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Organized crime has emerged as the most important security threat to democratic governance in Latin America. This essay explains why Latin American democracies have been able to curb other security threats (from the military, insurgents, and oligopolists) but are struggling to contain organized crime. Organized crime possesses power assets associated with traditional security threats (military capacity, territorial control, and access to markets). But it also operates innovatively: It infiltrates and coopts the state, which makes it difficult for presidents to rely on state institutions (such as the police, the army, the courts, and prisons) to act in a unified way to fight organized crime. To date, there are no successful cases of Latin American states truly defeating organized crime. But states have means of rendering organized crime less predatory and violent.
Image Credit: U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Osvaldo Equite