Today I read an article (the link to which is provided below) which analyzed the rule of law, and how laws apply to different countries, in Latin America. The article stated that “One of the primary causes of political violence in Central America during the second half of the 20th century was the absence of democratic rule of law…When the law was applied, it favored those in positions of authority, often to the detriment of the most vulnerable.” This illustrates the problem of impunity faced by numerous Latin American countries.The article goes on to illustrate how many countries’ judicial systems collapsed after civil wars in that country and that initial reforms were futile. However, there has been a significant shift toward more comprehensive reforms in recent years.” One such reform was a two year investigation led by CiCiG, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. “The commission has helped to solve several important crimes and remove thousands of corrupt police officers from their jobs, and many police units are better-trained and better-equipped than they were prior to CICIG’s establishment. CICIG also provided several legal reform proposals and technical assistance to Congress to strengthen the criminal justice system.”
This article highlights the issue of international intervention in a state’s governance in order to decrease the power and influence of organized crime. The topic of CICIG is a very complex one. While the sovereignty of a state should always be respected, international aid may be required if the state is impotent. Seeing as CICIG is a very useful program that has caused an increase in the rate of homicide convictions in Guatemala from an estimated 2 percent to 10 percent, and has caused impunity to fall from 95 percent to 70 percent. It is important to note that corruption has gone down significantly since CICIG intervened. Plus, CICIG does not overpower or take over the Guatemalan government, providing much needed anti-corruption efforts while still maintaining Guatemalan sovereignty. Perhaps, with further continued activity by CICIG, Guatemala may further decrease the levels of impunity and corruption.
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/14415/justice-deferred-rule-of-law-in-central-america
counihan1 
Non military intervention like what CICIG is doing is probably one of the best initiatives to fight corruption there is. Still, I think that success is bound to be uneasy until the living conditions in Guatemala improve. Fighting the inequity in Guatemala is sure to alleviate the learned helplessness that seems to grip the population.
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The CICIG is one of the best outside interventions within the Latin American countries in my opinion. Since they are not necessarily from the country for which they investigate in, they do not have ties to cartels and gangs, are unbiased, look into their investigations quite thoroughly and bring the citizens of the specific country for which they are investigating in hope. Good article, very informative.
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