30th Anniversary of International I.D.E.A.

               A little more than four months ago, precisely on 28th February, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance ( International IDEA) completed 30 years. This organization works to improve democracy worldwide. We all have to fight for a better and more inclusive democracy, because our dignity, our human rights, our justice system depend on our freedom to choose and make our politicians accountable. For the last two decades my life has been a daily struggle for justice, democracy and human rights.   I have a YouTube channel, here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010. If you want to know more about this very important Institute you can access its webpage,      https://www.idea.int/     This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at https://www.idea.int/30years-supporting-democracy. The second was published at https://www.idea.int/news/celebration-stockholm-marks-international-ideas-30th-anniversary. The third was published at https://www.idea.int/news/statement-occasion-30th-anniversary-international-idea

                For 30 years, International Idea has been a leader in providing comparative data and publications, developing capacity to enable democratic reforms, and convening with partners to champion democratic values across the globe. The pursuit of democracy requires unwavering dedication and the collective effort of individuals who believe in the power of their voices. Each initiative we advocate for is a step in our path towards contributing to better and stronger democracies. Together, we can build resilient democratic institutions, foster inclusive participation, and nurture the aspirations of communities everywhere. This anniversary is a testament to our ongoing commitment and a call to action for all who share our vision. "Supporting democratic development around the world is an urgent task. Therefore, I look forward to celebrating International Idea's 30 years of important work with a reception at the Parliament." Said Andreas Norlén, Speaker of the Swedish Parliament. Join us by engaging in our events, exploring our researches, and becoming part of the democratic dialogue. Together, we can continue to make a difference and ensure that the promise of democracy reaches every corner of the world.                                                                                                                                                                                                    On 9-12 June 2025, International Idea's 30th anniversary jubilee brought Member States of the Institute's Council, electoral agencies and partner organizations to celebrate three decades of democracy support and to chart a path forward. Senior officials and leading democracy voices from over 40 countries came together to mark the occasion, which coincided with the Stockholm Conference on Electoral Integrity, an initiative fostering global cooperation on electoral integrity and policy dialogue between electoral management bodies. The 30th anniversary celebration was a week of discussions, strengthened partnerships and commitments from a diverse set of partners to continued work to support, advance and protect democracy worldwide. International IDEA's Council of Member States, consisting of 35 Member States and 2 Observers, met for an extraordinary meeting in honour of the 30th anniversary. In 2025, Switzerland has been at the helm of the Institute's Council, highlighting the links between democracy, inclusion and prosperity as part of its presidency. The meeting concluded on a note with the Council releasing a 30th Anniversary Statement, calling for continued and elevated efforts to protect and strengthen democracy and reiterating its strong and steadfast support to International IDEA, its mandate and its principles expresed in its Statutes.                                                                                         At a time of rapid shifts, the International IDEA calls for continued efforts to protect and strengthen democracy and for coordinate action in support of democratic principles, institutions, values and resilience. Stronger democracies demonstrably lead to a safer and more prosperous world. Strengthening democratic institutions is conducive to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all, and building effective and accountable institutions. IDEA reaffirms its belief in democracy as essential to realize the aspirations for freedom, equality, dignity, development, justice, peace and security enshrined in the U.D.H.R. Compared to other forms of government, democracies are better equipped to tackle these issues through free and pluralistic discourse, inclusive policies, and built-in-mechanisms for self-correction. In this context, IDEA acknowledge the growing need for international cooperation to protect and improve democracy, and to support effective and collective democratic responses to global challenges. Over the past three decades, International IDEA has become a global intergovernmental leader on democracy research and assistance. The institute has expanded from 14 founding Member States in 1995 to today's 35 Member States. International IDEA has improved electoral institutions, supported constitution-building processes, promoted political rights, and addressed the challenges to democracy posed by digitalization. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary, we reaffirms our commitment to the mission to protect and advance democracy worldwide.

150th Birthday of Thomas Mann

           A little more than one week ago, precisely on 6th of June, the German writer Thoma Mann would complete 150 year-old. Ten years ago I had already done a tribute to him, as you can read on this link https://thepeopleteacher.blogspot.com/2015/06/140th-birthday-of-thomas-mann.html. He was a very active activist for democracy in times of totalitarian regimes in Europe. In fact, he dedicated all his time and cultural production to fight the evils of the dictatorships.  This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at https://au.news.yahoo.com/magic-mountain-sweeping-critique-totalitarian-190839041.html?guccounter=1guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANez9UOORvejsHfhGjyhMPDVNGF3xMjY6Cu1LLr8SpLUAaXnaQ0q8BKS0fXibodoQNCArpIQ4KILCTVNvriwSbFf0txczeyACTbnUC0pzu9xvp-yLeBFuqCihP12NsJIiz-BA8KdPW2lQJxFJbFl2_-Qp5N9FSHWOTkVpnE_oOwt. The second was published at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/255/oa_monograph/chapter/3010023

                      Last November, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann's Magical Mountain completed 100. One of the 20th century's towering literary achievements, it is a sweeping critique of the dangerous totalitarian political forces that shaped, and almost destroyed, Europe in Mann's lifetime. The novel also reflects Mann's own dramatic public and political evolution. Initially politically reserved, he became an ardent patriot at the outbreak of World War I, only to become disillusioned by the rise of political extremism in postwar Germany. This shift set Mann on a collision course with the Nazis and ultimately led to him fleeing Germany in 1933. There are worrying parallels bewteen 1924, when Mann's magnum opus was published, and 2024, when we're seeing a worldwide resurgence of these same impulses. There is the rise of the far-right in France, Austria and Germany. And then, American president-elect Trump's apparent admiration for authoritarian mode of governance. These forces loom ominously over our own era, threatening the democratic ideals Mann ultimately embraced. On August, 2014, German troops flooded into neutral Belgium, bringing the Britain into the war and shattering the cultural ideals and intellectual suppositions of pre-war Europe. Mann became an intransigent and inflammatory defender of the German cause, writing articles and giving speeches that made him a favorite on the volkish nationalist right. However, everything had changed by 1922. Appalled by the waves of extremist political violence coursing through Germany, Mann was forced to reappraise his beliefs. That year, in an unprecedented move, he wrote and delivered his speech, "On the German Republic. In it, he publicly embraced the principles of its Weimar Republic, distancing himself from the types of authoritarian nationalism. This development, left an indelible mark on "The Magic Mountain".  The book had been transformed from a satirical novel into a sweeping Bildungsroman, focused on moral education and psychological development. It was also an allegory of European civilisation teetering on the abyss, a "world festival of death", as Mann puts it in the novel's final sentence. Specifically, the phrase is a reference to World War I. A century after the novel first appeared, its nuanced discussions of ideological conflict, the danger of extremism and the fragility of civilisation remain, depressingly, as pertinent as ever.                                                                                                                                                                                    After he took up permanent residency in the U.S. in September of 1938, Mann, acquired a new role in the eyes of his audience. For hundreds of thousands of readers who purchased his books, flocked to his lectures, or followed his endeavors by means of the frequently breathless news coverage, Mann became an embodiment of German culture as well as a personal antagonist to the Nazi regime. Through his words and actions, he seemed to personify a cultural tradition now in danger of being irreversibly corrupted or even eradicated by fascism. Writers have served as a thorn in the side of the powerful almost since the beginning of recorded history. He became famous in America not because of his criticism of Hitler nor even because he found powerful words to attack governmental injustice, as his 19th century predecessors Heinrich Heine and Emile Zola had done. His fame instead rested on the quietly dignified aura of culture and tradition with which he surrounded himself and that seemed to emanate from every page that he wrote. The story of Mann's life seems tailor-made to support such an impression. The son of a merchant and senator from the north German town of Lubeck, he had learned from an early age what it means to assume a representative function. It was precisely this studiously cultivated air of dignity that made him a potent actor in an age of totalitarian domination. These two factors that characterize Mann's case, the battle of cultural autonomy against totalitarian dependence and the struggle between international and national sources of literary  esteem, continue to have a clear relevance into the present day. Mann in exile had been extremely active and well understood his importance in fostering international solidarity. Mann spelled out a worldview when he asserted, "The task of affirming that there remains alive a tradition of German culture outside of the sphere of dictatorship doe not belong to us. It is the task of the world to proclaim this, of that world which can't forget the sympathy and gratitude with which it time and again welcomed the questing and creative spirit." By casting Mann into exile and banning his books, the Nazis could advance the claim that German culture and tradition were entirely on their side. This process of systematic exclusion bring us to the effect that translation had on Mann's self-understanding during 1930s and 1940s. During the period from 1938 to 1945, Mann's importance as an interpreter of the current situation in Europe easily outpaced his role as the author of prestigious fiction. Over the course of these years, it was issued 5 new volumes of speeches and essays to balance 5 works of fiction. The essays and speeches sold better. The lecture transcript "The Coming Victory of Democracy," for instance, sold more copies than "Joseph in Egypt, the most acclaimed work that Mann published during his American exile.

What Are the Rights of Victims of Human Rights Violations?

                  Never in the world history a human rights defender was so harmed and bullied, but now all the world is demanding justice. Join us in this worlwide movement for justice, democracy, human rights and my  political rights. This worldwide movement has became so huge, intense and prevalent in the last five years that nobody can deny its existence. We can't let the cowardice and abuse of power prevail.  I have a YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010. This post is a summary of the article with the title above. It was published at https://seoul.ohchr.org/sites/default/f/2022/04_What%20are%20victims%20rights_formatting_FIN_ENG.pdf

                  From the beginning of the U.N. human rights system instruments have recognized that victims of human rights violations have a right to remedy and redress. Altough earlier human rights concepts focused on the need to punish perpetrators of violations, over time, the focus has shifted to the rights of victims and the obligations of State to victims. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) requires States to ensure that any person whose rights are violated has an effective remedy, even if the violations was committed by person acting in their official capacity. In addition, States must ensure that any person claiming such a remedy can have his or her claim determined by a competent court or other competent authority, and the authorities must enforce any remedies that are granted. Since the ICCPR was adopted in 1966, other more focused human rights treaties have also specifically referred to the rights of victims. In 2005, the General Assembly of the U.N. adopted the "Basic Principle and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law." States are encouraged to consider the Basic Principles as guidelines for domestic laws and policies. Since their adoption, the Basic Principle have become the main international framework for victims' rights. The rights of victims overlap to some degree with the fundamental principles of transitional justice. The relationship between the two is that transitional justice serves to ensure that the rights of victims are respected, protected, and fulfilled, among other aims. Under the Basic Principles, victims can be individual or collective. They may have suffered "physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights". In addition to direct victims, their family members and dependents can also be victims, as well as persons who tried to intervene to help the victim. The Basic Principles set out that all victims of violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law have the right to: 1) Equal and effective access to justice.   2) Adequate, effective and prompt reparations for harm suffered.   3) Access to relevant information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms.  Victims have the right to effective judicial remedies by competent courts without any form of discrimination. States should disseminate relevant information about available remedies, take measures to protect victims and make it easier for them to participate safely in these process, and provide relevant assistance, among other things. Victims are entitled to "adequate, effective and prompt reparations" for violations of their rights. Reparation can be individual or collective. If the State is responsible for the violations, the State should be responsible for reparation. The Basic Principles set out the actions States should take to help ensure reparation, and establish the main forms of reparation: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. Compensation should be paid where the violation of rights can be assessed economically. Economic damages apply for physical or mental harm, lost opportunities, such as education and social benefits, lost wages or potential future wages, moral damages, and the costs of dealing with the violation, such as lawyers, doctors, and other services. Rehabilitation means medical and psychological care, and legal and social services. Satisfaction can take many forms, including: a) measures to end ongoing violations, b) verification of facts and disclosure of the truth, c) searching for missing persons or their remains and appropriate treatment of their remains, d) an official declaration or judicial decision restoring the dignity, reputation and rights of victims, e) public apologies including acknowledge the facts and accepting responsibility, f) judicial and administrative sanctions against those who are responsible, g) tributes to victims, h) accurate information about the violations in education materials. Guarantees of non-repetition means that the State must take steps to ensure that violations stop and do not happen again. For example, the State could work to ensure effective civilian control over the military, strengthen its judiciary, change policies to protect lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, and reform laws that allow violations to happen, among other actions.

World Press Freedom Day - 2025

                     For about two decades I have had this activism for better political education, for more democracy and development, for more respect for human rights and better justice. The freedom of speech and a press free and independent are two pillars of democracy and justice and we all must defend them. We can't tolerate censorship of any kind. But if there is systematic bullying on TV against vulnerable human rights defenders, justice must be demanded.  I have a YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010.   This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at https://www.un.org/en/observances/press-freedom-day. The second was published at https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2025/772836/EPRS_ATA(2025)772836_EN.pdf

     The rapid growth and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing journalism, the media, and press freedom in big ways. While the principle of free, independent and pluralistic media remain crucial, AI's impact on information gathering, processing and dissemination is profound, presenting both innovative opportunities and serious challenges. AI can help support freedom of expression by making information easier to access, allowing more people to communicate across the world, and changing how information flows globally. At the same time, AI brings new risks. It can be used to spread false or misleading information, increase online hate speech, and support new types of censorship. Some actors use AI for mass surveillance of journalists and citizens, creating a chilling effect on freedom of expression. Big tech platforms use AI to filter and control what is seen, making them poweful gatekeepers of information. There are growing worries that AI may make global media too similar and push out smaller media outlets. AI can also help media organizations by automating tasks, making them more efficient. Generative AI tools reuse take away income from independent media and give it to tech platforms and AI companies. AI is playing a bigger role in elections, helping with fact-checking and fighting disinformation. It also gives tools to journalists and voters to support informed participation in democracy. But AI also creates risks. It can be used to make fake content, like deepfakes, which can damage trust in democratic systems. Addressing these challenges requires collaboration among goverments, media and civil society. The U.N. Global Digital Compact, says it's important to deal with problems caused by technology while still protecting people's privacy and freedom of expression. World Press Freedom Day 2025 focuses on how AI affects press freedom, the free flow of information, media independence,and the global goal of access to information and protecting freedoms. May 3rd acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom. It is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.                                                                                                                                                                              Digital technologies have now taken the world by storm. Newspaper sales continue to plummet, while the number of internet and social media users continue to rise. Internet intermediaries are now the gatekeepers of freedom of expression and information, influencing critically the way we receive. Governments around the world are resorting to internet shutdowns and other measures to silence online speech. Against this backdrop, 3 May remind us that freedom to seek, disseminate and receive information from different perspective on issues of public interest is a public good and vital to building healthy and pluralistic civic space in which democratic institutions and a healthy political debate can flourish. Without free and pluralistic media acting as public watchdog, citizens can't access the information they need to make sound political choice, and accountability is severely impaired. The media also offer citizens analysis of ongoing events, serve as a public forum in which different voices can be heard and interact with, and help citizens to understand an increasingly complex world. 3 May is also a day to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in pursuit of a story, to defend media from attacks on their independence, and to assess the state of media freedom worldwide. The European Commission monitors risks to media freedom in the E.U. Member States in its annual rule of law report. Additionally, since 2014, the Media Pluralism Monitor project, has been publishing reports assessing weaknesses in the E.U. Member States media systems that could hinder media pluralism. The 2024 editions of these reports confirm a negative shift regarding the journalistic profession, owing to an increase in the number of online and offline threats to journalists combined with abusive legal threats. The European Parliament has been an outspoken advocate for freedom of information and the protection of journalists both within and outside the E.U.

Economic Outlook - A Critical Juncture Amid Policy Shifts

                         This book is divided in 3 chapters. The first is an overall analysis of the current economy of the world and the last part of this first chapter, a report about the impact of AI on energy demand. The second chapter is dedicated to the global economic implications of population aging. And the third chapter is a report about an analysis of the migration and refugees policies. Like I've shared on Facebook before, many articles and reports showing the benefits to the place that welcome refugees and migrants. And like I've said many times as a global human rights defender, to seek asylum is a human right enshrined in the U.D.H.R. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). For about two decades I have had this activism for better political education, for more democracy and development, for more respect for human rights and better justice,  I have a YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos. Since the creation of this channel its visualization counter doesn't work, the same has been happening with the counter of this blog since its creation in 2010. Never a human rights defender was so much harmed in so many ways and for so long time. This post is a summary of the book with the title above, published in April 2025   at https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2025/04/22/world-economic-outlook-april-2025

                         This April 2025 World Economic Outlook was put together under exceptional circumstances. The U.S. announced multiple waves of tariffs on major trading partners and critical sectors. The global economy is now characterized by a high degree of economic and financial integration. For this reason, we expect that the sharp increase in both tariffs and uncertainty will lead to a significant slowdown in global growth in the near term. These effects are magnified in the presence of modern complex global supply chains. Anticipating such disruptions we have revised down our projection for global trade growth by 1.5% this year, with a slight recovery for 2026. The global economy is a critical juncture. Signs of stabilization were emerging through much of 2024, after a prolonged and challenging period of multidecade highs, followed a gradual bumpy decline towards central bank targets. Labor markets normalized, with unemployment and vacancy rates returning to prepandemic levels. Growth hovered around 3% and global output came close to potential. However, major policy shifts are resetting the global trade system giving rise to uncertainty that is once again testing the resilience of the global economy. Migration and refugee policies have become a critical part of public policy in the context of an anemic growth outlook and growing demographic pressures. In addition to documenting rising legal migration and refugee flows and barriers, the report finds the following: 1) Beyond the better handling of large unexpected displacement shocks, international cooperation can help distribute the short-term costs of hosting refugees more evenly across countries, while alleviating the burden on individual economies. Such initiatives stand to benefit developing economies, which tend to lack fiscal space and absorptive capacity. 2) Improving integration of migrants and refugees to maximize gain for destination economies. A big share of refugees are more often absorbed into the informal economy. strengthening incentives to take up formal work can help these economies reap the benefits of these inflows. Migrants and refugees can generate economic gain that outweigh fiscal costs and even ease fiscal pressures if they are well integrated into the labor force. Refugees frequently struggle to join he labor force or find employment opportunities that fully utilize their skills. The benefits from their contributions are larger, notably in the long term.                                                   Below the GDP growth in 2024, from the highest growth to the smallest growth.  The first column is for countries in the American continent, and the other is for some countries in the rest of the world. As previously forecasted, Guyana had the highest GDP growth of the world last year. The same had happened in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Congratulations to our neighboring country.

GDP growth 2024 in PanAmerican countries                           Rest of the World

Guyana        43.6%                                                                      Ethiopia     8.1%          

Venezuela        5.3%                                                                      India        6.5%

Costa Rica         4.3%                                                               Philippines        5.7%

Paraguay         4.0%                                                                      China      5.0%                                  

Guatemala            3.7%                                                                Indonesia       5.0%

Honduras          3.6%                                                                      Spain        3.2%

Nicaragua         3.6%                                                                   Turkiye      3.2%                                      

Brazil              3.4%                                                                     Poland        2.9%

Peru              3.3%                                                                     Norway        2.1%

Uruguay          3.1%                                                                    Portugal     1.9%

Panama           2.9%                                                                    Ireland       1.2%

U.S.A.           2.8%                                                                         France     1.1%

Chile            2.6%                                                                            U.K.       1.1%

Colombia          1.7%                                                                    Italy       0.7% 

Canada           1.5%                                                                         Japan      0.1%

Mexico            1.5%                                                                       Germany      -0.2%

Bolivia             1.3%                                                                

Argentina            -1.7%                                                           

Ecuador            -2.0%                                                                     

                                                          

Crime and Violence in Latin America

                 Brazil should follow the example of the European and North America countries, where violent crimes are punished with a lot more rigor. The right to life must be more respected in Latin America. The first part of this book is dedicated to an economical analysis of Latin America with lots of infographics. If you want to read the whole book there are versions in Spanish and Portuguese on the World Bank webpage. The Latin Americans shouldn't miss the focus on development, education, peace, justice, democracy and human rights. For almost two decades I've been writing online about the importance of these issues for a better life to everyone here in our continent.  This post is a summary of the chapter two of the book with the incomplete title above, published in April of 2025 at https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/151ce3ba-0caf-4aae-ae71-d68751b7a80b/content

                 The development challenges in Latin America are increasingly compounded by the expansion of crime in the region. The regions' news outlets document not only rising homicides rates but killings involving politicians; candidates for office assassinated, altering elections; businesses that must pay extortion fees to operate; and neighborhoods, cities and rural municipalities under criminal control. This chapter argues that crime is one of the region's most pressing problems and must be at the center of any conversation about development. While it is a problem present in many countries, in Latin America, crime tends to be more violent and it also flourishes through coercion and extortion; the capture of state institutions and sometimes with rules that limit individual freedoms, including the right to move, work, and vote freely. The impediments it poses to the region's development are myriad: uncertainty about property rights reduces and distorts investment; extortion and insecurity raise business costs and reduce competitiveness; unproductive public security expenses divert resources that could go into health, education or infrastructure, improving people's lives; victims of violence experience reductions in their capacity to accumulate human capital; communities living under crme rule see their basic freedoms compromised. The channels through which crime contributes to low productivity, low growth and poverty are countless.  Crime feeds on an absence of opportunities. In the medium and long term, the best public security policy is building more functional states that can offer better education systems and labor markets that work well and can offer quality jobs. Collecting "taxes" from businesses is a widespread practice of organized crime groups in the territories under their control. Extortion affects smaller businesses more than larger ones. A paradigmatic case is El Salvador, where MS-13 and Barrio 18 were involved in extortion throughout the country for decades. Approximately 79% of businesses, including high-end restaurants and shopping malls, paid extortion fees. The total cost of extortion in El Salvador was estimated at 16% of GDP in 2014. In Ecuador, extortion cases increased by more than 65% from 2022 to 2023. Criminal activity is made possible by the ability of criminal groups to manipulate state actors at the national and subnational levels through a perverse combination of coercion and bribes, and some cases control over electoral processes through campaign financing or elimination of candidates by murder or pressure to drop out. Organized crime has become a parallel power at the local level across parts of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador. Latin America has long been hobbled by mediocre annual average economic growth, low productivity and high numbers of people struggling to stay out of poverty. This report argues that the region will remain trapped in this poor equilibrium until it figures out how to contain the worst expressions of organized crime, including the violence it brings along. There are several channels through which organized crime trumps development: 1) Reducing and distorting private investment. 2) Diverting public resources towards unproductive uses. 3) Destroying human, physical and natural capital. 4) Weakening institutions and the quality of government. 5) Deepening inequalities. All these channels add up to significant costs, many of which are hard to quantify. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates direct human capital losses and public and private security expenses in Latin America in 2022 at 3.4% of GDP. Homicides are not the only manifestation of violence. However, the homicide rate is the most reliable comparable statistic of violence. By this measure, violence in Latin America is incomparable high. While accounting for approximately 9% of the global population, Latin America records one-third of all homicides. Moreover, the gap between the homicide rate in Latin America and the rest of the world has widened over the last 20 years. In the second decade of this century, the average homicide rate in Latin America was 8 times higher than the world's average. (23.9 versus 3.0). The Latin America average hides substantial variation across countries. The 2018-2022 average homicide rate vary from 49 homicides per 1,000 people in Jamaica and 38 in Honduras (at the top) to 5 in Argentina and 4 in Bolivia (at the bottom). Most non-LatinAmerica countries ranking among the top 50 by their criminality score have homicides rates under 10 per 100,000 people. The exceptions are Nigeria, South Africa, and South Sudan. In contrast, all Latin America countries in the same group, except Paraguay and Peru, have homicide rate exceeding 10 per 100,000 and seven have homicide rates exceeding 20 per 100,000 people. These figures suggest that organized crime is more lethal in Latin America than in most other places, prompting the question of what else in Latin America different. Latin America, by far, has the highest average levels of excess lethal violence, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa. Within Latin America countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala are the countries with more lethal violence. In contrast, countries like Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina report lower homicide rates relative to their general levels of crime. The available indicators of the effectiveness of criminal investigation and adjudication, from the World Justice Project, suggest that except for Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, Latin American countries rank the lowest relative to countries in other world regions. The first indicator assesses the quality of criminal justice based on the perception and experience of whether perpetrators of crime are effectively apprehended and correctly charged. The second indicator measures whether perperators of crime are effectively prosecuted and punished and whether criminal judges and other judicial officers are competent and produce speedy decisions. It provides a closer assessment of impunity, confirming that this is a significant problem in the region. High levels of impunity for serious crimes are confirmed by most measures of criminal justice performance in those Latin America countries experiencing more violence. Indeed, the availability of appropriate criminal justice performance indicators can improve accountability and public trust while providing the correct incentives for strategic effectiveness. To improve criminal justice capacity, specifically in fighting organizing crime, authorities must turn to prioritization, which entails focusing resources on investigating and eliminating those crimes that are more harmful to society, such as homicidal violence, child abuse and extortion. The lack of reliable information about organized crime and the challenges of measuring it are immense. Indeed, part of the institutional weaknesses discussed in the previous section results from the lack of data. Thus, part of the problem is the absence of systematic official survey. This is despite security being identified as one of the top concerns of public opinion in poll studies.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century

                   For almost two decades I have had this actvism for better political education, for more respect for human rights, for better justice, for better democracy, for better citizenship. Join us in this worldwide movement, watch my videos on my YouTube channel, here is the link.   https://www.youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773/videos.   This post is a summary of an article that is a summary of the book with the title above. it was published at https://carlaseaquist.medium.com/books-for-our-times-on-tyranny-twenty-lessons-from-the-twentieth-century-by-timothy-snyder-dce314bf8f3f

                     The author, Timothy Snyder, leads with "Tyranny", for good reason: Alarmed at the deteriorating state of democracy, he published this book in 2017. He wants to return us to principles. Tyranny lies ahead us, if we don't save ourselves. First step in saving ourselves is understand our peril. He discusses ideas, ideas undergirding democracy and lying invisible behind our peril that, because they have become "normalized" (a term Snyder doesn't use), we don't recognize them. What he seeks to do is furnish us with new lenses and mindset, so we can see and think anew what an invaluable, but imperiled, thing we have. To do this Snyder avoids the jargon that has jammed current political "debate", using instead evocative but on-point language. For example, introducing the idea of tyranny: "The founding Fathers sought to avoid the evil that they called tyranny. They had in mind the usurpation of power by a single individual or group, or the circumvention of law by rulers for their own profit. "Evil, usurpation, tyranny", all resonate more than autocracy, a term not computing for many. Citing history, Snyder teaches history at Yale University, he writes: As the Founders knew, "Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability, while Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves as tyrants. Most of his historical examples come from the 20th century: Russia's communist and Hitler's manipulation of Germany's nascent democracy into a fascist killing machine. Surveying European democracies, he says, "societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary men can find themselves standing over deaths pits with guns in their hands. To enable understanding of how tyranny comes, Snyder presents his twenty lessons.  1) Don't obey in advance: Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given and anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy.   2) Defend institutions: it is institutions that help us to preserve decency.   3) Beware the one-party system: more so than ever, politicians with great power exploit the moment"to make political life impossible for their opponents, trying to demonstrate they must either fear democracy or weaken it.   4) Take responsibility for the face of the world: "notice the swastikas and other signs of hate. Don't look away, and don't get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.   5) Remember professional ethics: this lessons bears underscoring. Professional commitment to just practice, practice thst is ethical is crucial when a political leader shows authoritarian intent: it is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers. Snyder profiles Hitler's Germany: doctors conducting "ghastly" medical experiments in the concentration camps, businessmen exploiting camps' cheap labor, civil servants recording it all. The Nazi atrocities could not happen if lawyers had followers the norm of no executions without trial, if doctors had accepted the rule of no surgery without consent, if businessmen had accepted the prohibition of slavery. Professional codes of ethical conduct, confer power and impose the obrigation to act. Then there is no such thing as just following orders. It takes a people to make a tyranny. Ethical codes of conduct, of course, should be imposed on political leaders themselves.   6) Be wary of paramilitares: armed groups first degrade political order, and then transform it.   7) Be reflective if you must be armed: addressed to members of the military and police, Snyder urges that in response to a tyrant's orders, be ready to say no.   8) Stand out: somebody has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom.   9) Be kind to language: Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying.   10) Believe in truth: a lesson taking on supreme importance, "to abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. Per Victor Klemperer, literary scholar and holocaust survivor, "truth dies in four modes: first, the hostility to verifiable reality. Second, "shamanistic incantation". Third, "magical thinking, or the open embrace of contradiction, for example, a politician promises of cuttng taxes, eliminating national debt and at the same time increasing spending. Accepting untruth of this kind requires a blatant abandonment of reason. And finally, "misplaced faith" in self-deifying claims. In suma: "post-truth is pre-fascism.   11) Investigate: An investigating mind prevents a "generic cynicism". Support investigative reporting and take responsibility for what you communicate to others.   12) Understand whom you should and shouldn't trust.   13) Make new friends and march with them.   14) Establish a private life: Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you, your legal troubles, your emails. Try not to have hooks.   15) Contribute to good causes: to create an empowered civil society, do good and help others do good.   16) Learn from peers in other countries.  17) Listen for dangerous words: this lesson is key. Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notion of emergency and exception. Dissidents, whether they were resisting fascism or communism, were called extremists. In this way the notion of extremism comes to mean virtually everything except what is, in fact, extreme: tyranny.  18) Be calm when the unthinkable comes: "modern tyranny is terror management. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on.   19) Be a patriot: a nationalist isn't at all the same as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tell us that we are the best, while a patriot wants the nation to live up to its ideals.   20) Be as courageous as you can, and try to cultivate in ourselves and as voters, a sense of maturity, responsibility and history. Defending democracy is subtle business and this subtle book shows how.