THE PREMISE THAT SOCIETY IS TO BLAME FOR CRIMINALITY AND THAT ALL CORRECTIONS ARE BASICALLY OPPRESSIVE LEADS TO CRITICISM OF CRIMINOLOGICAL POLICIES AND PENAL SYSTEMS IN ALL LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES. SOME COUNTRIES, TECHNOLOGICALLY UNDERDEVELOPED AND RULED BY INSECURE DICTATORS, CAN BE CHARACTERIZED BY OPENLY REPRESSIVE PENAL SYSTEMS, IN WHICH CRIMINALS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE KEPT UNDER MAXIMUM SECURITY CONDITIONS, WITH THE LATTER RECEIVING THE CRUELEST AND MOST INHUMAN TREATMENT. OTHER LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES, WHERE A MEASURE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION AND PROGRESS HAS ADMITTEDLY BEEN ACHIEVED, PRACTICE 'SUBTLER' REPRESSION BY THEIR ELECTED GOVERNMENTS. THEIR CORRECTIONAL REFORMS AND THEIR STATED GOALS OF REHABILITATION AND SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF OFFENDERS ARE HYPOCRITICAL AND PURELY COSMETIC IN NATURE; WHILE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF INMATES AND CORRECTION FACILITIES HAVE BEEN EFFECTED, OFFENDERS ARE STILL KEPT IN PRISON. INDEED, ALL LATIN AMERICAN JUDICIAL AND PENAL ESTABLISHMENTS ARE MERE DEFENDERS OF THE 'STATUS QUO.' THE LABELING APPROACH TO INDIVIDUALS DEVIATING FROM A NORM WHOSE VALIDITY IS QUESTIONABLE CREATES DEVIANCE. THE SO-CALLED TREATMENT OF PRISON INMATES TO EFFECT THEIR REHABILATION IS A CLEVER MANIPULATION OF HUMAN BEINGS BY CORRECTIONAL PERSONNEL. SOCIETY ITSELF SHOULD BE RESTRUCTURED, AND CRIMINOLOGICAL CONCEPTS SHOULD BE REEXAMINED FROM A LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE. --IN SPANISH. (LGR)