by the El Reportero’s news services
Efraín Ríos Montt
Although the immediate outlook for Mexico looks grim on several fronts (especially on security and the economy) the candidates lining up to race for the presidency in 2012 are an impressive bunch. Mexican voters, almost certainly, will have a better choice than their northern neighbours in the US in 2012.
Rios Montt case only superficially resembles ‘autogolpe’ episode of 1993
The Guatemalan opposition has come together to block the former dictator’s return to power, but circumstances are not the same as when they halted Jorge Serrano a decade ago.
Faced with the failure of the attempt to block the registration of retired General Efrain Rios Montt as the presidential candidate of the ruling FRG, all opposition parties have coalesced in congress in the Instancia Parlamentaria de Oposición, and have joined with unions, business associations, NGOs and an array of social organisations in a broad Frente Frente Cívico por la Democracia. On the surface, this is reminiscent of the manner in which an ad-hoc civic coalition came together in May 1993 to reverse President Jorge Serrano’s attempt to stage a Fujimori-style autogolpe, dissolving congress and dismissing the supreme court.
Peru’s judicial reform starts at home
On 18 August President Ollanta Humala outlined the focal point for judicial reform: attacking corruption in the judiciary.
“A corrupt judge is more dangerous than a criminal”, President Humala said on 18 August. Corruption has long undermined the public standing of judges and the sentences they hand down; the judiciary has been often described as an institution where money buys results, and allegedly, the more money one pays the more ‘justice’ one gets.
Efficiency – the more technical, but less visible twin problem facing the judiciary – will nevertheless be an important component, if not the core focus. Key points:
• Humala’s reforms are going with the grain of what senior judges, notably, César San Martin, the president of the supreme court, has been saying since he was appointed in January.
• Judges prosecuted for corruption will face tough sanctions. This is part of Humala’s hard-line position on sentencing. He wants sentences to reflect the crime.
• Corrupt judges have fuelled the public’s perception of rampant impunity. Following the recent release of 17 criminals, classified as dangerous, President Humala said that the judiciary and the police could not “allow criminals to abuse loopholes in the law to get back on the streets”. In doing so, the government has linked judicial reform to citizen insecurity, an issue with high political traction, making reformist intentions and legislation harder to oppose.
• As part of the short term measures, the economy ministry will create a Citizen Security fund with private sector support. This is, essentially, a public-private partnership to train police and fund initiatives such as community policing or CCTV. (Latin Briefs contributed to this report.)
