Security in Central America

Rounding up the governments

Central America’s leaders and their neighbours are at last starting to co-operate. But the mafias still lead the way in regional integration

Jun 23rd 2011 | GUATEMALA CITY

THE Central American isthmus is smaller than Texas. But the seven countries crammed onto the bridge between the Americas seize nearly 100 tonnes of cocaine a year, more than all of Europe does. Another 200 tonnes or so make it through undetected, supplying 90% of consumer demand in the United States. The drug trade, combined with mainly weak states, brings a grim human harvest. In 2009 the isthmus saw nearly 19,000 murders—or 45 per 100,000 people, making it the most violent place in the world.

While the mafias are untroubled by national boundaries, Central America’s governments bicker over them. Last year Nicaragua and Costa Rica almost came to blows over a border incursion by a Nicaraguan river-dredging party. A coup in Honduras in 2009 caused a regional rift that was only patched up last month. Co-operation has been woolly. A first effort to produce a joint-security strategy last year came up with more than 200 “priorities”. In contrast, the drug mobs (who also traffic everything from people to historical artefacts) are experts at regional integration. Last month 27 farmworkers were beheaded in Guatemala’s northern Petén province by a Mexican gang.

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