SOUTH AMERICA: SECURITY IN UNSAFE SOCIETIES
Security: One of the Broken Promises of Democracy
Norberto Bobbio
1909 -2004
Senator, Jurist and Political Scientist
Michael R. Lindsay & Consulting
Paulo Costa - Global Information Agency
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Security is a theme that seems to be absent in some regions of the Southern South of the World Map. The political and media classes talk and think a lot, with the addition of the academics on duty who can only be seen on the desk: about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, or the tense relations between the US and China, we will say -shoemakers to their shoes -little they deal with or question the Security Theme in the daily routine that, after the Economic one, has southern societies in suspense, for two examples: Brazil and Argentina.
Let's see:
1- The Security Issue has become a taboo subject in some "pseudo-progressive and fanciful" discourses and practices when in the main societies of the world today: from the United States to Russia through China, Turkey and the State of Israel are issues First level, seeking and procuring the Security of the citizens themselves, and here there are no ideologies and much less divergences, the citizen who works and maintains his family must be and feel Safe. The methodologies in favor of a safer society are revealed by the Security Agencies against crime both in the United States, Russia and China, as well as true State Priorities on the Security issue. That is called Permanent State Policies, governments pass, State policies remain. South America seems to be absent on some fronts.
Brazil, without a doubt, once had high levels of insecurity, also due to its large population growth, for more than a decade it has been developing Active Security policies without ideological divergences in this regard. On this front and on others, Brazil has developed permanent State Policies.
2- The Argentine case is different from the Brazilian one, social living conditions have worsened, poverty and indigence have increased, and retail crime and carrying weapons has taken possession of social scenarios, it is common to hear in Argentina: "they kill to steal a cell phone or mobile""the so-called motochorros that are armed" adding that there is a war of the poor against the poor as some say, street crime has taken to the streets. What happens in Argentina with this issue where there can be ideological divergences from the center of Buenos Aires - called Conurbano-, Zona Atlántica - Mar del Plata- and others??. This social thermometer indicates that -something is wrong- and not precisely here and now, but has become an endemic problem that Argentine society has dragged on for decades and to which the so-called political class, according to Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto, looks to another side. The one who suffers it is the common citizen, the ordinary citizen.
3 - Societies that do not address this issue are on the way to disintegration or once called "Lebanization" or "Balkanization" or a failed State, according to the great president Shimon Peres, with apologies to both Lebanese and Balkan cultures. If Argentina has many problems, the Security Issue should be in first place in all Social and Political Agendas, caring for the common citizen is the main guideline for future citizen, social and economic growth.
Time will tell-