Impunity in the Americas •
• •
•
• •
•
•
•
The 2020 edition of the Global Impunity Index incorporates Guyana. However, due to inconsistencies in the information reported, this edition does not include information on the following countries, which, therefore, have been classified as cases of statistical impunity: Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. None of the countries from the region has low impunity levels. Thus, the countries of the Americas included in this edition have medium and high impunity levels. Costa Rica is the country in the region with the lowest degree of impunity (39.5 points), even if it remains in the group with medium impunity levels (42). The United States (position 38, with 40.21 points), Barbados (position 39, with 40.48 points), Panama (position 42, with 42.54 points), Canada (position 45, with 45.66 points), Colombia (position 49, with 46.88 points), and Chile (position 50, with 47.63 points) are in the same range. Mexico does not top the list of countries with the highest impunity levels, as it did in the 2017 edition. In 2020, Honduras has the highest level of impunity in the region, and is the second with the highest impunity levels worldwide (68). This does not mean that there has been an improvement or a significant transformation in the operation of the security and justice systems, or the respect for human rights in Mexico. The countries with the highest impunity levels in the region, in ascending order, are: Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Guyana, Paraguay, and Honduras Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Uruguay remain as countries with statistical impunity as they do not produce sufficient information to analyze them in terms of security and justice. These countries’ governments need to show political will to produce relevant information and report it to the United Nations. Seven countries are classified under an alternative model due to their atypical values: Argentina (five variables without information); Brazil (seven variables without information); the Dominican Republic (without information for the structural dimension of the security system); El Salvador (very high rates in homicides, a scatterplot chart [caja de dispersión] may not be produced); Granada (does not have information on the structural dimension of the security system); Trinidad and Tobago (atypical values in the variable of prisoners divided by individuals convicted), and Venezuela (eight variables without information) The CESIJ will monitor social protests in the region and the governments’ response to them. The discrepancy between the figures of injuries reported by governments compared to those reported by non-governmental organizations, civil society and international organizations is concerning. The region has high degrees of impunity and socioeconomic inequality, which is worrisome. Social exclusion builds on impunity and aggravates the
11