The implementation of an adversarial system for criminal investigations and prosecutions in Central America opened the door to greater efficiency. However, some fundamental problems persisted, such as discomfort with in-court testimony, the accumulation of written records, and the very narrow use of scientific evidence in criminal cases. Additional complications included the lack of coordination between the criminal justice institutions among Central American countries, due in part to a traditional lack of strategic plans for the promotion of forensic science as a linchpin of the criminal justice system. The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI) sought to address these challenges with the Strengthen Forensic Capacity program in Central America, which began in 2011 and concluded in 2018. The program promoted greater coordination between forensics laboratories and other law enforcement agencies through the establishment and support of a forensics working group in each country to encourage regional cooperation. The program was funded by the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
During the program’s seven years, ABA ROLI created and convened Forensic Working Groups in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Belize and worked with each one on inter-institutional coordination plans. ABA ROLI provided 257 training sessions and increased the technical capacity of 7,305 justice-sector actors in the five countries. Additionally, ABA ROLI’s training sessions included instructions on the adequate processes of crime scene elements, ballistics, sexual violence crime investigations (such as femicide and trafficking in persons), as well as organized crime, hate crime, clandestine cemetery crime, cyber-crime, forensic psychology psychiatry, criminalistics, forensic toxicology, and pathology. In El Salvador, this effort resulted in three international quality certifications, the first of their kind for public forensic laboratories in the region.