Latin America's Guerrilla Groups, its Drug Gangs and Poverty - Essay Example

The situation in rural areas is much poorer than in the urban areas where the average salaries of the workers are 3 to 4 times less as compared to the urban areas. Moreover there are no social security services offered to the rural population. The high cost of living in these areas has forced the children out of the schools into factories and agricultural fields, but still they do not earn enough to feed themselves. There is a general lack of awareness among the local population about the benefits of getting education and having regular health check-ups in the areas where the government has managed to establish schools and hospitals.

These conditions are very easily exploited by the drug lords and guerilla commanders who use the poor people for their interests because the poor are easily attracted towards the large sums of money they get in return. The case of drug lords is very simple as compared to guerilla commanders because the only incentive offered to the poor by the drug lords is the financial benefit they get in return of doing illegal things for them. This is quite attractive for the poor considering their low income; however the guerilla commanders have other ways of attracting the poor.

Guerilla warfare is often considered as a gesture of revolutionist and separatist mindset of a particular group of people in a country, therefore the poor are very easily pulled towards this illegal activity without any feeling of guilt. The poor also consider it illegal to get involved in the drug trade; however the guerilla commanders are deemed as leaders by a considerable number of poor people in Latin America because they consider them their saviors against the so called oppressive economic system of their countries.

So the poor in these countries feel pride in joining the guerilla groups (Guevara). Eradication of poverty through economic reforms is considered as one solution, however the financial problems of the poor people of Latin America is just a part of the story; there are other very important issues associated with this problem, lack of education being the most important of all. Despite the remarkable advancements in information and communication technology, the rural areas in most of the countries of Latin America are still living in isolation and thus know a very little about the outside world.

The lack of education facilities in this region of the world has only aggravated the situation. The poor people of rural areas are too afraid of changing their way of living and consequently they are hostile towards their governments, blaming them for their poverty and deplorable condition (Fay). Conditional cash transfer programs are perhaps the best solution possible in such a scenario because of the vast opportunities it offers to the poor. The idea is to pay the poor to reduce their poverty but this payment is made on certain conditions which involve the improvement in the behavior of the population and improvement of lifestyle.

The two problems identified by carrying out detailed analysis of the involvement of poor in drug crimes and guerilla wars are poverty and lack of education and healthcare. The system of conditional cash transfer offers solutions to both of these problems. Many families in