ABSTRACT
Introduction In recent years political scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues of accountability and law in contemporary Latin America. It is over two decades since the return to elected civilian rule, yet the democratic rule of law remains extremely weak in the region and is generally agreed to be one of the major ‘deficits’ of existing democracies. Although the picture varies from country to country, in general levels of impunity are high and recourse to extra-judicial means of conflict resolution a commonplace, public security provision remains poor in the face of soaring crime levels, and the population’s confidence in the judicial apparatus is low.
