Security governance in Central America and the Caribbean: new conflicts, actors and protection policies

• Grant number: 21/14653-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Antonio Duarte Villa
• Grantee: Camila de Macedo Braga
• Supervisor: Werner Mackenbach
• Host Institution: Instituto de Relações Internacionais (IRI). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), Costa Rica
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/04178-2 - Security governance in Latin America: new actors, conflict formations, and protection policies, BP.PD

Abstract

In Central America, the transition processes that initiated the end of armed conflicts in recent years followed the Liberal Peace model (Richmond, 2007), which implies a complex process of stabilization and social reconstruction with international support. However, what some define as peace, others see it as oppression. In this region, peace is a concept in dispute, and the the rising levels of social and armed violence alleviate its stability. What does the increase in the number of armed violence indicates? What does the increase of non-state armed actors (organized and armed groups) mean for state policies and practices? This proposal aims to approach the regional dynamics of security governance oriented towards the construction of peace, mapping the structure and the involved actors, as well as the process by which systemic changes are produced in the security governance framework of the last years. In this investigation, on the one hand, we problematize the transformation into the practices of non-state armed groups (maras and drug trafficking cartels, for example) and, therefore, the way in which their agency plays, as well as the roles that violence undertaken by them poses in the transformation of power relations and security practices. On the other hand, we analyze how security policies and practices have been changed for their confrontation, moving on to the analysis of international security policies and agendas, and to the local narratives and practices of those that act in the confrontation of armed violence in their daily lives. (AU)