Gianna Rocca

Block 2
Unit III Project
Law & Order
Country: Argentina
Problems in Latin
Americas Law
Enforcement

Explanation

Suggestions for each

Each Issue

The police force

It is clear that there a basic weakness in the police

force since Latin America is the only region in the
world where murder rates increased in the first decade
of this century.
In Argentina, poor salaries and budget constraints are
factors that provoke police corruption. The request of a
bribe or the acceptance of a bribe offered by citizens
who committed a traffic violation or any ordinary
infringement of the law, in order to avoid legal
penalties, is the most common form of corruption
practiced in Argentina by police agents.
To top things off, law enforcement officers are known
to be involved in organized criminal activities!
Likewise, the Buenos Aires police has been involved
in several incidents of drug trafficking, extortion, and
arms trafficking, According to Freedom House.

- I feel as though the region

should raise awareness for
the poorly structured police
forces so that it can invest
in creating programs that
help police offers attain the
proper skills and training.
- I think that there should be
an efficient system
implemented such as
community-police teams
patrol specific areas of the
region that have the highest
rates of crime and violence.
This system can help
decrease these rates.

The courts

Trust in Latin Americas criminal-justice system

remains low. This is because the majorities of the
population in almost every country in the region have
little or no faith in it.

The penal system

In Latin America, the regions prisons are notoriously

- I suggest that the region

transitions towards oral,
adversarial trials rather than
written, inquisitorial ones.
This is because Oral trials
require prosecutors to do a
In Argentina, there is a limited independence of the
better job of gathering
countrys judicial system. In recent years, Argentina
evidence and building a
was singled out as a country where government
control of the judiciary is too strong. In addition, there case.
- The region should create
is a weak separation of powers between the executive
more online database system
and the judiciary.
that monitors courts
performance. This will
decrease the number of
unfair sentences.
- I believe there should be a

The past of the

Disappeared

Laws

brutal and overcrowded. In addition, the homicide rate

in prisons in Latin America is three times higher than
it is in the general population.
Likewise, in prison in Argentina is simply inhumane
and unsanitary. For an example, in the prison
Mendoza, there is a lack of food and medical staff, as
well as an insufficient availability of water. Prisoners
are routinely beaten by staff and other inmates.

penal reform in Latin

America. Instead of prison
being simply corrupt, there
should be a system that
focuses on education and
rehabilitation of those in
jail.
- I also suggest that
businesses and communities
should accept ex-convicts as
rehabilitated citizens. Also,
staff in the prison system go
through extensive training to
help prisoners rather than
punish prisoners.

Between 1976 and 1983 Argentinas military

government killed between 9,000 and 30,000 in the
tragedy, the Dirty War. This event occurred during
military regime, which was the bloodiest in
Argentina's history, using state violence and repression
to kill and "disappear" thousands of citizens, under the
excuse that they were suspected of undermining the
government.

- I suggest that the

Argentine education system
to address the historical
perspective of the
dictatorship, discussing
what happened and why the
Dirty War was done.
- Argentina should also
work on understanding the
regional and international
implications of the
dictatorship and the impact
Argentines have on the
memory of those who never
returned home.

The legal system of Argentina is a mixture of US and

Western European legal systems. Argentina is a civil
law country
Despite how there are laws, anti-corruption laws in
Latin America had been widely used as weapons to
withdraw from opposing political groups or to
destabilize governments, while also increasing
perception of corruption instead of reducing it.

- In order to improve the

rule of law in Argentina;
access to information,
controlling official
discretion, improving the
quality of administrative
decision-making is essential.
- I also suggest that the
Argentine government
should institute better public
hearings and implement
strategic rule-making
procedures.