«Mano dura» and Democracy in Latin America: Public Security, Violence and Rule of Law

Abstract

Violence and insecurity in Latin America is a claim for the commissioning of «mano dura» policies. Despite its popularity, those policies have shown low effectiveness. In fact, they are usually the path to the breakdown of the Rule of Law and to the repression of vulnerable groups. Actually, those groups are doubly victimized by one hand because of their difficult socio-economic condition and by the other hand because of violent government action. This paper, analyses four cases, in four Latin American countries: Brazil, México, Colombia and Guatemala through the lenses of «violent pluralism» approach. The objective is to provide evidence for a theoretical approach based on the relationship between state and violence versus those approaches that consider violence as a malfunction of state.