Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Mar 7 (EFE).- On the second day of the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on Thursday in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), a panel of experts said that reducing the impact of organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean could increase regional GDP by 10%.
The deputy head of the Central America Division of the International Monetary Fund, Raphael Espinoza, explained that after working on a report on the relationship between the economy and criminality, in comparison with other regions, Latin American countries could increase public investment by 2% and reduce their spending on security, which is currently between 1.5 and 2.5% of GDP.
In addition, according to his study, organized crime also has a social impact on countries, for example, on the level of schooling, since children born in violent areas have fewer opportunities for development.
Latin America and the Caribbean has a homicide rate three times higher than the world average, with 18 cases per 100,000 inhabitants – compared to 5.6 globally – according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and 50% of all homicides in the Americas are linked to organized crime.
Crime as a threat
For this reason, the director of the NGO Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, Mark Shaw, argued that the damage caused by this situation directly threatens peace in countries, violates human rights and erodes the social fabric.
Among the main stumbling blocks, Shaw determined that the most important shortcoming is found in the judicial and penitentiary systems, since, in his experience, organized crime takes advantage of poverty and exploits the impunity of the authorities as it is “intimately linked to corruption.”
Strengthening justice
As part of the solution, Shaw believes strengthening justice and the defense forces, without losing sight of reinsertion programs with alternatives so that, especially young people, do not fall into organized crime.
In this sense, the Secretary of Justice and Security of Cali, Jairo García Guerrero, added that with a local perspective, productive conversations are had at the national level, “acting according to the realities that are transformed every day,” and without avoiding “difficult conversations” about the problems.
“We must humanize crimes, we are not just talking about figures, we are talking about children, parents, politicians… We have to be hand in hand with communities, listening to the difficult conversations and knowing that there are things that do not work,” García Guerrero said during the seminar “Ensuring Citizen Security: Strategies for Safer Societies.”
The IDB Coordinator of Citizen Security and Safety, Nathalie Alvarado, said that the entity has a comprehensive approach with programs to prevent and protect the most vulnerable people with tangible results in countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, Costa Rica and Brazil. EFE