A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military component with jurisdiction in civil law enforcement. The term gendarme is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to "armed people". In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces responsible for internal security in parts of the territory with additional duties as a military police for the armed forces. This concept was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid twentieth century, a number of former French mandates or colonial possessions such as Lebanon, Syria, and the Republic of the Congo adopted a gendarmerie after independence.
Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers end up breaking their political contract and abuse their power for personal gain. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers. Internal police corruption is a challenge to public trust, cohesion of departmental policies, human rights and legal violations involving serious consequences. Police corruption can take many forms, such as bribery.
The December 2001 crisis, sometimes known as the Argentinazo, was a period of civil unrest and rioting in Argentina, which took place during December 2001, with the most violent incidents taking place on 19 and 20 December in the capital, Buenos Aires, Rosario and other large cities around the country. It was preceded by a popular revolt against the Argentine government, rallying behind the motto "All of them must go!", which caused the resignation of then-president Fernando de la Rúa, giving way to a period of political instability during which five government officials performed the duties of the Argentinian presidency. This period of instability occurred during the larger period of crisis known as the Argentine great depression, an economic, political, and social crisis that lasted from 1998 until 2002.
The Argentine Federal Police is the national civil police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country, but until January 1, 2017, when the Buenos Aires City Police took over, its main responsibility was policing the Federal District of Buenos Aires.
The Federal Police, formerly known as the Policía Federal Preventiva, is the Mexican national police force. It is under the authority of the Department for Home Affairs. They are sometimes referred to by the slang term "Federales" or “Mexican feds” by some U.S. agents and media. Typically, agents of the Federal Police are heavily armed and wear dark blue, black, or gray combat fatigues.
The Federal Ministerial Police is a Mexican federal agency tasked with fighting corruption and organized crime, through an executive order by President Vicente Fox Quesada. The agency is directed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and may have been partly modeled on the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. PFM agents in action often wear masks to prevent themselves from being identified by gang leaders. PFM agents are uniformed when carrying out raids.
Law enforcement in Austria is the responsibility of the Directorate General for Public Security, a subdivision of the Federal Ministry of the Interior located at Herrengasse 7 in Vienna. Over 20,000 police officers are on duty in the Federal Police at more than 1,000 police stations. On lakes and rivers the federal police has over 70 boats and other craft to act as the Water police.
In Argentina the most important law enforcement organization is the Argentine Federal Police with jurisdiction in all Argentine territory. Most routine police work is carried out by provincial/state police forces, but in recent years, several cities, started their own local police forces, similar to city police forces in the United States, to put less burden on the State Police shoulders. The capital city of Buenos Aires, where the Argentine Federal Police works with Argentine Naval Prefecture and Buenos Aires City Police.
Lorena Telpuk, formerly María del Luján Telpuk or the Suitcase Girl, is a former airport police officer at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who noticed a suitcase with US$800,000 as it went through an X-ray machine in August 2007. In December 2007, the money became a very public part of an international election suitcase scandal, known as Maletinazo. When the suitcase scandal became public, she became an international celebrity and appeared on the cover of several magazines, including those of the February 2008 issue of the Argentine edition of Playboy magazine and the March 2008 issue of the Venezuelan edition of Playboy magazine.
Law enforcement in Mexico is divided between federal, state, and municipal entities. There are two federal police forces, 31 state police forces and one estimate suggests over 1,600 municipal police forces. There are 366 officers per 100,000 people, which equals approximately 500,000 in total, but systemic corruption is endemic and police forces are often poorly trained and underpaid. The average wage of a police officer is $350 per month, around that of a builder's labourer, which means that many police officers supplement their salaries with bribes. As of 2012, Mexico has a police force of over 544,000 people, making it the country with the fourth largest police force in the world, just behind China, India, and the United States.
The Metropolitan Police was the police force under the authority of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires until it merged with the city's division of the Argentine Federal Police by creating the Buenos Aires City Police. The force was created in 2010 and is composed of 1,850 officers, and is planned to expand to 16,000. Security in the city was concurrently the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police and the Argentine Federal Police.
Corruption in the United States is the act of government officials abusing their political powers for private gain, typically through bribery or other methods.
The Argentine Federal Penitentiary Service is an Argentine federal agency responsible for the administration of the national prison system.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has since January 2011 been the main federal investigating authority in Russia. Its name is usually abbreviated to Sledkom. The agency replaced the Russian Prosecutor General's Investigative Committee and operates as Russia's anti-corruption agency. It is answerable to the President of Russia and has statutory responsibility for inspecting the police forces, combating police corruption and police misconduct and is responsible for conducting investigations into local authorities and federal governmental bodies.
Sara Susana del Valle Trimarco de Veron, or Susana Trimarco, is an Argentinian human rights activist, whose efforts to combat human trafficking and corruption have been recognized internationally. After the 2002 disappearance of her daughter, who is believed to have been kidnapped by a human trafficking network, she spent years searching for her daughter, and started a foundation to support victims of sex trafficking. Her lobbying is credited as bringing corruption and government impunity to the fore in Argentina, a discussion which led to a 2011 law banning the advertisement of sexual services in newspapers and magazines.
Corruption in Argentina remains a serious problem. Argentina has long suffered from widespread and endemic corruption. Corruption remains a serious problem in the public and private sector even though the legal and institutional framework combating corruption is strong in Argentina.
Crime in Argentina is investigated by the Argentine police.
Corruption in Bolivia is a major problem that has been called an accepted part of life in the country. It can be found at all levels of Bolivian society. Citizens of the country perceive the judiciary, police and public administration generally as the country's most corrupt. Corruption is also widespread among officials who are supposed to control the illegal drug trade and among those working in and with extractive industries.
Gustavo Arribas is the Director-General of the Federal Intelligence Agency of Argentina. He was appointed to the position in December 2015.
