The major objective of this research project is to determine how the uniformed
services in five Central American countries are responding to the problem of HIV.
The research will primarily focus on the armed forces in El Salvador, Honduras,
Guatemala and Nicaragua. It seeks to address the question of how the armed forces
in these countries have responded to the disease by investigating testing, prevention
and treatment policies as well as rotation, deployment and demobilisation practices.
Attention will also be given to the specific institutional medical services and the
relation between the uniformed services and the civilian population. Alongside the
research on armed forces, a comparable but less intensive study will be carried out
on the police forces in the above mentioned countries, including Costa Rica.