The Breakdown of Democracy in Honduras & Nicaragua: The Relationship Between Criminalization & De-democratization

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, Latin America has illustrated a growing trend of declining democratic systems. The rise of populism (Diamond, 2015; Stavrakakis et al., 2016; Bezio & Goethals, 2020), as well as other forms of hybrid and authoritarian regimes (in extreme cases dictatorships) (Fitzi, Mackert & Turner, 2019) has begun to call into question the future of democracy within the region. The breakdown of democracy in Latin America has been characterized by anti-liberal practices, such as the suppression of civil and political liberties in addition to the overwhelming criminalization of human rights defenders and collective action (Doran, 2017).

Based on the information gathered through 50 extensive interviews, this dissertation focuses on these themes through a comparative analysis of two case studies which employ these state-led repressive tactics and whose democratic systems are currently declining, Honduras and Nicaragua. Both these countries' state actors have chosen to engage in the practices of arbitrary arrests, judicial impunity, lethal force, limited freedom of speech, the criminalization of human rights defenders and the related persecution of protesters as common political strategies (Human Rights Watch, 2020a; 2020b). These repressive practices are indicators of Honduras and Nicaragua's failing democratic systems.

Due to these indicators, my thesis seeks to ascertain How have Honduras and Nicaragua's political systems initiated a process of de-democratization? In seeking to answer this question and taking into consideration the ongoing insecurity and overt use of government enforced anti-liberal practices, my dissertation additionally inquires Why doesn't the literature on the causes of de-democratization address criminalization as an important element and/or causal factor of de-democratization? And what role does criminalization play in the advancement of de-democratization?

Using a theoretical framework based on the works of Calleros (2009), Albertus & Menaldo (2018), O'Donnell & Schmitter (1986) and Doran (2017) and a content analysis approach this dissertation presents two primary arguments. First, that the structural flaws that occurred during the transition and democratization processes of Honduras and Nicaragua, led to the composition of inherently weak democratic institutions and to a problematic imbalance of power between the different branches of government, issues which have profoundly contributed to the current de-democratization processes taking place in each country, as well as enabling the use of criminalization as a tool for socio-political repression. And second, that the ability of government agents to employ extreme acts of violence and repression against human rights defenders and as a response to exercises of collective action, suggest that criminalization can and should be used as a causal factor in the study of de-democratization. Particularly, because criminalization is now being increasingly and systematically employed by political actors as a mechanism of repression to target human rights defenders and demonstrators whom they perceive as socio-political opponents.