El Salvador has been impacted by political instability and socioeconomic upheavals in a perfect environment for organized crime; in the midst of the pacification and democratization of the country after a bloody internal conflict. This essay focuses on private security through a descriptive analysis of the factors that influence its evolution and implications in the country's governability and governance. The analysis of security as a common good, the factors influencing the use of private security and the inter-institutional relations of private security and the police require appropriate regulations based on the aforementioned factors. When considering security as a common good, fundamental rights are mandatory and the basis for the legitimacy of government action.
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The collapse of the Soviet Union is the most important strategic inflection that consolidates the era of transformation towards democracy in the world. In Latin America, the changes towards democracy were dramatic and irreversible. In this order of ideas, the opening created by the privatization process as a result of the third wave of democratization in Latin America, together with globalization, have emphasized the role of the State in its responsibility to provide the security and defense that allows the exercise of democracy and development. In Central America, the privatization of security has occurred as a consequence of the pacification process at the end of the 1980s, democratization and globalization. In this order, the State has shown itself incapable of providing the common good of security. This essay aims to analyze the state of control and supervision of the privatization of security and defense in Central America and its impact and trends in the current security environment in the region.
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Both the phenomenon of terrorism and our conception of it depend on historical context—political, social, and economic—and how the countries, groups and individuals who participate in or respond to the actions we call terrorism related to the world in which they act. The causes and effects of terrorism are comprehensible only in terms of political conflicts in specific historical periods. The current gap between Latin America and the United States on the conception of terrorism and the policy guidance that will establish a common anti-terrorist strategy in the Western Hemisphere respond to the unpredictability and dynamic of this phenomenon. Therefore, in order to reduce this present gap we require an effective guide to anti-terrorist policy formulation in Latin America and the United States under a common, clear, and prospective strategy that will be able to establish, enforce, and continually refine a holistic political-military plan and generate consistent national and international support.
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