The Washington Post editorial board called for an American intervention in Latin America to reduce the rising murder rate, but failed to offer any tangible plans for success.
The Sunday op-ed focused on gun deaths and the human misery afflicted by ongoing gang violence, in countries like Venezuela and Colombia.
“There are 400 homicides, from all methods and weapons, in Latin America and the Caribbean each day, according to the Wall Street Journal,” the article reads. “With just 8 percent of the world’s population, Latin America accounts for about a third of all murders. We’re talking about criminal violence, not political strife; and it is especially intense in countries such as El Salvador.”
The editorial board claimed violence in Latin America is beginning to directly affect America and is being ignored at home and abroad. (RELATED: Over 2.5 Times More People Were Killed In Latin America And The Caribbean Than Syria, Iraq And Afghanistan Behind)
“This is a crisis worthy of far more attention than it has received in the United States and beyond,” the editorial board wrote. “Not only does rampant violence cause human suffering and economic disruption where it occurs, but it also has spillover effects, the most significant of which is migration.”
“This is flight due to fright,” the op-ed added.
The writers harped on the terrible strife in Latin America, but only offered broad reasons for their general decay and failed to come up with any real solutions to the problem.
“At the root of Latin America’s crime problem are weak governmental institutions that fail to deliver consistent rule of law,” the article reads. “Criminal gangs flourish in the vacuum of state authority. The absence of accountability for large-scale crime also enables the growth of smaller-scale personal feuds and domestic violence.”
The only success story cited was Colombia, which by the authors’ own admission remains a highly dangerous place to this day. The reduction in crime came from local program aimed at shoring up law and order, along with vast support from the United States, according to WaPo.
“Colombia’s pacification came about through a concerted national effort to defeat guerrillas and drug cartels, assisted with military, financial and intelligence support from the United States, as well as programs aimed at bolstering courts and other civilian institutions,” the editorial board wrote.
The authors took a shot at U.S. President Donald Trump in their final paragraph and belittled his plan for a southern border wall.
“Faced with interrelated security and migration crises in its hemisphere, it’s in the United States’ interest to extend smart security assistance,” the article concluded. “Demonizing those who flee and building walls to keep them out are worse than useless.”
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