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The pandemic and criminal gangs in Latin America

2021-10-02T21:54:19.830Z


Mafias throughout the region have taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the health crisis to reconfigure their activities and areas of control


Members of the special forces of the Colombian Army guard a boat that loads barrels to be used in cocaine laboratories.Kaveh Kazemi / Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic caused unprecedented health and economic damage to Latin America.

It exacerbated already high levels of inequality and poverty, while at the same time pushing the effectiveness and governance capacities of states to the limit.

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Confinement and movement limitation measures implemented throughout the region disrupted supply chains and economies, while companies were often slow or unable to adapt to the new normal.

With one exception: criminal groups, which quickly reconfigured their supply networks and went digital, took advantage of the political and institutional chaos to further incorporate themselves into the social fabric of the region.

Criminal cunning

Border closures and containment measures for the pandemic disrupted drug trafficking routes like any other business. However, this did not last long. Private air and maritime transport of cocaine increased rapidly, while some old land transport routes from southern Central America to the north were reactivated, as evidenced by an increase in cocaine seizures in Costa Rica and Panama. Cocaine trafficking from Mexico to the United States also adapted, using drones and tunnels that already existed across the border and through US or US residents (mules), increasingly replacing those of Latin American origin.

Criminal groups across the region have also seized the opportunity to reconfigure their activities and areas of control.

As we highlight in the 2021 Armed Conflict Survey (ACS) that the IISS just published, the MS-13 gang in Honduras has increasingly consolidated its role in the transport of drugs from South America to Mexico.

In Colombia, powerful Mexican cartels such as those of Jalisco Nueva Generación and Sinaloa have reinforced their presence in key coca growing regions with financial investments to regulate the price of coca paste and targeted killings of civilians.

They have also enthusiastically embraced digitization, making the most of the dark web and cryptocurrencies for their illicit transactions and money laundering.

A stimulus to criminal governance

The pandemic multiplied existing pressures on finances and public services, with governments frequently unable to articulate a coherent response. Once again, criminal groups proved to be more organized, moving effortlessly to enforce containment measures and distribute food and medical supplies, while keeping prices for essential goods limited in their area of ​​control. They also reduced or suspended their (illegal) taxes in recognition of the economic hardships created by the pandemic in local communities. In doing so, they consolidated their quasi-state role in many parts of the region, also reinforcing their legitimacy with the population. They increasingly became an actor that governments must take into account,further exacerbating institutional fragility and governance failures. A telling example was when, at the start of the pandemic, the Brazilian health minister at the time publicly requested a dialogue with the country's criminal factions to support efforts against Covid-19 in areas with little or no provision of health services. Health.

In this context, long school closures and poor online education infrastructure in the region, coupled with rising youth unemployment (23.8% in 2020, the highest since 2006) have provided (and will continue to do so) another opportunity. gold for criminal gangs to further embed themselves into civil society, while offering them an ever-growing pool of talent from which to recruit.

Whats Next?

The foregoing points to an image of increasing complexity in parts of the region, where legal and criminal governance structures will coexist and where criminal groups, now stronger and more emboldened, will increasingly intervene and replace states, whose capacity to providing basic services and upholding the rule of law has been and will be further weakened by the health emergency and the disastrous long socio-economic tail of the pandemic. This, in turn, could prompt governments in the region to explore approaches to organized crime other than the prevailing heavy-handed policies. Negotiating with criminal groups, not only to curb violence but also to address specific issues (including the provision of basic services), may increasingly appear to be a viable option.However, this could come at the expense of legitimacy and could lead only to temporary results, or elusive at best, especially in the current context of weakened institutions.

While addressing the root causes of violence through sustained and inclusive growth is an obvious, though not easy to implement, priority area for governments across the region, the transnational and flexible nature of illicit economies and actors highlights the need for regional approaches and solutions. A regional approach to countering illicit financial flows and money laundering will be key to curbing the resilience of criminal organizations. His growing prowess with digital platforms and technologies indicates that current movements toward expanding the use of cryptocurrency in the region, starting from El Salvador, will drive illicit business and money laundering in the absence of strong regulations and institutions.

Irene Mia is principal investigator for Latin America on conflict, security and development issues at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IIEE).

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Source: elparis

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