In early February, President Donald Trump suggested that El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are “not friends” of the United States because they aren’t doing enough to combat drug trafficking or curb their immigration. This is an empty claim that lacks strategy.
For years, tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors have been going on a dangerous journey to cross the U.S. border. These young people are fleeing poverty and trying to escape the violence of gangs and drug trafficking. How can this problem be combated? How can we reduce the violent acts committed by these criminal groups? A chapter in the history of Peru can give us a clue.
At the end of the 1970s, Peru had serious economic problems. There was no social mobility; that is, those who were born in a poor home would remain poor all their lives.
The bureaucracy, put in place by the dominant classes to protect their interests, made it extremely difficult to start a business, get documents to prove you owned land, or hire someone. This forced many to live without proper documentation, which meant they couldn’t obtain loans or sign contracts, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
According to a study by the economist Hernando de Soto, at that time the process of opening a sewing workshop took 289 days and cost 31 times the monthly minimum wage. This stifled any attempt to create new companies. Obtaining documents to prove land ownership in Peru could take up to 15 years.
In this context of inequality, poverty, and widespread frustration, an ultra-radical Marxist political group emerged that became an armed militia: Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).
In 1980, the group perpetrated its first terrorist attack by burning ballot boxes in the region of Ayacucho in the south of the country. The government had an almost indifferent response, which allowed the guerrillas to expand their operations in the center of the country, where they received some support from the people.
Over time, the terrorist attacks intensified, as did the reports of bloody massacres of indigenous communities. To make matters worse, on more than one occasion the army confused peasants with insurgents, which caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people. In that decade many Peruvians fled the country.
In the early 1990s, the RAND Corporation research organization, in a report sent to the United States Department of Defense, assured that the Shining Path was an almost invincible organization and that in two years it would take control of the entire country. Collaboration was chosen.
The Peruvian government implemented various reforms. For example, thanks to an agreement with the United States in 1991, it was declared that the coca leaf growers were not drug traffickers, but farmers. This led to more effective cooperation between rural areas and the army. A shock force consisting of 120,000 peasants and 30,000 soldiers was created.
Bureaucratic obstacles were drastically reduced, the legal ownership of thousands of properties was made official, and more than half a million jobs were legalized. The economy began to change rapidly.
The terrorist group was universally rejected and fought on all sides. In September 1992, Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, was arrested, leaving the terrorist group practically defeated.
Effectively fighting gangs and drug trafficking in Central America does not require empty claims, but rather a plan of collaboration that eliminates the social conditions of poverty that feed these criminal groups. A prosperous Central America is an investment that also benefits the United States.