From community policing to political police in Nicaragua

In a region plagued by high rates of violent crime and repressive policing practices, Nicaragua has earned a reputation as exceptional. Despite poverty, inequality, and a historical legacy of political violence and repression, Nicaragua has defied regional trends. It has registered low rates of violent crime while deploying policing practices that emphasized prevention over repression. April 2018 marked an end to this exceptionalism. Police attacked anti-government protestors, and launched a sustained campaign against dissidents that continues to the present day. While the Nicaraguan police had long cultivated a reputation as community-oriented and non-repressive, they appeared to quickly change into a repressive, political force. In this paper, we trace how the Nicaraguan police have evolved over time. Relying upon longitudinal data from 1996-2019 from the Latin American Public Opinion Project, we trace the process of police reform in Nicaragua, and analyse public attitudes towards the police as these reforms unfolded.  Resumen: De policia comunitaria a policia politica en Nicaragua En una region plagada de altos indices de delitos violentos y practicas policiales represivas, Nicaragua se ha ganado una reputacion como excepcional. A pesar de la pobreza, la desigualdad y un legado historico de violencia politica y represion, Nicaragua ha desafiado las tendencias regionales. Ha registrado bajas tasas de delitos violentos al tiempo que ha desplegado practicas policiales que enfatizan la prevencion sobre la represion. Abril de 2018 marco el fin de este excepcionalismo. La policia ataco a manifestantes antigubernamentales y lanzo una campana sostenida contra los disidentes que continua hasta el dia de hoy. Si bien la policia nicaraguense habia cultivado durante mucho tiempo una reputacion de estar orientada hacia la comunidad y no represiva, parecio transformarse rapidamente en una fuerza politica represiva. En este articulo, rastreamos como la policia nicaraguense ha evolucionado a lo largo del tiempo. Basandonos en datos longitudinales de 1996-2019 del Proyecto de Opinion Publica de America Latina, rastreamos el proceso de reforma policial en Nicaragua y analizamos las actitudes del publico hacia la policia a medida que se desarrollaban estas reformas.