights of Indigenous and Black people in Honduras
2010.
other types of crime, such as smuggling, have unlawfully
appropriated large areas of their common lands.
In 2010, more than 45 concession contracts were hastily
approved for hydroelectric projects on rivers throughout
the country. This made obvious the interests of politically
and economically powerful groups in displacing indigenous
peoples of their territories. This concession and others,
such as mining-related ones, are made in territories
where there are indigenous people. Indigenous peoples
have little or no political power to make decisions that
affect their lands. Authorities effectively protect the
lands of large landowners obtained by usurpations and
other illegal activities.
The national justice system does not support Indigenous
demands because the trials for defense and right to
the land are rigged by judges complicity and law
professionals, just as there are people from indigenous
and black communities who ally with outsiders that seize
community land.
219
In El Salvador it has always been difficult for indigenous
people to claim their rights, simply because in general,
their existence is not recognized. Except for the
indigenous associations cofradas and religious ceremonies
associated with the elaboration of handicrafts, indigenous
people have little that distinguishes them from the rest
of the population. The acts of 1932 provoked a powerful
hostility against indigenous culture, which was suspected
of violence and rebellion. From that moment on, repression
characterized the life of indigenous peoples, making them
as imaginary to the majority of the population, especially
in spheres of political power, no matter what ones
ideology.
There is a constitutional reform that has attempted
the legal recognition that the sociological reality has
not been able to achieve. However, the system remains
fearful of recognizing the international human rights
instruments that can be used for these communities
rights. A visit from a UN Representative on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples is intended to be a vital support
to make systemic changes. UN Special Representative on
Indigenous Peoples Rights, James Anaya, heard requests
from indigenous peoples during his visit that the UN
intervene for them to be able to recuperate sacred spaces,
to stop deforestation, dams, and mining projects.
220
The Salvadoran government has shown interest in the
development of indigenous culture, but in a purely
mercantilist spirit. An example of this is that without
taking participation of indigenous people into account in
the formulation of development processes, on August 16,
2012 in San Salvador, members of the Tourism Ministries
in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador
(and members of the Mayan World Organization (OMM in
Spanish), signed a declaration in which they committed
to launch the tourist Mayan Route in order to receive 30
million tourists in 2012.
221
The constitutional reform aims to contribute to the
eradication of this lack of visibility of indigenous peoples.
In this sense, the Legislative Assembly promoted the
reform
222
to Article 63 of the Political Constitution, which
incorporates a section to the article stating, El Salvador
recognizes indigenous peoples and will adopt policies
towards maintaining and developing their ethnic and
cultural identity, Cosmo vision, values, and spirituality.
This reform is pending ratification, which should occur in
the next term.
Regarding the ratification process of Convention 169 of
the ILO, in 2012 there has not been discussion within
Parliament, meaning that on a policy level, there has
been little progress on the issue.
219 Ibd.
220 CoLatino. (16/08/2012). Indgenas piden a ONU interfera para recuperar lugares sagrados. Retrieved August 17, 2012 from: http://www.diariocolatino.com
221 La Prensa Grafca. (17/08/2012). Regin busca nuevo impulso al multidestino Mundo Maya. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from: http://www.laprensagrafca.com/
222 Agreement on Constitutional Reforms N 5, Offcial Diary, #84, Vol. 395, May 12, 2012
In 2011 came the first indigenous law in the country-
the Municipal Ordinance on the Rights of the Indigenous
Communities in the Municipality of Nahuizalco,
223
in the
Department of Sonsonate. Although it is only applicable
in this municipality, it is unprecedented nationwide.
This ordinance allows the recognition of the indigenous
peoples of Nahuizalco the right to live in peace, cultural
rights, labor rights of children, rights to grandparents,
indigenous people with disabilities, indigenous women,
women midwives, and environmental rights, amongst
others.
Institutionally, the government also made the decision
to create an office with the Ministry of Social Inclusion
that works specifically on indigenous issues. This office
previously was merged with the Indigenous Affairs
Department of the Ministry of Culture, which coordinates
these communities work.
The situation of indigenous peoples in Nicaragua is marked
by different internal processes linked to territories and
land titling, which have brought resulting intercultural
conflicts, which will worsen in the process of ordering
their communities. There are several different indigenous
communities that are in dispute over territories, with
Mestizo families who are considered settlers who have
invaded their land. For this reason, they demand the
eviction of these families, holding actions in protest, and
waiting for authorities to respond, who, on the contrary,
suppress them and generate higher rates of violence
Nicaragua, as opposed to other countries in the region,
has its own legislation for the benefit and protection
of the rights of indigenous peoples
224
in addition to the
ratification of the ILO Convention 169.
Although in this country we find that the re-organization
process and territorial boundary setting are the most
participatory of the isthmus, various government actions
make it so that these processes do not occur, or at least not
in the way that the law dictates or ancestral communities
require. Land disputes are constant, and it a system that
satisfactorily resolves them is not expected. It has been
reported that constitutional reforms are intended that
would affect the autonomy of indigenous peoples. In
the same fashion, threats to indigenous territories by
transnational interests links to powerful national sectors
are constant and refer to all types of extractive projects.
One issue of concern is a legislation that seeks regulation
of the so-called Grand Canal
225
that will affect indigenous
lands. The referendum instrument that Convention 169
states is not respected by government authorities. There
is also a refusal to recognize the land of the communities
indigenous to the Pacific and Central zones in the
country.
In addition, indigenous leaders are concerned about the
autonomous constitutional reforms that the government is
pushing, where it is clearly stated that they will examine
processes of autonomy and will establish new forms of
relating between indigenous peoples and the branches of
the government. The government argues that this is a
part of the implementation of the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, without first informing or
training people on its real content.
Citizen insecurity in the face of drug trafficking, which
directly affects adolescents, youth, and women, registers in
high rates of violence. This is despite the implementation
of a justice model based on the harmonization of human
rights, common law, and state or ordinary law where the
community has its own way of managing justice, without
223 Published in the Offcial Diary of July 6, 2011.
224 Law #28 Statute of Autonomy of the Atlantic Coast Regions of Nicaragua, from 1987.
225 Law #800. Law on the Legal System of the Grand Interoceanic Canal of Nicaragua and the Creation of Authority of the Grand Interoceanic Cnal of Nicaragua.. Re-
trieved September 3, 2012, from: http://legislacion.asamblea.gob.ni/SILEG/Iniciativas.nsf/0/1c79b32dfa494db906257a14007fb07f/$FILE/Ley%20No.%20800%20El%20
Gran%20Canal.pdf
whita judges, or community associations that apply
sanctions that respect the rights of women and girls.
Another problem in indigenous territories are concessions,
which have been diversified, transcending from mining,
fishing and logging to mono-crop plantations, oil
exploitation, hydroelectric megaprojects, wind power
generation, deep-water ports, and railway lines. All of
these investments pique the interest of politicians
seeking to co-opt the strength of indigenous leadership
to facilitate the implementation of these projects.
The Rama indigenous people and Kriol communities of the
South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RASS in Spanish) have
filed a constitutional claim in the Supreme Court against
the Great Canal Law.
226
This action is against the President
of the Republic of Nicaragua and the National Assembly of
the Republic for not having consulted the Rama and Kriol
indigenous peoples. The claim states that this law could
possibly have adverse and confiscatory effects. Although
it is under exploration, there have been claims of squatter
invasions and land speculators who come armed.
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific, Central, and Northern
areas of Nicaragua continue being the only social sector
in Nicaragua that lacks a law that effectively protects
them from the discrimination and dispossession they
have been subjected to for more than 500 years. Today
there are mostly threatened by being displaced from their
land by the construction of the Great Canal and for the
title made by the Attorney General of the Republic (AG),
to hand it over to the demobilized military members and
the Army.
Dozens of members of the indigenous community of
Uluse,
227
of the municipality of San Ramn, Matagalpa,
protested in Managua in August of 2012 in front of the
Attorney Generals Office to demand a stop to the process
of measuring their lands in favor of the Demobilized of the
Resistance and the Army. These are lands have belonged
to the indigenous since 1907, and are under the legal
title of the Muy Muy indigenous people of Matagalpa.
They were handed back by the Spanish crown in 1726,
where currently there are 170 families settled who are
descendants of those who were registered by the state at
that time.
Previously the Uluse indigenous leaders had reported that
settlers brought in by the government between 2000 and
2005 had poisoned the water and burned their homes.
On that occasion, they received a ruling in their favor
by a local judge from San Ramon, which ordered that
the National Police provide protection to the community
due to threats, but local authorities have not complied.
The indigenous community will not permit the titling
because handing the land to the demobilized is the
States responsibility, not theirs. Moreover, they rejected
titling by plots and requested that it be done according
to the communal regime that their grandparents used at
the beginning of the 19th century, as the delegate of the
Property Administration in Matagalpa, Porfirio Zapata,
told them that they will title the properties and give ten
manzanas to the demobilized. Of the remaining, three
manzanas will be distributed to each indigenous family.
Costa Rica also propagates situations that rank among
those that most deny indigenous reality. There are
historical denials of the rights of indigenous peoples,
where much of their territories illegitimately remain in the
hands of non-indigenous people, despite the declaration
of indigenous lands as inalienable and exclusive property
of these people. Other fundamental problems that occur
are the death threats that indigenous community leaders
that seek to defend their rights receive from the non-
226 On August 29, 2012 Santiago Emmanuel Thomas and Rupert Allen Clair Duncan, authorities of the Rama and Kriol Territorial Governments, of the Municipality of Bluefelds,
RAAS, presented a petition to the Nicaraguan Supreme Court to fle against the Great Canal Law.
227 The Uluse historical property is 200 manzanas located between the Uluse y Up Rivers.
indigenous sectors who see the actions of these people
as threats to their land. Similarly, the subject of the
right to be consulted in cases of obvious affectation to
indigenous peoples is a controversial issue in the system.
And in general, in Costa Rica, it is difficult to make
comprehensive demands for indigenous culture.
The issue that has gotten more international attention
for the right to a referendum is the case of the El Diquis
Hydroelectric Project (PHED in Spanish), which is being
developed in the southern area of the country within the
indigenous Trraba territory by the state entity Costa
Rican Electricity Institute (ICE in Spanish). With the visit
made by the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous
People representative, ICE suspended its activities in
the indigenous territory and the indigenous community
demanded that the State accept the existing asymmetry
between the parties.
Indigenous people do not know which areas will be
fooded by the dam, and no one knows how to solve the
problem of non-indigenous peoples who, unjustifably,
claim compensation. The Constitutional Court received
a claim, and in a polemical ruling- Vote #12975-11- gave
six months (from the notifcation) to hold the referendum.
This occurred without having known what Representative
James Anaya had stated, who, while visiting the territory,
said that efforts should be made to negotiate between
the community and the State. A short span of six months
did not assure the achievement of such conditions. For its
part, ICE has continued with its non-consulted practiced
in another indigenous region called Chirrip, with the Ayil
Hydroelectric Project.
As never before in history, in 2012 there have been cases of
aggression and threats to indigenous people for demanding
respect for their rights, confned in legislation. In March
2012 the Trraba indigenous community of Buenos Aires
de Puntarenas demanded that the Ministry of Education
implement a decree that enables indigenous people to
receive their educational instruction from teachers from
their own territory. In the absence of compliance of the
degree, and as a means of placing pressure, people from the
community took over the school facilities, and then were
brutally attacked by non-indigenous who supported non-
indigenous teachers who would be dismissed if indigenous
people were appointed to the positions.
Another case is that of a leader from the same community
named Pablo Sibar Sibar, who for his work in defense of na-
tural resources was attacked by a group of non-indigenous
people. Also in 2012 in the territory of Salitre, of Buenos
Aires de Puntarenas, the leader Bribri Sergio Rojas, received
death threats by non-indigenous plantation owners from the
region for the actions that indigenous take in this part of
the country to recuperate usurped lands. He was also de-
clared unwelcomed by the municipality for these actions.
In September 2012 in this indigenous territory, there were
confrontations between non-indigenous and members of the
community, resulting in injuries.
228
Indigenous people from Salitre in the middle of a land confict with non-
indigenous people.
228 Costa Rican Lutheran Chuch Attack on indigenous Leader in Salitre. Retrieved October 3,2012, from http://www.ilco.cr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&
id=693:salitre&catid=41:indigenas&Itemid=78; and La Prensa Libre. (02/10/2012 Invaden Territorio Indgena en Salitre. Retrieved October 5, 2012, from : http://www.
prensalibre.cr/lpl/nacional/71668-invaden-territorio-indigena-en-salitre-.html
There remains critique of the governments lack of
interest and follow-through by not approving the Law
Proposal for the Autonomous Development of Indigenous
Peoples (legislative file number 14.352), which has
spent 18 years in legislative debate.
The Territorial Law, which is the most important of all
rights, can be represented in an important case from the
first months of 2012. One of the entities in charge of
watching out for indigenous peoples territorial rights
in the Rural Development Institute (INDER in Spanish)
filed an action in the Constitutional Court to declare
the Law on Indigenous People inapplicable. In May of
2012, because of pressure by indigenous peoples, the
entity withdrew the action.
Regarding rights to natural resources, a ruling from the
Administrative Court in October of 2011229
229
declared
subsoil resources as owned only by the State, despite
the fact that the Law on Indigenous People had decreed
through the adoption of the 1982 Mining Code that it
was co-owned by the State and Indigenous Peoples.
Given the context of approving a World Climate Change
Plan for Emissions Reduction, state actions continue in
2012 to promote indigenous territories for the REDD+
strategy (Reductions of Degradation, Deforestation,
Conservation, Sustainable Forest Management in
carbon reservoirs of forests). This is criticized by some
indigenous sectors
230
for trying to push a market model
into indigenous communities. Although recently some
indigenous communities that have been in favor of
these actions have been able to redirect the process,
criticisms remain for the imposition that the German
entity GIZ (which finances the process) has over the
community referendums.
231
Labor issues related to indigenous peoples always
remain hidden, but during 2011 and 2012 there have
been more cases that affect members of Ngbe indigenous
communities. There is one that stands out from the end
of 2011,
232
for the repression suffered in plantations in
the Sixaola zone of Talamanca in the Limn Province
(where 80% of the workers are indigenous). Another case
also involved Ngabe coffee farmers in the plantations of
the Central Valley of the country (and in other zones).
Despite being regular workers, the state agency Costa
Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE in Spanish)
233
has denied
them employee status, meaning they are paid for the
coffee collection, but it is not considered a salary.
This position has already been ratified by the judicial
administrative litigation and a court ruling is expected
on the definition.
Panama has the most historic indigenous territories of
the isthmus. The so-called Comarcas (regions) arose
from the struggles of the Kuna in the islands in 1925,
which later led to the Kuna Yala Comarca Law, and
then others where other indigenous people settled.
Some years ago the Panamanian State determined that
it would no longer recognize most Comarcas, which it
continues to state in its confrontation with the Naso
people and others.
As has been constant in Panama, at least since 2010,
indigenous communities, especially the Ngbe Bugl
have been subjected to repressive acts by the government
because of their firm demand for their rights against
development plans that drive their power leaderships
with transnational business.
Security forces in Panama, in an attempt to dissolve the
Inter American Highway closures by the Panama-Costa
229 La Nacin. (07/10/2011). Indgenas no son dueos de los minerales en sus tierras. Retrieved August 2,2012, from http://www.nacion.com/2011- 10-07/ElPais/indigenas-
no-son-duenos-de-los-minerales-en-sus-tierras.aspx.
230 The National Indigenous Working Group and some indigenous governments from the southern part of the country.
231 Bribri Cabecar National Network (RIBCA). Letter from RIBCA to President Chinchilla, August 30, 2012.
232 Just Fruits (5/12/2011) Costa Rica: Strike ends with the Promise to Negotiate New Collective Bargaining Agreement. Retrieved September 15, 2012, from: http://www.
frutasjustas. org/noticias/costa-rica-termina-la-huelga-con-la-promesa-de-negociar-un-nuevo-cba.
233 Costa Rican Coffee Institute. (ICAFE) Newsletter 1645. San Jos 2009: Newsletter 1914. San Jos 2011
Rican border, violently repressed indigenous from the
Ngbe Bugl Comarca in various points in the heights
of the Chiriqu, Veraguas, and Bocas del Toro provinces,
in the communities of San Flix, Tol, y Vigui at the
beginning of February of 2012. In these actions a group
of indigenous people were killed, with others injured or
arrested. The dead were Jernimo Montezuma, Francisco
Miranda, Rigoberto Flaco, and Mauricio Mndez.
234
There was a situation that came to prominence for the
undemocratic attitude of the government of President
Ricardo Martinelli, which wielded all its resources and
capacities to exclude the Law Proposal 415, article 5,
which established a special regimen for the mineral,
hydro, and environmental resources of the Ngbe-Bugl
comarca.
235
Author: Zapateando
Indigenous people on hunger strike against hydropower.
The resistance struggle of the Ngbe-Bugl people against the extractive interests promoted by the government of
Ricardo Martinelli has various sections.
In July 2010, the indigenous and popular reaction to the so-called Chorizo Law that attempted to impose in one
law to weaken unions and change environmental legislation to be able to facilitate projects without an environmental
impact study and allowed police who were accused of human rights violations to continue in their position without
penalties. Different unions (The Chiriqu Land Co. Workers Union-SITRACHILCO for its name in Spanish), of the North
American transnational United Brands (Chiquita), and unionists from independent banana companies called for a strike
in the Changuinola region of the Bocas del Toro province. With the mobilization they got the law partially repealed.
In January-February of 2011 there was a struggle by the Ngbe-Bugl people when the government tried to impose
a new Mining Code that would facilitate mining exploration and exploitation in the entire country. These indigenous
communities shut down the Inter-American Highway and the government was forced to concede, repealing the Minish
Code and signing an agreement in which it agreed to suspend all mining and hydropower in the comarca, in particular
the Cerro Colorado copper site in which thousands of families live.
In February of 2012, once again called by the Struggle Coordinators, thousands of people left the comarca communities
to shut down the Inter American Highway once again in the face of a government intent to revive the Mining Code
without Article 5, which prohibits mining and hydropower from the comarca. This provoked another repressive wave,
which in this case was authorized by the government of Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica, distorting the facts to insinuate
that the indigenous had kidnapped tourists in Costa Rica, who were actually stranded in the highway.
234 National Indigenous Working Group. Newsletter # 49, Mimeographed. Costa Rica, February 8, 2012, and Adital. Olmedo Beluche. Partido Alternativa Popular (PAP). 06.02.12 Panama
235 National Indigenous Working Group, Costa Rica. Newsletter # 48, Mimeographed. Costa Rica, January 9, 2012.
The national government agreed to not do any more mining
projects, but some critics and political rivals say that it
would not give up hydropower projects for anything in the
world, as there is a lot of investment at stake. As a last
strategy, they are selling the idea of holding a referendum
that they already have won, because the hydroelectric
company is making house calls telling people that if there
is not hydropower, there will be a forced rise in electricity
service.
Destruction of housing and displacement of a family for the application of Decree 23, which includes the Special Law for the Assurance of Regular
Possession of Property. Community, Los Ranchos, Intipuc, La Unin, El Salvador. June 18, 2012.
CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
Taking on the issues of violence and insecurity in Central
America has several nuances and its effects are different
upon men and women, as well as for youth, which implies
the cultural reinforcement of fear.
Organized crime is an expansive and evident threat,
causing territorial control and influence in state bodies,
which permits them to act with impunity. The double
effects of this problem are immeasurable in the areas
where this occurs, principally border and coastal areas.
Regarding bilateral cooperation on security, the European
Union and United States guarantee military intervention
as a form of control of drug trafficking and organized
crime, causing the countries of the region to prioritize
it as a major strategy to combat violence. Unfortunately
it has been evident during the period of this report that
military participation in security tasks is increasing, with
a logic similar to the years in which wars took place in
various Central American countries and the one Honduras
currently lives with since the coup.
It is not possible to eradicate violence without a strong
state institutionalism that responds to the national
security of the population. The political will around
public safety is essential and policies will need to focus
on prevention programs created from within the country,
based on its needs, but above all with the rights and
participation of different sectors of society.
On the other hand there is a continuing increase in
femicide, one of the greatest human rights violations in
the region. Although several Central American countries
have laws, impunity prevails in these cases and the
responsible institutions to not prevent, investigate, or
duly punish.
The remilitarization of the region is a step back on
the road to democratization in Central America, and
thereby enhances the return of systemic human rights
violations.
OBSTACLES FOR ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Given the existence of a dispute or claim for the
recognition of a right, judicial protection is one of the
most important legal values with which people access
justice through a process which should contain minimum
guarantees. However, the weak institutionalism of
Central American states does not ensure effective legal
protection due to the intervention of influential actors
such as politicians, organized crime, real power holders,
etc., in the administration of justice.
Access to justice is limited by the abuse of power by the
state, the high indirect economic costs of judicial and
administrative processes, lack of trust in the authorities
derived from their questionable acts upon exercising their
functions, delay in the resolution of the processes, tax
rotation for the same case in different judicial stages,
rescheduling of hearings, lack of information on the
rights of victims and the procedure to follow to be able
claim them, and privileges when administering justice
are all common problems with the justice systems.
Women and men who are in prison see their convictions
worsened because inside of prisons there are not even
minimal conditions to live a dignified life in which to
serve their sentences. To talk about the human rights of
incarcerated people is to refer to a world of fictions.
In particular, the so-called Northern Triangle countries
have reformed the justice system by making it more
expedited and abbreviated, but not to guarantee the
rights and due process of people, but more so to make it
catch up with the enormous captures that the police and
military does. Thus, the prisons are over capacity, which
causes overcrowding and re-victimization of incarcerated
people.
Women, the LGBTI community, and indigenous peoples
face more obstacles to access adequate and effective
judicial resources that remedy the violations they suffer.
Some cases can be particularly critical because they
suffer from various forms of discrimination and thus are
re-victimized by the state.
THE CRISIS OF THE DEMOCRATIC MODEL
In the region, the exercise of power continues to be
conceived as a personal property or of small groups,
but not as a delegation of popular will expressed in the
Constitution and laws.
In countries that pride themselves as democratic, citizens
can track the actions of those who exercise power. Access
to information and the liberalization of media can allow
citizens to report errors, excesses, abuses, irregularities,
and even crimes committed by their rulers, but in the
region there are increasingly less independent media,
which leads to feelings of disappointment, frustration,
and fatigue in organizations with democratic values.
Democratic activity for citizens has diminished to mere
participation in electoral events. There are obvious
difficulties faced in the region for the exercise of genuine
citizen participation, when self or group interests prevail
over the needs and rights of a nation. The privileged
consider political work as a means of getting rich.
The political problems in the region go beyond the
issue of electoral processes, for they create a permanent
environment for the pursuit of power or to keep it at
all costs, leading to authoritarianism, warlordism,
manipulation of consciences, corruption, injustice,
lawlessness, and violence.
Political parties debate in infighting and reciprocal
insults that have no origin in democratic motivations
or in solving problems in the countries, but in search
of higher power. They do not take the feelings of the
population into account, do not renew their leaders, and
do not offer clear alternative political strategies that
lead to the production of a national project with a focus
on rights.
In the region there is a gradual regression of the
democratic model through the closure of spaces for real
participation of civil society. States are increasingly
losing the capacity to make political, economic, and
social decisions autonomously and rather have become
obedient to the guidelines of other states or even to
multilateral financial organisms.
States have been degraded in their autonomy, to the degree
that they are sitting in a bench in court awaiting trial by
multilateral credit organisms such as the International
Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID),
where they are condemned to pay millions for violating
the interests of multinational companies.
THE NEOLIBERAL MODEL AND INEQUALITY IN CENTRAL
AMERICA
The development model based on macroeconomic growth
has used indebtedness as one of the most effective
mechanisms to insure its own survival, provoking
structural adjustment programs in Central America that
have included privatization of public services, cutbacks
on social spending, unrestricted economic openings, and
a legal framework that gives priority to certain sectors.
The majority of the cost of these mechanisms has been
principally transferred to the population, deepening
conditions of poverty, exclusion and an increased inequity
gap, which adds to the circle of structural violence that
is lived in the region. One of the expressions of this
double payment has been the social violence that
currently exists in the region.
The debt is a heavy weight in the countries, which
prevents development and the full exercise of human
rights. The conditions that come with loans and foreign
investment have caused a weakening of state power.
Economic planning and management are subjects to the
laws of the market, dominated by external agents with
private interests. The power of decision has shifted to raw
material exportation sectors and transnational capital.
Commercial-political agreements, investment
megaprojects, monoculture and extractive industries are
the new approach of the multilateral funding agencies
and foreign and national governments to justify the
regions path to development. However, this concept of
development goes against the very cultures of the region
since natural resources, the environment, water, health,
education, food, housing, work, culture, and life itself
are at stake.
The reduction of social investment in social issues has
caused the region to have a low GDP average compared
to other regions, which translates concretely into a
regression in the compliance with Economic, Social,
Cultural and Environmental rights.
SOCIAL-POLITICAL AND CULTURAL DISCRIMINATION
Although internal and external migration in the Central
American region has been a historical constant, in the
period of this report, there has been a growing increase
that has its basis in the public policies adopted by the
states in the region, the precarious economic situation,
social and political crises, and conditions of violence and
insecurity.
In addition, displacements from of the region are
associated with the unsafe conditions that cause
activities related to drug trafficking.
In most countries of the region there is displacement of
indigenous and peasants as a consequence of tourism
investment projects, the generation of electricity,
mining, and other causes.
Far from addressing the issue of forced migration, the
states of the region intentionally evade and, conversely,
encourage migration out of the region as it provides the
possibility to underpin national economies with domestic
remittances.
In relation to the rights of the LGBTI community,
countries in the region have clear omissions and actions
regarding legal regulation, institutional strengthening,
and protection for this sector of the population.
Exclusion of the LGBTI community, manifested in the
institutionalized indifference in response to crimes
against people from this community, such as the
denial of basic human rights such as to form a family,
the inability to access decent work, and the lack of
opportunities for political participation, reproduce the
negative connotation that has engulfed the community
and prevents them to be considered as rights holders.
Women in the regions social, economic, and political
situation are increasingly concerning; the increase in
violent acts towards them is also worrisome, particularly
the increases in hate crimes.
The signs presented in the report show that there is
an increasing and deepening deterioration in access to
services that assure adequate sexual and reproductive
health for women of all ages. In the majority of countries
in the region, the decriminalization of abortion and the
creation of mechanisms for the effective exercise of this
right continue to be a debt.
People with disabilities continue to be denied their
human rights, especially the Economic, Social, Cultural
and Environmental rights. Education, professional
development, health, work, and they are excluded from
normal cultural and social relations. They continue
having such elementary limitations such as adequate
access to public buildings and transportation due
to their physical limitations. Added to this is legal
inequality, because most standards regulate the rights
of people without disabilities. Any standards that work
in favor of people with disabilities apart from being
scarce are not met.
Both children and youth in the region face critical
situations of violence, products of conditions such as the
lack of opportunities, stigmatization,
the lack of public policies and weak protection by the
states. Additionally, there are obstacles to entering
and remaining in the educational system, which gives
more potential to turning to child labor and makes them
vulnerable to being subsumed by the world of drugs and
crime.
THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
In addition to the historical problems that indigenous
peoples in Central America have faced, now there are new
trends that are reducing their vital spaces, increasing loss
of ancestral lands in the face of diverse local, national, and
international interests mostly linked to extractive industries,
tourist projects, and mega projects of various natures.
From the states comes a persistent negation to recognize
their cultures through little institutional judicial
promotion and very little fulfillment of the small bit of
legal legislation that recognizes their rights, as is the
case of El Salvador and Panama, who have not ratified
the Agreement on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.
States should open real participatory spaces and establish
appropriate procedures that permit the consultation of
interested indigenous people, in topics of general interest
to the popular, but especially those topics related to
direct effects on their own interests.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Regional Team for Human Rights Monitoring and Analysis
in Central America recommends the following, in regards to
the insecurity and violence that exists in the region:
- The citizen security focus should be an integral one,
and it must take into account that addressing problems
of violence and insecurity means changing the current
approach and strategy. This starts with adjusting the
percentage of national budgets destined to satisfying
basic needs and fundamental rights of the population
(education, healthcare, environment), which is part of
violence prevention.
- Governmental institutions that have a direct relationship
with public security should be strengthened. This
strengthening should not be based in policies of
repression, which have been practiced in the immediate
past, but instead they should be underpinned by a rights-
based approach.
- The national budget-defense relationship must be
diminished, and the budget-social investment relationship
increased as a focus of violence prevention.
- Combating drug traffcking and organized crime is not
only a task on the level of individual countries; region-
wide strategies should be implemented, based in human
rights.
- Human rights monitoring networks, made up of different
sectors of society, should be promoted. Government
institutions dedicated to transparency and anti-corruption
should also take part in these networks.
- Systems of legal mechanisms for direct citizen participation
in public security should be created, to allow participation
in planning, discussion and/or construction of proposals,
policies and program evaluation.
- Regional governments should build a common position
before the hemispheric security plans that other countries
promote. It cannot continue to be true that the region is
one of the most violent of the planet as a consequence of
being part of the path where drugs are transported to the
other countries that demand them.
- International fnancing organizations, States with global
political and military power, and the various supranational
organizations should respect the sovereignty of States.
They should not determine what economic, political and
social agendas countries should follow.
- In the framework of international cooperationespecially
that from the European Union and the United Statesa
concept of security based on the promotion of justice and
full respect for human rights should be promoted.
- We demand a suspension on international cooperation
that promotes militarization and damages the human
rights situation, particularly in the case of military
assistance that the United States provides to the
countries of the region
The Regional Team for Human Rights Monitoring and
Analysis in Central America recommends the following, in
regards to the obstacles that the citizenry has to access
justice in the region:
- Necessary resources must be provided to the difference
institutions that make up the Justice System, so that they
can generate the conditions that make possible legal and
administrative guardianship of human rights.
- The countries that were affected by internal armed conficts
should not be permitted to use the fgure of amnesty as a
way to promote peace and harmony, disregarding the fact
that amnesty is a fgure that only strengthens structures
of impunity.
- There must be more attention paid to the human rights
of men and women inmates. They live in inhumane
conditions. It is necessary to create mechanisms that
permit the re-socialization of these people. Furthermore,
the levels of overcrowding should be reduced, along with
offering healthcare services and access to education.
- In the case of Guatemala, it is indispensable to promote
a permanent observation by the member states of the
United Nations Human Rights Commission and other
international organisms that combat impunity, to press
the Guatemalan government on cases of non-lapsable
human rights violations of international transcendence.
This includes genocide, crimes against humanity, forced
disappearance, sexual violence, and others which were
committed during the internal armed confict, and which
are currently in national courts. Likewise, the government
should recognize the actions of the IACHR, and respect
the sentences this organism has emitted.
- The states in the region should adopt and follow through
on international and regional mechanisms to protect
people who defend human rights. Governments must take
measures to not allow that various types of attacks continue,
from continual low-level threats and subtle attempts
to discredit defenders work, to unjust incarceration or
torture, and even including assassination.
in Central America recommends the following, in regards to
the crisis of the democratic model in the region:
- It is urgent to raise awareness about the great problems
that threaten the region, in order to create commitments
to build a more democratic and just society. Therefore, the
authorities of each nation must adhere to their Political
Constitutions, and quickly restore the constitutional state
and rule of law. This should be done through concrete
actions that help to strengthen an authentic democratic
governability.
- The authorities charged with overseeing electoral
processes should create mechanisms that allow elections
to be carried out transparently and without any fraud.
These guarantees, when effective, allow the citizenry to
trust in the legitimacy of the processes.
- Advancing along the path to democracy requires
instruments of deliberative, participatory and direct
democracy that allow the citizenry to express themselves
within large decisions that should be made in countries
best interest.
- Particularly, the government of Honduras should investigate
and severely and quickly sanction the crimes and other
grave human rights violations committed before, during
and after the coup detat. This includes the prosecution
of the material and intellectual authors of these crimes.
- The Central American states should recuperate the
autonomy lost when they were submitted to processes
heard in commercial courts, like the ICSID. Appealing to
the right of self-determination could allow symbolic or
real ignorance of such courts.
in Central America recommends the following, in terms of the
inequity generated by the neoliberal model:
- Governments should adopt measures aimed at
strengthening local and solidarity-based economies.
They provide alternatives to the dominant economic
model that increasingly impoverishes the majority and
enriches very few.
- Economic indicators in the region make an urgent case
to break with predominant dogma that spread the belief
that there is no alternative to neoliberalism. Central
American governments should turn toward a model that
values respect for human rights and nature over economic
interests.
- The economic focus toward solving problems of poverty,
low human development and inequality should be
eliminated. Instead, one which has a sustainable rights-
based development focus should be considered. The
participation of civil society organizations is fundamental
in monitoring and acting in favor of government
transparency.
- The governments of the region should adopt more
aggressive measures to prevent tax evasion, such as
establishing fscal policies that allow for a higher tax on
the part of minority sectors that possess much and pay
little. For its part, governments should be transparent
and offer proof in their use of resources, which should be
channeled to satisfy the rights of the populations.
- Governments should not be replaced by private business
under the framework of corporate social responsibility.
They should not provide basic services like healthcare,
education, and dignifed housing, among others.
in Central America recommends the following, in terms of
socio-political and cultural discrimination in the region:
- The countries of the region should take great pains to
construct social development programs which help to
create jobs and reduce unemployment. They should im-
prove the conditions of public security with programs that
respect human rights. Additionally, they should create re-
gional development policies to discourage internal and
external emigration.
- Statistics show that there is an increasing deterioration in
access to adequate sexual and reproductive health servi-
ces for women of all ages. Governments should create and
drive mechanisms that can change this situation. Further-
more, there should be concrete material changes in their
lives that allow them to enjoy this right. Governments
should carry out legal reforms that tend toward decrimi-
nalizing abortion.
- Central American governments should adopt necessary
mechanisms to adhere with and put into practice the Con-
vention on the Rights of Handicapped People. They must
protect and assure the full and equal enjoyment of all hu-
man rights and fundamental liberties for all handicapped
people, and promote the respect of inherent dignity
- Central American governments should elaborate and
present an exhaustive report about the mechanisms
that they have adopted to carry out their obligations to
handicapped people. They must inform these individuals,
along with the general population and international
organizations, about the progress achieved in this
respect.
- Governments should strengthen their institutions in
order to give privileged attention to children and youth.
The necessary conditions must be provided to maintain
children in school. It is urgent to increase the percentage
of GDP invested into regional education. This translates
into an improved access to education. Children must be
kept in school, as a way to reduce violence.
- Security policies should attempt to strengthen crime
prevention and abandon repression, particularly against
youth.
- Governments should promote the approval of special laws
that generate the conditions to eradicate discrimination
against the LGBTQ community. They must also legally
recognize the right to gender identity, and allow people
to change their names and gender in offcial identity
documents. Also, pertinent legislation must be created
to penalize drastic hate crimes against the LGBTQ
community.
- Institutionalism should be strengthened with an eye
toward eradicating all forms of gender inequality. Similarly,
in all the countries of the region, criminal regulations
should be approved to severely sanction all violations of
womens rights. In the particular case of Costa Rica, the
description of the femicide crime should be widened, with
the purpose of taking into account all aggressions against
women for being women. This is important to also take
into account, so that feminicide is not the only parameter,
which defnes itself in relationship to a partner.
- It is necessary to destine suffcient fnancial resources to
make advances in the inclusion of handicapped people.
One step is to create labor insertion programs and/or
to encourage productive projects for them. Barriers that
impede or limit access to handicapped people from their
physical surroundings, transportation, information and
communications should be removed.
- It is urgent to legislate and to take administrative
measures the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health
education in schools. This will reduce drop-out rates in
youth. Equally important is the generation of conditions
to minimize the participation of youth in violence,
whether they are victims or victimizers.
in Central America recommends the following, in terms of
indigenous peoples in the region:
- The governments of the region should recognize that
the Letter to the United Nations, the International
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Covenant, and the
International Civil and Political Rights Covenant, along
with the Vienna Declaration and Action Program, affrm
the fundamental importance of the right of all peoples to
free determination. This means that they freely determine
their political condition and can freely pursue economic,
social and cultural development.
- Central American governments should recognize, create
and drive mechanisms to establish social, cultural and
economic conditions appropriate for native peoples.
This distinguishes them from other national collective
sectors, and means that they should be governed totally
or partially by their own customs or traditions, or by a
special legislation. Nevertheless, its members must also be
assured the equal enjoyment of rights and opportunities
that the national legislation of each country awards to
the other members of the population.
- All regulation systems in the region should be adjusted to
meet the rights of indigenous peoples. In order to do so,
El Salvador and Panama should add ILO Convention 169
to their regulations. In all countries, this international
instrument should be seen as the base of any public
policy.
- The States in the region must generate the necessary
mechanisms to guarantee a real participation and
consultation with native peoples, to be able to obtain
their agreement or consent in those subjects to which they
are directly linked. This is the cornerstone of Convention
169.
- Large national and international interests carry out the
extraction of natural resources with the support of Central
American governments in all of the countries. This should
not be allowed, particularly in lands and indigenous
territories. On the contrary, native peoples right to
historical territory should be recognized.
- In the particular case of Guatemala, actions should be
taken to help indigenous peoples recuperate their lands.
These actions were written into the peace accords.
- Honduras must carry out the system of actions to recognize
ancestral indigenous zones.
- El Salvador should continue promoting regulations that
recognize the rights of native peoples.
- Government authorities in Nicaragua should continue with
the process of autonomous land sanitation, impeding that
non-indigenous sectors take them over, and promoting the
emission of new laws that recognized the indigenous lands
on the pacifc coast and in the center of the country.
- In Costa Rica, indigenous actions to recuperate
misappropriated lands must be roundly supported by
forceful government actions.
- In Panama, the legal system should accept the recognition
of new regions, such as that of the Naso peoples. It should
also respect the autonomy of those regions that already
exist.
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
AG General of the Republic
AIDS Acquired Immune Defciency Syndrome
AMASAU Awas Tingni Mayangna Sauni Umani
BTI Bertelsmann
CABEI Central American Bank for Economic Integration
CAFTA-DR Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement
CAIMUS Integral Support Centers for Women Survivors of Violence
CCSS Costa Rican Social Security Savings
CCV Costa Rican Housing Confederation
CEAT Special Anti-Terrorist Commando
CEFEMINA Feminist Center for Information and Action
CEH Historical Clarifcation Commission
CENIDH Nicaraguan Human Rights Center
CES Economic and Social Council
CESPAD Democracy Studies Center
CIEL The Center for International Environmental Law
CODEH Human Rights Defense Commitee
COFADEH Coordinating Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared of Honduras
CONADI National Handicapped Peoples Service Council
CONNA Children and Adolescents National Council
CONPES National Council of Economic and Social Planning
CSE Supreme Electoral Council
DESCA Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights
DGME Central Offce of Migration and Foreign Affairs
EAP Economically Active Population
FESPAD Foundation for the Study and Application of the Law
FONAMIH National Forum for Migrations in Honduras
FSLN National Sandinista Liberation Front
FSV Social Housing Fund
FTA Free Trade Agreement
FUSOVI Subsidized Housing Fund
GAM Mutual Support Group
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GPC Citizen Power Cabinets
HDI Human Development Index
HDI-I The Human Development Index adjusted for Inequality
HIV Human Immunodefciency Virus
IACHR Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
ICE Costa Rican Electricity Institute
ICSID International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
IDA Agrarian Development Institute
IDB Inter-American Development Bank
ILO International Labour Organization
INACIF National Forensic Sciences Institute
INDER Rural Development Institute
INE National Institute of Statistics
ISTA Agrarian Transformation Institute
JAPDEVA Atlantic Watershed Administrative Board
JED Departmental Electoral Board
JEM Municipal Electoral Board
LEPINA Integral Protection Law for Children and Adolescents
LGBTI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex
MAPIINICSA Precious Indigenous Woods and Industries of Nicaragua S.A.
MARCA Authentic Farm Worker Vindication Movement of the Agun
MINED Ministry of Education
MINSAL Ministry of Health
MZ Maritime Zone
OAS Organization of American States
OMM Mayan World Organization
OPVG Panamanian Observatory against Gender Violence
ORMUSA Salvadoran Women for Peace Organization
PCN National Conciliation Party
PDC Christian Democrat Party
PDDH Offce of the Human Rights Ombudsman
PHED El Diquis Hydroelectirc Project
PNA National Literacy Program
PNC National Civilian Police
PPP Public Private Partnerships
PTMI Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV
RAAS Autonomous Region of the South Atlantic
RAC Shared Care Network
REDD+ The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation in Developing Countries
SCJ Supreme Court of Justice
SEBANA National Bank Workers Union
SEPREM Presidential Secretary of the Woman
SITRACHILCO Chiriqu Land Co Workers Union
STISSS Salvadoran Social Security Institute Workers Union
TECOCOS Communal Costal Territories
TSE Supreme Electoral Tribunal
UDEFEGUA Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit of Guatemala
UMO Order Maintanence Unit
UN United Nations
UNAH National Autonomous University of Honduras
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
URP Universal Periodic Review
WHO World Health Organization
Bibliography
Lawyers for Human Rights. Declaration from the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations about the
Situation of Human Rights Defenders upon Concluding a Visit to Honduras. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
February 14, 2012.
Agero, Mercedes. Defensora: Orozco deber luchar contra discriminacin. La Nacin. San Jose,
Costa Rica. May 30, 2012.
Agero, Mercedes. Justo Orozco aceler sbito rechazo al proyecto de ley de uniones gais. La Nacin.
San Jose, Costa Rica. July 2, 2012.
Agero, Mercedes. Justo Orozco: Yo soy cristiano, no puedo ser homofbico. La Nacin. San Jose,
Costa Rica. May 30, 2012.
Alvarado, Hugo. Condenan a 70 aos de prisin a exjefe de extinta Polica Nacional. Prensa Libre.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. August 22, 2012.
Alvarado, Luis. El Salvador y Costa Rica lideran avance democrtico en Centroamrica. Secretara para
Asuntos Estratgicos de la Presidencia. San Salvador, El Salvador. March 22, 2012.
Alvarenga, Fany. El desempleo agobia a unos 863 mil jvenes. La Prensa. Tegucigalpa, Honduras. May 24, 2012.
Alpzar, Juliana. Grupos de vivienda se alan para pedir cuentas a Gobierno. La Nacin. San Jose,
Costa Rica. February 4, 2012.
Arango Olaya, Mnica. El acceso al aborto teraputico en Costa Rica. La Nacin. San Jose, Costa
Rica. June 16, 2011.
Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Costa Rica. Law Project for Communities in Costal Territories
(Proyecto de Ley de Territorios Costeros Comunitarios.) San Jose, Costa Rica. October 6, 2011.
National Assembly. Legal Regulations for the Great Interocean Canal from Nicaragua and the Creation
of the Authority of the Great Interocean Canal of Nicaragua. (Ley del Rgimen Jurdico de el Gran
Canal Interocenico de Nicaragua y de Creacin de la Autoridad de el Gran Canal Interocenico de
Nicaragua.) Decree No. 800. Managua, Nicaragua. Published in La Gaceta on July 8, 2012.
National Association of Public and Private Employees (Asociacin Nacional de Empleados Pblicos
y Privados.) Fear Memorandum: Popular Memory will not be archived. (Memorndum del miedo: La
memoria popular no lo archivar.) San Jose, Costa Rica.
Central Reserve Bank. El Salvador received US$3,648.8 million in family remittances during
2011. Press Release No. 03/2012. San Salvador, El Salvador. January 27,2012.
Central American Bank for Economic Integration. Statistical Fact Sheet on Honduras. 2011.
Inter-American Development Bank. IADB Study: Latin America and the Caribbean face growing
housing defcit. May 14, 2012.
World Bank. Crime and Violence in Central America, A Challenge to Development. Year 2011.
World Bank, Expenditures on Health, Total (%GDP). 2011.
Caso Fernando Garca. Yo lo quera devuelto con vida. A Tale of the Edgar Fernando Garcia
Case from the Inside, from the Torre de Tribunales. October 28, 2010.
Castan, Mariela. En las crceles, criminales han ganado y siguen ganando el pulso al
Gobierno. La Hora. Guatemala City, Guatemala. September 10, 2012.
Castillo, Beatriz. PDDH recibe denuncias de violaciones a derechos en bartolinas policiales.
CoLatino. San Salvador, El Salvador. May 30, 2012.
Chacn, Vinicio. Industrias Infnito pide modifcar curso de la Escuela de Biologa de la UCR.
Semanario Universidad. San Jose, Costa Rica. July 1, 2012.
Chaves, Katherine. Forneo busc a nio y lo mat, sin causa, de un balazo en el trax. La
Nacin. San Jose, Costa Rica. August 8, 2012.
Centinela Econmico. Honduras creci un 3.2% en 2011, solo arriba de El Salvador con 1.4%.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. December 21, 2011.
Integral Support Centers for Women Survivors of Violence (CAIMUS). Integral Support for
Women Survivors of Violence (Informe de atencin integral a mujeres sobrevivientes de
violencia.) Period 2008-2011.
Democracy Studies Center (CESPAD).Toward a Negotiated End to the Honduran Political Crisis
(Hacia una salida negociada de la crisis poltica hondurea.) Prospective Political Analysis
Report. Tegucigalpa, Honduras. April 2011.
UN News Center. Central America has the highest homicide rates in the world. May 16, 2012.
Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH). Annual Human Rights Report in Nicaragua.
(Informe Anual de Derechos Humanos en Nicaragua.) Managua, Nicaragua. Year 2011.
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. (Comisin Econmica para Amrica
Latina y el Caribe.) Macroeconomic Report (Informe Macroeconmico.) (Unedited version). June,
2012.
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and others (Comisin Econmica
para Amrica Latina y el Caribe.) Answers from the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean
upon the rise and volatility of food prices, and options for collaboration. (Respuestas de
los pases de Amrica Latina y el Caribe al alza y volatilidad de precios de los alimentos y
opciones de colaboracin.) Newsletter N 1. Year 2012.
Government of El Salvador (GOES) Inter-Institutional Commission. Legal Project for Public-Private
Associations. (Proyecto de Ley de Asocios Pblico Privados.) San Salvador, El Salvador. 2012.
National Minimum Salary Commission (Comisin Nacional de Salario Mnimo.) Ministerial
Agreement CHG-04-08-12. Managua, Nicaragua. 2012.
National Commission for the Improvement of Justice (Comisin Nacional para el mejoramiento
de la Justicia.) In Costa Rica, exploitation and Xenophobia threaten domestic workers. (En
Costa Rica explotacin y xenofobia amenazan a trabajadoras domsticas.) San Jose, Costa
Rica. February 15, 2011.
Commission for Peace and Ecology (Comisin Paz y Ecologa.) The problems created by the
Marlin Mine Goldcorpin San Marcos, Guatemala. (Los problemas creados por la mina Marlin
Goldcorp en San Marcos, Guatemala.) Guatemala City, Guatemala. 2012.
Congress of the Republic of Guatemala. Support Law for Civil Security Forces (Ley de apoyo a las
fuerzas de seguridad civil.) Decree No. 40-2000. Guatemala City, Guatemala. June 16, 2000.
Contreras, Leticia. Costa Rica debe avanzar en derechos sexuales de mujeres, dice experta.
Crhoy. San Jose, Costa Rica. June 6, 2012
De Cardenal, Julia Regina. El Diario de Hoy. Violencia Contra la Mujer. San Salvador. El Salvador.
August 19, 2012.
De la Cruz, Vladimir. La prxima oposicin poltica. La Repblica. San Jose, Costa Rica. August 15, 2012.
Departamento 19, La voz de los hondureos cinco estrellas. Honduras empieza el 2012 con 8.2
millones de habitantes. Tegucigalpa. Honduras. December 31,2011.
Daz Luis. CCSS dej a pacientes hasta un ao sin sus medicamentos. La Nacin. San Jose.
Costa Rica. June 15, 2012.
Daz, Luis. Cesanta de solo 5 empleados le cost a la CCSS 1.000 millones. La Nacin. San
Jose. Costa Rica. November 9, 2011.
General Directorate for Jails. Penitentiary Statistics. San Salvador. El Salvador. September 24, 2012.
El Peridico. Protestan por cierre de archivo militar. Guatemala. Guatemala City, Guatemala.
May 31, 2012.
Elsalvador.com. OEA verifca tregua de pandillas. San Salvador, El Salvador. September 25, 2012.
USG-GOES Joint Technical Team (Equipo Tcnico Conjunto USG-GOES.) Partnership for Growth:
Restrictions Analysis. (Pacto para el Crecimiento: Anlisis de Restricciones.) 2011.
School for Ecological Thought (Escuela de Pensamiento Ecologista.) Ecological Reality of
Guatemala. (Realidad Ecolgica de Guatemala.) Guatemala City, Guatemala. 2nd Edition,
Published in January of 2011.
Attorney General of the Republic. Geo-statistical Homicide Report (Boletn Geoestadstico de
Homicidios.) Edition. Number 3. San Salvador, El Salvador. 2011.
Flores, Magdalena. PDDH tiene 158 expedientes contra militares. Contrapunto. San Salvador.
El Salvador. February 16, 2011.
Popular Housing National Fund (Fondo Nacional de Vivienda Popular.) A House for Everyone
Program (Programa Casa para Todos.) San Salvador. El Salvador. September 22, 2010.
Fuentes, Ferlin and others. Sala IV resalta deuda del Estado en regulacin de uniones gais.
La Nacin. San Jose. Costa Rica. May 12, 2012.
Foundation for the Study of the Application of the Law (FESPAD) Three years after a diffcult
inheritance: Report on the state of human rights in the current presidential administration.
(A tres aos de una difcil herencia, Informe del estado de los derechos humanos en la actual
gestin presidencial.) San Salvador, El Salvador. 2009 -2012.
Gandsegui, Marco. The Country is at War (El pas est en guerra.) Latin American Information
Agency (Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacin.) March 29, 2012.
Government of El Salvador and Others. Urban Poverty and Social Exclusion Map (Mapa de
Pobreza Urbana y Exclusin Social El Salvador.) San Salvador, El Salvador. 2010.
Goldcorp Out of Guatemala. Resistance generates changes in mining investments, mining
project El Tambor. Guatemala City, Guatemala. September 21,2012.
Mutual Support Group (GAM). President of the Republic of Guatemala asks for pardon for the
human rights violations committed by security forces of the State in the El Jute case, driven
by the Mutual Support Group (Presidente de la Repblica de Guatemala, pide perdn por las
violaciones a los Derechos Humanos cometidas por las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado, en el caso
El Jute, impulsado por el Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo.) Guatemala. Guatemala. June 27, 2011.
Guzmn, Jessica. Celebran Da de la persona con discapacidad. La Pgina. San Salvador, El
Salvador. December 3, 2011.
Herrera, Luis Miguel. Corte investiga a magistrado suplente por fuga de fallo. La Nacin. San
Jose. Costa Rica. February 5, 2012.
Hess, Erick. El Estado no est planifcando. La Nacin. San Jose. Costa Rica. July 7, 2012.
Institute for Economics & Peace. Global Peace Index 2011.
National Statistics Institute (INE). National Poll of Living Conditions in Guatemala. (Encuesta
Nacional de Condiciones de vida Guatemala.) Guatemala. 2011.
University Institute for Democracy, Peace and Security. (Instituto Universitario en
Democracia, Paz y Seguridad.) Violence, Mortality and Others Observatory. (Observatorio de
la Violencia Mortalidad y Otros.) Edition Number 24. January-December 2011.
La Prensa Grfca. Comando militar antiterrorista cuidar buses. El Salvador, July 30,2012.
La Prensa Grfca. TSE admite que hay campaa adelantada. San Salvador, El Salvador.
August 28, 2012.
La Prensa. Nivel educativo de la mujer va en aumento. Tegucigalpa. Honduras. February 27, 2011.
La Tribuna. Cada ao emigran unos 100 mil hondureos. Tegucigalpa. Honduras. December 19, 2010.
The Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit of Guatemala (La Unidad de Proteccin a
Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala.) We are Women and Men of
Corn. Guatemala.
La Voz del sandinismo. Construirn nuevo mdulo de mxima seguridad en sistema
penitenciario La Modelo. Managua, Nicaragua. September 29, 2012.
Limachi, Juan. Panam afronta narcotrfco y violencia en las calles. Spanish News Cn.
Panama. May 11, 2011.
Matthias Nowak. Small Armas Suvery. Femicide: a Global Problem. N 14. February 2012
Mench, Sofa. Santa Cruz Barillas: las dos versiones de los disturbios. El Peridico. Guatemala
City, Guatemala. May 3, 2012.
Ministry of the Economy. Multi-Purpose Homes Poll (Encuesta de Hogares de Propsitos
Mltiples). San Salvador, El Salvador. 2010.
Health Ministry of Citizen Power (Ministerio del Poder Ciudadano para la Salud.) Health Management
Report, 2011 (Informe de Gestin en Salud), 2011. Managua, Nicaragua. May, 2012.
Ministry of Labor and Development. (Ministerio de Trabajo y Desarrollo Laboral). Executive Decree
through which new mnimum salary rates will be set for the national territory. (Decreto Ejecutivo
por medio del cual se fjan las nuevas tasas de salario mnimo en todo el territorio nacional.)
Executive Decree N 240. Offcial Gazette: 26,940-C. Panama, Panama. December 28, 2011.
Ministry of Labor and Social Concern (Ministerio de Trabajo y Previsin Social.) Agreement
Number 520-2011. Guatemala City, Guatemala. Published December 30, 2012.
Ministry of Labor and Social Security (Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social). Decree N
36867-MTSS. San Jose, Costa Rica. Published in La Gaceta N 236, December 8, 2011.
Miranda, Hulda. 44 menores participaron en homicidios en el 2011. La Nacin. San Jose, Costa
Rica. June 1, 2012.
Molina, Geovany. Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minera desestima propuesta del Ejecutivo.
CoLatino. San Salvador, El Salvador. August 9, 2012.
Mora Gamboa, Emilia. IDA cannot intervene in Medio Queso conficto (IDA no puede intervenir
en conficto en medio queso.) Agrarian Development Institute. San Jose, Costa Rica. 2012.
Tzununija Movement of Indigenous Women (Movimiento de Mujeres Indgenas Tzununija.)
Guatemala: Press Release about the result of the judgement of women from the Agel community.
(Comunicado ante el resultado del juzgamiento de las mujeres de la comunidad de gel.)
Guatemala City, Guatemala. May 19, 2012.
Murillo, lvaro. Proyecto contra desalojos costeros. La Nacin. San Jos, Costa Rica. October 10, 2012.
United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture. The Right to Adequate Food. Informative
Bulletin N 34.
Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace (ORMUSA). Feminicides. Gender Violence Against
Women Observatory. November December 2011 and First Semester 2012.
Transgender Organization Queens of the Night (Reinas de la Noche) and others. Human Rights
Violations against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals (LGBTI) in Guatemala:
Shadow Report. New York, 2012.
Osorio, Jessica. Conadi reclama una poltica de atencin integral. Siglo 21. Guatemala City,
Guatemala. February 26, 2012.
Oviedo, Esteban. Fiscala desiste de acusar a exministro Rodrigo Arias. La Nacin. San Jos,
Costa Rica. December 28, 2011.
Oviedo, Esteban. Procuradura pide a Fiscala no cerrar caso de Rodrigo Arias. La Nacin. San
Jose, Costa Rica. July 15, 2012.
Palacios, Marvin. Sistema de Justicia, Derechos Humanos e impunidad son los temas que
interesan a diputados y juristas alemanes. Honduras Tierra libre. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
February 21, 2012.
Prez, Arlen y Otros. Reforma 50-50 aprobada por 90 diputados. El Nuevo Diario. Managua.
Nicaragua. March 9, 2012.
Prez, Vinicio. HIV Estimations and Projections for Guatemala (Estimaciones y
proyecciones de VIH para Guatemala.) Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance.
Guatemala City. Guatemala. 2011.
Peridico Digital Contrapunto. Migracin: 200 compatriotas mueren al ao. San Salvador:
El Salvador. February 6, 2012.
Prensa Libre. Prez aparta a colectivos de mujeres para proponer a jefa de Seprem.
Tegucigalpa. Honduras. February 2, 2012.
Joint Program for Housing and Productive and Sustainable Urban Settlements (Programa
Conjunto Vivienda y Asentamientos Urbanos Productivos y Sostenible.) Who are we?
(Quines somos?) October 2, 2011.
United Nations Development Program. Guatemala: A Country of opportunities for youth?
National Report of Human Development 2011/2012. Guatemala City, Guatemala. 2012.
United Nations Development Program. Human Rights Report. Year 2010 y 2011.
United Nations Development Program and others. State of the Region Report. 2008-2011.
United Nations Development Program and others. Our Latin American Democracy. Mexico
City, Mexico. 2010.
Regional Program for Food Security for Central America and Others (Programa Regional
de Seguridad Alimentaria para Centroamrica y otros.) Central America in Statistics.
Nutritional Food Security and Family Agriculture Information (Datos de Seguridad
Alimentaria Nutricional y Agricultura Familiar.) December 2011.
Network of Women Against Violence. (Red de Mujeres Contra la Violencia.) Annual
Reporto n Feminicide-Femicide, Managua, Nicaragua. 2011
Rivera, Ernesto. CCSS 10% de morosos concentra 75% de toda la deuda con la CCSS. La
Nacin. San Jose, Costa Rica. July 27, 2011.
Rodrguez, Irene. 46% de refugiados en el pas vive con menos de 100.000 al mes. La
Nacin. San Jose, Costa Rica. June 21, 2012.
Rojas Ziga, Nathalia. Autoridades incumplen con acceso a aborto teraputico.
Semanario Universitario. San Jose, Costa Rica. June 1, 2011.
Ross. Amy. Mayora de discapacitados del pas apenas curso la primaria. La Nacin. San
Jose, Costa Rica. July 7, 2012.
Ross, Amy. Pas se opuso a reconocer derechos reproductivos. La Nacin. San Jose,
Costa Rica. July 11, 2012.
Ross, Amy. 64% de personas con discapacidad no tiene trabajo. La Nacin. San Jose, Costa
Rica. May 30, 2012.
Constitutional Court. Inconstitutionality 61-2009. San Salvador, El Salvador. July 29,2010.
Salas Guzmn, Margarita. El derecho a decidir ser madre. La Nacin. San Jose, Costa Rica.
September 10, 2012.
Presidential Secretariat for Planning and Programming. Third report on advances in follow-
through on the Millenium Development Goals- Objective 2- Achieve Universal Primary School
Education. Guatemala City, Guatemala. 2010.
Serrano, Israel. Abstencionismo gran protagonista de los comicios 2012. La Pgina. San
Salvador, El Salvador. March 20, 2012.
Soto, Jimena. Quin es el Palidejo? Crhoy.com. San Jose, Costa Rica. March 12, 2012.
Suarez Franco, Ana Mara. How to promote the justicability of the human right to suffcient
food in Central America. FIAN International. September 2007.
Tiempo Digital. PMA: 300 mil nios sufren hambre y desnutricin en Honduras. Tegucigalpa.
Honduras. May 23, 2012.
ltimas Noticias. Homosexuales piden Ley de Identidad de Gnero en Guatemala. Guatemala
City, Guatemala. Guatemala. May 5, 2012.
Ungo, Urania. Femicidio en Panam: de la fantasa a una gran pesadilla. La Estrella, Panama,
Panama. July 15, 2012.
Human Rights Protections Unit UDEFEGUA, Guatemala. Protecting ourselves from the threats of
the XXI Century (Protegindonos ante las amenazas del Siglo XXI). Guatemala City, Guatemala,
Guatemala. 2009.
United States, Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law. Enforcement Affairs,
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. Volume I Drug and Chemical Control. March 2011.
University of California, Berkeley, Department of Law. International Human Rights Legal
Clinic. Sexual Diversity in El Salvador: A Reporto on the Human Rights Situation of the LGBT
Community. July 2012.
Youtube Video. The Legal System Fails Sonia Esther Tabora Contreras. (Falla el sistema judicial
a Sonia Esther Tabora Contreras.) San Salvador, El Salvador. July 24, 2012.
Villegas, Jairo. COSTA RICA: School drop-out rate rises for the frst time in six years. Alliance
for your Rights. San Jose, Costa Rica. July 23, 2012.
Vindas, Leticia. CCSS Empleado de la CCSS denuncia a ex jefe por supuesto maquillaje de
informes fnancieros. El Financiero. San Jose, Costa Rica. August 13, 2012.
Report on Human Rights and Confict in Central America
This document was printed
In January 2013
1st. edition
With a circulation of
500 copies
San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A

Informe Derechos Humanos. Federación Luterana Mundial

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Informe Derechos Humanos. Federación Luterana Mundial

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Report on

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen