WOLA is busy tackling the Northern Triangle

I just finished an article for the World Politics review on the rule of law in Central America and am now tackling some Freedom House reports for the region so I'll just link to some reports by Geoff Thale and the Washington Office on Latin America.

First, they lay out 12 Principles to Assess the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle.

1. Ensure that the plan’s strategies are comprehensive and coordinated within each country. 
2. Governments must show institutional commitment to full implementation. 
3. Focus on institutional reforms that will improve the daily life of citizens in Central America.
4. Strengthen transparency and fight corruption. 
5. Build capacity and accountability for the judiciary and public prosecutors, and protect witnesses in sensitive cases. 
6. Support evidence-based, community-level violence prevention. 
7. Target employment training and job creation programs to communities where youth are especially at risk and from where many young people are migrating. 
8. Emphasize fiscal reform and the long-term sustainability of programs.
9. Recognize that different countries require different approaches. 
10. Avoid any plan that is too narrowly targeted on only one element of the problem. 
11. Evaluate successes and failures.
12. Ensure that the plan includes mechanisms for effective donor coordination.

The alleged plan is now down from the internet (found it again) but you can read a description here. It looks like the Northern Triangle wants the US to pay for its infrastructure projects. While the US is in someways the only one with the money for such a billion (multibillion?) dollar investment, I'm not sure that's what we were hoping for. Call me crazy but I don't foresee any big changes in US policy towards / support for Central America anytime soon. We'll just keep muddling along. 

Then there's also Migration and Citizen Security in El Salvador from Geoff and WOLA. They mostly describe the recent report from the UCA on citizen security under Funes.

But most interesting was the study’s critique of how public security policy was handled over the course of the last five years, under the government of left-of-center President Mauricio Funes. Initially, the administration, installed in 2009, turned away from the “mano dura” policies of its predecessors on the political right, and focused on institutional changes to make the police a more honest and effective force that would both capture criminals and deter crime. New leadership was named, the investigative unit was reorganized, and an anti-corruption campaign was launched. But a backlash from hardliners and only modest drops in the homicide rate led the President to radically shift strategies. He moved the Minister of Defense over to the Public Security Ministry, and military or military-linked officials were soon named to key posts in police investigation, police intelligence, and at the head of the police. The anti-corruption campaign stalled, and officials who had been under suspicion were soon rehabilitated.  The number of army troops assigned to patrol the streets soared. And individuals linked to the government brokered a pact between the country’s two main street gangs that prohibited killings of rival gang members, while gangs continued to engage in extortion and other criminal activity.  

The UCA’s critique focuses on the administration’s shift away from institutional reform and its turn toward military involvement in policing. The report ends by calling on the new administration, which took office in June, to renew the focus on police reform, strengthen the commitment to a civilian-run police force, and invest more in community-based violence prevention efforts. 

Finally, Geoff and WOLA have The MCC Announcement in El Salvador: What It Says about U.S. Assistance to El Salvador and the Region. They are certainly much more positive that the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasio O'Grady who came out swinging with American Aid Props Up a Castro Ally. I have my concerns about El Salvador and the second MCC Compact but she's just silly.

On the positive side, she only mentioned Hugo Chavez's name one.