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Nicaragua Police and Law Enforcement
The collapse of the Somoza administration in 1979 left
Nicaragua without any agency of public order because the
National
Guard had performed police services, albeit in a
repressive and
corrupt fashion. For a brief period, FSLN veterans,
working with
the Sandinista Defense Committees and other mass
organizations,
provided rudimentary police functions, but this improvised
system
failed to prevent an upsurge of organized criminal
activity,
armed robbery, and attacks by youth gangs. The easy
availability
of weapons also contributed to the breakdown of law
enforcement.
A more professional police force was gradually put into
place
with the help of security training by the Panamanian
National
Guard and the Cuban government. Panama also donated
vehicles and
equipment and accepted several hundred Nicaraguans in
Panama's
police training academy.
Under the newly established Ministry of Interior, the
Sandinista Police (Policía Sandinista--PS) resembled a
militarytype staff organization, headed by a former FSLN brigade
commander. Individual operating sections were responsible
for
traffic, public safety, prisons, communications,
surveillance,
legal processing, and embassy protection. Women made up a
substantial proportion of the force.
An eight-month training course for police cadets
included a
heavy dose of military training, because in a national
emergency
the PS was expected to perform a support role in national
defense. In addition to controlling street crime, the
police were
called on to combat the social legacy of the corrupt
Somoza
administration by enforcing morality and public welfare
laws.
Campaigns were launched against prostitution and
alcoholism, but
the new morality ordinances were enforced only
sporadically. The
crime rate was reduced somewhat when the police were
granted
authority to arrest "known delinquents" for "illegal
association"
when more specific charges could not be proven.
The police were later assisted by Revolutionary
Vigilance
Patrols organized by neighborhood Sandinista Defense
Committees.
These patrols conducted nighttime walks through
neighborhoods and
tended to discourage community crime. The PS also
cooperated with
the state security forces to suppress counterrevolutionary
elements and to arrest political opponents of the
administration.
Known as the National Police after 1990, the police
force has
continued to be controlled by Sandinistas despite the
turnover of
power to President Chamorro. The National Police's total
complement was given as 11,000 by one source. The
Sandinista
police commander, René Vivas Lugo, remained its head.
Police
matters come under the Ministry of Government, which
replaced the
Ministry of Interior. The police, who act with substantial
autonomy, have been repeatedly accused of human rights
violations. A local human rights group has described the
use of
torture as an investigative tool as "systematic."
Many officials of the state security apparatus linked
to
serious human rights violations under the Sandinistas
assumed
positions as chiefs of police in provincial towns. To
investigate
and correct police wrongdoing, in 1991 a Civil Inspection
Unit
was formed within the Ministry of Government. The
following year,
Chamorro appointed a civilian without Sandinista ties as
vice
minister of government who would be responsible for
supervising
the police. Twelve police commanders, including Vivas,
were
removed and more moderate Sandinistas appointed from
within the
ranks. A new police law has instituted a regular system of
promotion and retirement, emphasizing professionalism and
subordination to civilian authority.
The counternarcotics efforts of the National Police are
relatively weak, but the drug problem in Nicaragua
appeared to be
modest as of 1993. Although firm evidence is lacking,
cocaine use
is described as substantial. The only local drug produced
are
from small plots of marijuana, which is consumed
domestically.
Nicaragua is on an overland drug transit route from South
America
to the United States via the Pan American Highway, and
drug
movement by ship has been suspected through both Caribbean
and
Pacific ports. The effectiveness of drug law enforcement
has been
limited, although a law was passed in 1992 to authorize
the
establishment of an antinarcotics unit in the National
Police.
Data as of December 1993
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