| The recent capture and reported confession in Peru by murder suspect Joran van der Sloot has re-ignited the international focus on what many feel was an inadequate performance by Aruban law enforcement in the five-year old Natalee Holloway case. The American teenager disappeared while on vacation in Aruba, and was last seen in the company of van der Sloot. In the intervening years, the Dutchman has produced a plethora of explanations – many conflicting – as to what exactly happened to her.
Now that he has been caught and jailed in connection with the killing of another young woman, it appears that he would much prefer being in Aruba then his current location.
In fact, many are actually blaming Aruba for the death of his most recent alleged victim, Stephany Flores, who is seen in a video accompanying van der Sloot to his Lima hotel room on May 30 – a room from which she did not emerge alive. The gist of the feelings expressed by various online commentators is that if a proper job had been done in prosecuting the accused killer in the first place, he would never have had the opportunity to slay again, as alleged.
Van der Sloot has promised to reveal the long-sought location of Holloway’s body, but only to Aruban officials. Many observers feel that this bargaining chip is merely a ploy by the desperate Dutchman to get out of Peru to Aruba, a far more ‘friendly’ venue, from where he would vigorously fight extradition.
Unfortunately, a number of persons around the world have looked at the perceived Aruban incompetence and proceeded to paint the entire region with the same broad brush. Whereas a country like Peru has established a reputation for not pulling punches when it comes to criminals and illicit activities, there is no Caribbean country for which that could truly be said.
Fair, or unfair, the global perception is that the law enforcement forces in this region are not as on top of the crime issue, when compared to other countries and regions. Having several countries sporting among the highest homicide rates per capita in the world certainly doesn’t help matters.
The question must then be asked: is this a fair characterization? Is the Caribbean justice system lacking when compared to other global locales?
Certainly, monetary considerations play a huge part in any examination of the administration of justice in a given geographic area. Many Caribbean countries simply don’t have the funds to devote to a police force that others do. Peru, for example, has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$253 billion, as compared to Aruba’s US$2.3 billion, according to the latest figures in the World Factbook.
In some areas of the world, justice has a decidedly harsher flavor. Singapore, for example, regards drug abuse as one of the gravest dangers to the health of the people and hence the development of the nation. Consequently, its penal codes prescribe death as a punishment for the offense of drug trafficking. According to statistics compiled by local civil right group, the Think Center, 70 percent of hangings in Singapore are for drug-related offenses.
In a similar vein, in China's criminal law trafficking of more than 50 grams of heroin can warrant the death penalty.
One can scarcely conceive of such a punishment being levied in the Caribbean, and perhaps that’s part of the problem. Would enacting such draconian measures loosen the hold that drug trafficking has on the region, give pause to many would-be dealers, and toughen the region’s law enforcement reputation? It would certainly be interesting to see. |
