NewsWhore
01-04-2012, 12:50 PM
Eduardo Gamarra, professor of politics and international relations at the Florida International University has told the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the program he helped design to improve security in the Dominican Republic, the Democratic Security Plan and Barrio Seguro (PSD), while initially successful, eventually failed to reduce the increased presence of drug trafficking organizations, the increase in drug consumption, and the rise in violent crime. In the hearing he mentioned domestic issues and the international pressures as the reasons. Hoy broke the story of the hearing to the local press today.
The US Senate met to hear panelists speak on the US-Caribbean Shared Security Partnership and how it was responding to the growth of trafficking and narcotics in the Caribbean.
The Plan de Seguridad Democratica (Democratic Security Plan?PSD) was begun in 2004 to bring down the violent death and crime rates that had been steadily rising since 2002. Part of the PSD was Barrio Seguro (Safe Neighborhood), a program through which the most violence-prone neighborhoods were targeted not only for increased police presence but also for the development of a battery of social programs aimed primarily at youth at risk.
The violent death rate in 2004 was 30 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2006 the violent death rate had dropped to 17 per 100,000. In 2010, nevertheless, the violent death rate climbed to 24 per 100,000.
During the hearing, Gamarra said that on the domestic front, the most serious problem facing the PSD was its failure to overhaul the National Police, which he said continues to be an institution that resists change for reasons that range from corruption to a severe lack of training and resources. A second major issue was the politicization of the PSD as those who were in charge of carrying out the plan saw it is as an important tool to seek higher political office. Another issue involved the lack of coordination between the institutions in charge of implementing the PSD. In particular, the Plan suffered from a very serious lack of coordinated efforts between the National Police and the Ministry of Interior.
Gamarra also mentioned the lack of funding and international support. And he said that while the PSD's success was affected by these domestic and funding constraints, "the reality is that the situation in the Caribbean (including Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico) had also changed dramatically during this period and was having an enormous impact on the Dominican Republic".
He mentioned that investigations by Newlink Research in 2007 confirmed the presence of transnational criminal organizations that were increasingly using the entire island of Hispaniola to traffic drugs to both the United States and Europe.
"We conducted focus groups in remote areas of the country where villagers reported continuous 'bombardments' of drugs from the sky, he commented, explaining that the drugs that fell from the sky had a multiplier impact on the country. "First, drug use became an issue even in small towns where traffickers were paying villagers in kind for turning over the drugs they collected. This produced not only violence but also contributed to drug consumption problems among young Dominicans. Second, increasingly drug busts were netting individuals from a variety of countries including Colombians, Venezuelans, Central Americans, Mexicans and Haitians. Third, this trend suggested that the Dominican Republic was fast becoming not only an important transshipment point but also a place where traffickers of all nationalities were violently settling scores".
Gamarra said that by 2011, "the Dominican Republic appeared to have fulfilled the prediction by some analysts in the 1990s that it was becoming the command and control center of the Caribbean drug trafficking industry".
According to Gamarra in recent years the surge of drug trafficking towards and from the Dominican Republic and the emergence of internal micro trafficking have become complex, expansive and harmful phenomena for Dominican society. "Given their importance, both constitute a development engine for many sectors of the urban and rural economy of the country. Progressively and owing to its resilience, the ties of this industry strengthen an integrated vertical and horizontal transnational criminal structure that involves a network of social and political organizations. These dynamics affect the quality of life in the Dominican Republic and they undermine trust in institutions and democratic governance"... he stated in the 15 December hearing.
www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/the-us-caribbean-shared-security-partnership-responding-to-the-growth-of-trafficking-and-narcotics-in-the-caribbean (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/the-us-caribbean-shared-security-partnership-responding-to-the-growth-of-trafficking-and-narcotics-in-the-caribbean)
www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Eduardo_Gamarra_testimony.pdf (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Eduardo_Gamarra_testimony.pdf)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)
The US Senate met to hear panelists speak on the US-Caribbean Shared Security Partnership and how it was responding to the growth of trafficking and narcotics in the Caribbean.
The Plan de Seguridad Democratica (Democratic Security Plan?PSD) was begun in 2004 to bring down the violent death and crime rates that had been steadily rising since 2002. Part of the PSD was Barrio Seguro (Safe Neighborhood), a program through which the most violence-prone neighborhoods were targeted not only for increased police presence but also for the development of a battery of social programs aimed primarily at youth at risk.
The violent death rate in 2004 was 30 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2006 the violent death rate had dropped to 17 per 100,000. In 2010, nevertheless, the violent death rate climbed to 24 per 100,000.
During the hearing, Gamarra said that on the domestic front, the most serious problem facing the PSD was its failure to overhaul the National Police, which he said continues to be an institution that resists change for reasons that range from corruption to a severe lack of training and resources. A second major issue was the politicization of the PSD as those who were in charge of carrying out the plan saw it is as an important tool to seek higher political office. Another issue involved the lack of coordination between the institutions in charge of implementing the PSD. In particular, the Plan suffered from a very serious lack of coordinated efforts between the National Police and the Ministry of Interior.
Gamarra also mentioned the lack of funding and international support. And he said that while the PSD's success was affected by these domestic and funding constraints, "the reality is that the situation in the Caribbean (including Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico) had also changed dramatically during this period and was having an enormous impact on the Dominican Republic".
He mentioned that investigations by Newlink Research in 2007 confirmed the presence of transnational criminal organizations that were increasingly using the entire island of Hispaniola to traffic drugs to both the United States and Europe.
"We conducted focus groups in remote areas of the country where villagers reported continuous 'bombardments' of drugs from the sky, he commented, explaining that the drugs that fell from the sky had a multiplier impact on the country. "First, drug use became an issue even in small towns where traffickers were paying villagers in kind for turning over the drugs they collected. This produced not only violence but also contributed to drug consumption problems among young Dominicans. Second, increasingly drug busts were netting individuals from a variety of countries including Colombians, Venezuelans, Central Americans, Mexicans and Haitians. Third, this trend suggested that the Dominican Republic was fast becoming not only an important transshipment point but also a place where traffickers of all nationalities were violently settling scores".
Gamarra said that by 2011, "the Dominican Republic appeared to have fulfilled the prediction by some analysts in the 1990s that it was becoming the command and control center of the Caribbean drug trafficking industry".
According to Gamarra in recent years the surge of drug trafficking towards and from the Dominican Republic and the emergence of internal micro trafficking have become complex, expansive and harmful phenomena for Dominican society. "Given their importance, both constitute a development engine for many sectors of the urban and rural economy of the country. Progressively and owing to its resilience, the ties of this industry strengthen an integrated vertical and horizontal transnational criminal structure that involves a network of social and political organizations. These dynamics affect the quality of life in the Dominican Republic and they undermine trust in institutions and democratic governance"... he stated in the 15 December hearing.
www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/the-us-caribbean-shared-security-partnership-responding-to-the-growth-of-trafficking-and-narcotics-in-the-caribbean (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/the-us-caribbean-shared-security-partnership-responding-to-the-growth-of-trafficking-and-narcotics-in-the-caribbean)
www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Eduardo_Gamarra_testimony.pdf (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Eduardo_Gamarra_testimony.pdf)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)