ConflictBarometer_2016

THE AMERICAS
Morales, declared that his office would examine the involvement
of security forces in 30 murder cases of so-called death
squads. One month later, General Attorney Douglas Meléndez
testified the existence of a murder-for-hire network, including
at least six police officers. Between 2014 and 2015,
the network had allegedly killed eleven gang members.
In order to fight the cross-border gang activities, the government
also intensified its cooperation with Honduran and
Guatemalan authorities during the year. On August 23, President
Cerén, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández
and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales signed the ''Regional
Plan Against Transnational Organized Crime'' after the
attorney generals of the Northern Triangle countries had met
two weeks before to discuss possibilities of cooperation [→
Honduras (drug trafficking organizations, organized crime);
Guatemala (drug cartels)].
Combined military and police forces of all three countries
conducted the first multilateral operation on November 15 in
the Honduran border region Ocotepeque. sen
GUATEMALA – BELIZE (TERRITORY)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1981
The conflict between Guatemala and Belize over more than
half of the Belizean mainland territory, covering the area from
the Sibun River south to the Sarstoon border river, escalated
to a violent crisis. Since Belize's independence in 1981,
Guatemala had upheld claims referring to the colonial territory
of former British Honduras.
On March 12, a standoff between two vessels of the
Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF) approaching a Belizean Forward
Operating Base on the Sarstoon River, and a boat of the
Belize Defense Force (BDF) ended non-violently. Following
the incident, the Belizean government referred to the conflict
as being ''at an all-time high”.
During a bilateral meeting on April 8, Guatemala rejected an
eleven-point-proposal presented by Belize. It aimed at reducing
tensions by permitting both countries to ship on the
Sarstoon River and called upon both sides to refrain from
''threatening, abusive, or unfriendly actions”.
On April 20, a Guatemalan minor was shot dead and another
two people were injured in the Belizean Chiquibul National
Park, Cayo district, which borders Guatemala. In response to
the killing, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales deployed
3,000 troops to the border the following day. According to
an OAS report released on August 26, not BDF officers but
members of a Belizean conservation group had killed the minor
in an alleged act of self-defense. Morales rejected the
findings on September 5. On May 14, BDF shot and injured a
Guatemalan citizen and arrested two as they presumably carried
out illegal gold mining activities in the Chiquibul National
Park.
Nine days later, Belize and Guatemala held a first round of
talks about the border dispute during the World Humanitarian
Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. The two parties agreed on launching
negotiations starting in June in order to elaborate the
terms of a possible cooperation mechanism for the Sarstoon
River area. Reconciliation efforts were hampered when two
days later, eight Belizean nationals were arrested on the
peninsula Punta Manabique, Itzabal department, close to the
border, on charges of having illegally entered Guatemala. On
June 16, nine GAF soldiers stopped a Belizean boat navigating
on the Sarstoon River and requested them to leave supposed
Guatemalan waters.
A BDF patrol came under fire on September 3, while it
approached an illegal camp of Guatemalan settlers in the
Chiquibul National Park approx. 260 meters from the border.
The BDF officers returned fire. The incident, however, did
not cause fatalities. On October 17, a GAF patrol arrested six
Belizean nationals fishing in the adjacent Gulf of Honduras.
According to Guatemalan sources the Belizeans had illegally
entered Guatemalan waters, while Belizean sources claimed
that GAF officers had towed the fishermen into Guatemalan
territory to arrest them.
Following a 2008 agreement to hold referenda in both countries
on whether the territorial dispute should be submitted
to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Belizean
congress on December 29 passed the legislation necessary
for implementation. tle
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
Guatemala vs. Belize
territory
HAITI (OPPOSITION)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1986
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
opposition groups vs. government
national power
The violent crisis over national power between several opposition
parties, including Fanmi Lavalas, the Haitian Party
Tèt Kale (PHTK), Pitit Dessalines, and the Alternative League
for Haitian Progress and Empowerment (LAPEH), and the
government continued. Throughout January, the G8 Mobilization
Table, a coalition of eight prominent opposition
parties, held several demonstrations in the capital Port-au-
Prince. They demanded President Michel Martelly's resignation
and protested against holding the second round of presidential
elections, scheduled for January 24, due to alleged
widespread corruption in the electoral process. Six demonstrations
escalated in January, with protesters throwing rocks
and setting up barricades and police answering with tear gas
and water cannon. The clashes left at least two injured. Additionally,
unidentified armed men torched three electoral offices
and an office of the Repons Peyizan pro-government
party on January 17 and January 26, respectively.
After the cancellation of the second round of presidential
elections due to alleged security concerns, the executive and
legislative branches of power reached a political agreement
on February 6. The agreement foresaw the termination of
Martelly's term the following day and the appointment of
a provisional president by the National Assembly. Six days
later, Jocelerme Privert of Fanmi Lavalas was elected provisional
president.
Under Privert's administration, supporters of Martelly's PHTK
clashed with the police on at least five occasions. On May 14,
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