Possibilities of Advancing Police Reform in Guatemala through Community -Oriented Policing

Arturo Matute

doi:10.12924/johs2021.16020097

Abstract

The paper describes the process of security sector reform in Guatemala with reference to the efforts to implement community-based policing practices. The results point to the difficulties of shaking-off public understandings of security honed during the armed conflict and underscore the efforts of a still young police institution to position itself in a democratic context. The study posits that community-oriented policing strategies open opportunities to forward police reform in the high-violence, low-trust, weak-institutions, and post-conflict context of Guatemala. The argument is supported by field data gathered in indigenous territories in the Western Highlands, where traditional forms of social organization persist, and in metropolitan Villa Canales municipality, an urban, high-violence site of research.

Highlights

Police reform has been sought in Latin America since authoritarian regimes declined in the late 20th century
The results point to the difficulties of shakingoff public understandings of security honed during the armed conflict and underscore the efforts of a still young police institution to position itself in a democratic context
This was an essential part of the effort to transform Guatemalan security policy from counterinsurgent opprobrium to a humansecurity paradigm where the rights of the citizens are the center of concern of state action

Summary

Introduction

Police reform has been sought in Latin America since authoritarian regimes declined in the late 20th century. The PNC developed its homicide can be subjected to the law; that citizen mobilizations can investigations unit and opened up to collaboration with a achieve changes at the highest levels of government and progressive Attorney General, Claudia Paz y Paz, and CI- that justice and security institutions have the capacity to CIG in the implementation of strategic investigations aimed carry out their missions even under very difficult conditions, at dismantling whole criminal structures instead of using if provided with the necessary support.

Results

Conclusion