This event has been rescheduled for July 14th.

Join the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs along with the IC CAE for Central America’s Challenge: Achieving Security & the Rule of Law, a presentation by Evelyn Villarreal Fernández.

Central American countries face a dangerous convergence of threats stemming from drug-trafficking geopolitics, organized crime (including high level corruption), and social and criminal violence. In the countries where the rule of law and state institutions are weakest, these challenges have harmed political stability and are creating political uncertainty. In the case of Guatemala and Honduras, for example, corruption scandals triggered massive protests that threatened to destabilize their democratic political systems. There are also high profile cases of corruption in El Salvador and Panama, but these have not led to critical situations. In these last two countries –as in those cited previously – one of the priority issues is to consolidate the independence of the judiciary to prosecute organized crime. This presentation focuses on the corruption as a major threat to security in the region, what measures have been taken to combat corruption, and what level of success those measures have enjoyed.

Evelyn Villarreal Fernández is a Political Scientist working at the State of the Nation Programme in San José, Costa Rica as Central American Research Coordinator. She is also a Professor at the Universidad Estatal Distancia (UNED), and Vicepresident of “Costa Rica Íntegra” (Costa Rican chapter, Transparency International).