Towards the reinterpretation of the classical theory of Transitional Justice in Latin America: case studies on the Southern Cone and Northern Triangle sub-regions

The present research aims at studying the application of the classic theory of transitional justice in Latin America so to understand to what extent there is a need of reinterpretation of this process, since the lawful stability proclaimed as the main product of its method appears to be more related with corruption and criminality rather than the strengthening of democratic institutions and rule of law. In order to achieve this goal, the study will first of all analyse the contexts of repression and extreme violation of human rights that two specific Latin American sub-regions (the Southern Cone with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) were able to overcome with transitional justice. After that, the research will develop on the formation of dominant elites ruled by corruption and the growth of organized crime and their social and economic relevance in the same countries studied previously. Finally, the research will expand on the feature of peace in the regions studied in order to understand whether the classic theory of transitional justice should be reinterpreted so as to get closer to its central objective of detaching societies from criminality and violence towards becoming fully human-rights-oriented. The research can be justified by the fact that Latin America is a reference of having used transitional justice in the past years to overcome repressive regimes and seek reparation for the victims and for future observance of human rights, yet the statistics and studies about criminality in the region prove that there is no peace and security in these countries: although no dictatorship/authoritarian regime is so far prevailing and democracies are quite stable, neither they are enough to say that such stability comes from the idea of justice as a result of surpassing the wrongdoings of the past. On the contrary, it seems that they come from the general unlawful state of things that is observed in the overall levels of corruption and criminality in the countries. In this light, at the academic level, a reinterpretation of the classic approach of transitional justice should be deemed appropriate. The methodology for the research will be the inductive analysis of the bibliographic review. It is expected to conclude that, in the short-term future, the countries studied might be suitable for another round of transitional justice, albeit a reinterpreted version of the theory should be considered for application, one that does not ignore the endemic causes of violence and human rights abuses and that also includes provisions originally alien to the classic approach, such as economic measures, all as part of a set of efforts to deliver more robust and long-lasting results for the Latin communities.