From the
AP
The director of a United Nations commission investigating and prosecuting corruption in Guatemala says the team will extend its work in the Central American country three more years.
Director Francisco Dall'Anese said Tuesday the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala needs to keep working until 2015 to bring change.
The commission began operating in January 2008 to dismantle illegal security groups and to bring officials under the law. It has also taken on rampant vigilante justice, which includes contract killings of criminals.
The U.N.-backed investigative team of police and prosecutors from 25 nations has been highly effective in prosecuting crime in Guatemala, which has one of the highest murder rates in the region. Nearly 2,000 police and government officials have been fired or sent to jail since its creation.
So what do you think? I'm all for extending CICIG's mandate an additional three years. However, I am worried about how effective CICIG will be in Guatemala long-term if there are not similar efforts made to improve the justice systems in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and elsewhere. The same goes for the Millennium Challenge compacts that the US has signed with El Salvador. The US will have invested approximately $800 million in El Salvador over a ten-year period.
