SECURITY AND PEACE IN LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES

RISUS – Journal on Innovation and Sustainability, São Paulo, v. 8, n.3, p.129-138, Set 2017 / Fev. 2018ISSN 2179-3565 Abstract: This work aims to analyze the relationship between security and peace and their present conditions in Latin America, based on the research of these issues in international publications in various media and data collection indicators available in studies with statistical reliability. There is also the goal of obtaining a set of indicators in the light of existing jobs and new contributions that may show the “state” of present Security and Peace conditions in Latin America and infer about the future of such conditions, with a view to proposing actions between and within countries of the region. The Security-Peace binomial presents us with a fundamental question regarding the relationship of cause and effect the safety results from the peace or peace is a consequence of security? Independent-minded succeed or not answer this question we have to consider that the two factors have impacts on the wellness of the human being. Equal opportunities and valuing life are fundamental principles that pave the road to full citizenship in Latin America, and without which it won ́t make sense any attempt to try to achieve security and peace. The Security Commission Hemispheric of the Organization of American States Permanent Council emphasizes in a recent meeting (March 2000) that among the premises for reformulation of the hemisphere’s security concept are “the need to recognize the close links between security, development and consolidation of democracy as well as the historical relationship between peace and democracy”. We are hence at a very special moment of our historical trajectory, where notorious disrespect for human rights are a frequent threat to populations of Latin American countries. Initiatives to education, focusing on children and youth, with heavy use of art and science, may make all the difference and create today a future of peace and security, based on fraternity among all peoples.


INTRODUCTION
What benefit could bring all the wealth of a human being if it lacks peace and security?Catherine Salles, in her book In Underworlds of Antiquity comments about life in the slums of Rome in the beginning of the II century B.C.: "Crowded in unsound and unhealthy housing, the inhabitants of the slums are exposed to all the dangers that nature or society does not cease to generate".
After all this time we could see that this reality of the ancient world is still present today in the big cities of Latin America, where fear is present in all social classes.Income inequality, as overwhelming as determining, establishes who has and who does not have the right to have security mechanisms without, however, ensure that this security is real and to ensure a minimum of everyday peace, whoever.
Although we are already historically distant from the beginning of civilization of mankind, we are forced to recognize that we are still far from a world turned to the happiness of man.We did not achieve democracy as a form of general government and suffer from the glaring inequality between opportunities for rich and poor, so crucial to the insecurity and violence.
We witnessed a major paradigm shift, fundamental to the study of this topic -the threats to security and peace in the states before being mainly due to factors and external aggressions, are nowadays more am endogenous result, of primarily, social and multiple problems in underdeveloped countries.According to CHEYRE (2015): "However, in the 70's begins what we can characterize as a gradual expansion of the traditional concepts of security and defense that arises when we identify in the world and also in Latin America, threats to the security in a large scale than those who so far have been facing.While some come and linked to the military, then an increasingly wide range of topics and issues related to political, social, environmental and economic issues that subsequently drug-related phenomena joined was recognized, crime and now more recently minorities linked to refloat aspects of identity and nationalism, with a full agenda of various themes which fit issues of energy, climate, resources, ecology, demography, transnational movements, migration issues and other matters.(...)" Problems such as social exclusion, drug trafficking expansion, deaths caused by road accidents, low quality education and truancy, increased crime among adolescents, mortality of the youth, mainly among the male gender, poor sanitation and health services, among other social dramas form a framework to increased insecurity and violence.The consequences are similar to a war of considerable proportions and sad.
Other forms of insecurity, so ancient, go back to extend their shadows on the societies within this new century: food insecurity, water, housing and many other.However, actions to fight the causes and effects of insecurity and violence are felt, often by the third sector initiatives and even by government actions.The complexity of the problems require integrated solutions, as we can see in the case of the reconstruction of Medellin, Colombia, as mentioned by BRAND (2001).
Paulo Gustavo da Silva, Arnoldo Jose de Hoyos Guevara, Nilson Gonçalves Pereira Baptista, Lilian Cordeiro Praes At the core of all the evils that could see the lack of security and peace is linked to lack of democracy, combined with growth of corruption.It was proven in "Peace and Corruption 2015" from "Institute for Economics & Peace" that these three factors are correlated.Among the regions that have experienced an increase in the level of corruption, is Latin America, including the Caribbean countries, also considered one of the most violent regions of the world; and as its mentioned in the Psalms since the old times Peace goes hand in hand with the so much needed (Social) Justice: Love and faithfulness meet together, righteousness and Peace kiss each other (PSalm85).
Latin American needs to face the fact that become in evidence through the Global Peace Index 2015 of the Institute for Economics & Peace studies indicating that: "Latin America remained the world's most violent region in terms of societal safety and security, as highlighted by its poor results in most related categories.This is particularly the case for Central America and the Caribbean, the lowest ranked region and where many of the world's highest homicide rates can be found." This follows -among other factors -the fragile conditions of democracy, governance disability and power of corruption, aggravation of economic crisis, the immense social inequalities and increased drug trafficking in many countries in the region.Those where populist governments subverted the democratic logic in favor of the state power projects has worsened and violence has become frightening.The imperfections of weak democracies in Latin America favor the corruption that, in turn, feeds impunity, causing internal insecurity and violence.
Corruption in the police and judicial system feeds a vicious cycle, as described in the document "Peace and Corruption": "Increases in police and judicial corruption directly undermine the rule of law, thereby increasing political instability and can lead to the collapse of those institutions which were designed to prevent violence and conflict.This occurs in many fragile and low capacity contexts whereby once corruption reaches a certain point, police forces no longer perform a useful function in controlling crime, but rather become part of the problem."

PEACE AND SECURITY -CITIZENSHIP AND HAPPINESS The evolution of security concepts and peace
The end of the Cold War led to the review of security and peace concepts.The concept of security is now centered on the human person and concerning their lives and the degree of freedom that make their choices (SVETLANA, 2004).The concept of "positive and negative peace" invites us to reflect on social issues and how they affect the binomial security and peace.Obviously, this is fully applicable to Latin America, as defined by GALTUNG (1969): "With the distinction between personal and structural violence basic violence becomes twosided, and so does peace conceived of as the absence of violence.An extended concept of violence leads to an extended concept of peace.Just as a coin has two sides, one side alone being only one aspect of the coin, not the complete coin, peace also has two sides: absence of personal violence, and absence of structural violence.We shall refer to them as negative peace and positive peace respectively.For brevity the formulations 'absence of violence' and 'social justice' may perhaps be preferred, using one negative and one positive formulation.The reason for the use of the terms 'negative' and 'positive' is easily seen: the absence of personal violence does not lead to a positively defined condition, whereas the absence of structural violence is what we have referred to as social justice, which is a positively defined condition (egalitarian distribution of power and resources).Thus, peace conceived this way is not only a matter of control and reduction of the overt use of violence, but of hate we have elsewhere referred to as 'vertical development'.And this means that peace theory is intimately connected not only with conflict theory, but equally with development theory." These new concepts bring opportunities and challenges that we know well.As a matter of fact it takes political will, and citizenship development to confront endogenous problems without the temptation (and even the facility) to point out external factors for the problems in Latin America.
A struggle for peace and security will need to overcome centuries of passivity in the face of problems and causes with which, simply, we got used to leave along in Latin America.

Peace and security, democracy and populism in latin america
The costs of insecurity and violence are worrying worldwide, but Latin America, particularly South America, needs a special attention to this aspect, considering the Global Peace Index 2015 statement: "South America is the largest contributor to homicide rates by region and represents an expenditure of US$250 billion".In South America this comes mostly from Colombia and Brazil.Moreover even though in recent years economic development has progressed significantly in both countries, crime rates have not experienced a corresponding decrease (which would be seen with such increases in wealth and development).One of the main observations regarding these two countries is that while the overall size of their respective economies has increased, the levels of progress in Positive Peace has not yet follow this trend.In particular, both Colombia and Brazil still hold high levels of inequities and corruption"; although Colombia is somewhat improving lately.
In Latin American countries (as in other parts of the world) there is a feeling that the police are highly corrupted, especially in Mexico (90% of the population), Jamaica (86%) and Venezuela (83%).These countries also boast high rates of homicides and violent crimes, according to the study quoted above, "Peace and Corruption 2015" this points the fact that the populations of fragile democracies and authoritarian regimes lead to greater police corruption.Moreover the conditions for "Positive Peace" are very rare or incipient in most Latin American countries.Chile and Uruguay have the best positions in the rankings of the Global Peace Index in the Region while the rest have a long way to go to improve peace conditions.
In addition weakening of democratic institutions in the Latin American states with populist governments, end up having an impact on the governance of such countries and fostering systemic corruption, which leads to a decrease in security and peace.Hence, the need to find ways to overcome populism and inefficiency of hypertrophied states that results from that lack of democracy condition.The illusion of the state as the sole provider of wealth has only made increasing inequality, poverty and corruption in a vicious circle that generates insecurity and violence -unnecessary, irrational and incompatible with the Latin Soul of the region.The achievement of security and peace in Latin America depends on the improvement of governance, which according to the World Bank Governance Indicators (WGI) includes five dimensions: "Voice and Accountability, Political Stability, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law and Control of Corruption".Good governance is a consequence of democracy and leads to sustainable progress.The World Bank is actually keeping a record of many years regarding this 6 dimensions that show in general very little if any improvements in most of the countries of the region.
Paulo Gustavo da Silva, Arnoldo Jose de Hoyos Guevara, Nilson Gonçalves Pereira Baptista, Lilian Cordeiro Praes RISUS -Journal on Innovation and Sustainability, São Paulo, v. 8, n.3, p.129-138, Set 2017/ Fev. 2018-ISSN 2179-3565 134 The relationship between security, peace and happiness in latin america As indicated by Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Peace and Security are basic for Human wellbeing and becoming essential for happiness and an Harmonic Society as mentioned by IP PO-KEUNG (2014): "In view of the broad and substantive overlaps between harmony and happiness, it seems a society that exhibits signifying overlaps would have certain identifying features.In the Societal domain, safety, peace, stability, democracy, the rule of law, mutual respect, relatively wealthy, social health, freedom, social fairness, solidarity, friendship, sharing, balanced social interests, and environmental sustainability are the common components." As a matter of fact Happier Societies are peaceful and enjoy security over multiple prisms.However following further up in the Maslow Pyramid there is also need for economic security, as pre-supposed for a sense of peace and tranquility; however and as indicated by FERRAZA et al (2007), after overcoming the subsistence line, including access to water, food, housing and sanitation, financial conditions are not so critical for an increased sense of happiness, as shown Kahneman et al. (2006).Such finding shows that there is a "window of opportunity" for Latin America (and the world), where the pursuit of sustainability, beyond mere economic and financial progress provides us more harmonious societies and consequently happier ones.
Research by ARRGYLE (1987); MYERS and DIENER (1995); MOREIRA-ALMEIDA et al. ( 2006), people who claim to have faith, religion and / or spirituality are more likely to be happy and these condition is widespread among the peoples in Latin America.

METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
For the purpose of an statistical analyses data from 132 countries were considered divided in three regions: • the Iberia American -AIBER -21 countries; • the advanced economies -AVECO -28 countries; • the remaining 132 countries -OTHERS -84 countries.
Table 1 shows the means for each one of the 3 Regions (3R) of Synthetic Indicators such as Social Progress Index (SPI); Human Development Index (HDI); Governance (GOV); Corruption Perceived Index (CORR) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI); as well as some Analytic Indicators such as Discrimination and Violence Against Minorities (DISCVIOL); Community Safety (COMSAFETY); Traffic Deaths (TRAFICDEATH).The Dendrogram in Figure 2 indicates that the highest correlation among these variables is the one between Governance and Corruption, that means that Bad Governance impacts High Corruption and the no doubt the other way around too.This will in turn, increases insecurity and violence; and therefore affecting the level of Peace.

Figure 2: Dendrogram of Synthetic and Analytic Indicators
The averages presented in Table 1 show that the highest difference between AIBER and AVECO countries is regarding Governance (83.25 to 42.48 = 40.77).Moreover the three countries with better governance in Latin America are, respectively, Chile (83.61),Uruguay (73.23) and Costa Rica (69.96); so only Chile got to the point of attaining the average Governance of the AVECO countries go.Something very similar happens with Corruption Levels.Hence there is still a long way to go.

CONCLUSION
As shown above as a whole Latin America is in an intermediate situation between the group of developed countries and the least developed.It's like a teenager region, between childhood and maturity, where most countries are still suffering internal crises that results from high deficiencies in governance levels; moreover there is no happiness in the absence of security and peace and there is no peace and security in the absence of a "culture for peace" Problems regarding security and peace in Latin America are now well known and quantified, including in terms of its causes.Solutions are being implemented, but despite the merit of these efforts, the problem of insecurity and violence seems far from eradication.The question is when or how will a Culture of Peace be developed in Latin America?
According to FREIRE (2009): "the United Nations defines the culture of peace as a set of values, attitudes, ways of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and to avoid when dealing with the causes that you are at the root to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation between individuals, groups and nations".
The challenge, of developing and sustaining Peace in Latin America will require coping with serious social problems and the lack of appropriate standards of governance in most countries of the region.Improving governance would allow greater control of corruption that may fosters Trust that would be essential to give some hope to the people of many Latin American countries.
Improving the educational system would no doubt contribute to a more equitable distribution of opportunities and therefore would increase social justice, without which it will be hard to think that one day the region may attain adequate levels of Peace and Security.Also art could help be as a catalyst of these changes, complementing education as well as preserving rich traditional cultures on the Region.
As a matter of fact the region has a great heritage of faith and spirituality; that may help to increase resilience and opens a predisposition to improve human, social and environmental conditions as recently pointed out by Pope Francis on his Evangelii Gaudium that is actually a warning as well as a moving call to worldwide Walk the Path towards a more Caring and Sharing Society Today in many places we hear a call for greater security, but until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence (EG59).

Table 1 Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Comparing the 3 Regions Regarding the Basic Indicators