Global Policy Memo
Commentary and Counterpoint on World Affairs
Posted by Josh Goodman on February 26, 2009 at 7:57 am
filed under Crime, Latin America
This week’s law enforcement sweep targeting a major Mexican drug cartel’s U.S. operations brings some attention to a U.S. national security challenge that has been largely overlooked during the past decade — the power of transnational criminal organizations operating out of Latin America. Highly organized, violent criminal gangs wield significant power in the region — especially in Central America, Mexico, and Brazil. In those places, criminal organizations threaten the power of the state in some areas, and undermine the government and social order by sowing violence and corruption. Their power has grown and become more internationalized over the past decade, in some cases aided by U.S. immigration policies of deporting gang members back into their home countries.
As the economic downturn dampens the profits from some of the rackets these gangs run in the United States — such as kidnapping illegal immigrants and drug sales — there is a chance there may be some dangerous changes in their M.O. Analyzing Mexican gang activity in Arizona, China Confidential suggests:
Sphere: Related ContentThe kidnapping gangs in Phoenix that target illegal immigrants have found their chosen crime to be lucrative and relatively risk-free. If the flow of illegal immigrants had continued at high levels, there is very little doubt the kidnappers’ operations would have continued as they have for the past few years. The current economic downturn, however, means the flow of illegal immigrants has begun to slow — and by some accounts has even begun to reverse. (Reports suggest many Mexicans are returning home after being unable to find jobs in the United States.)
This reduction in the pool of targets means that we might be fast approaching a point where these groups, which have become accustomed to kidnapping as a source of easy money — and their primary source of income — might be forced to change their method of operating to make a living. While some might pursue other types of criminal activity, some might well decide to diversify their pool of victims. Watching for this shift in targeting is of critical importance. Were some of these gangs to begin targeting U.S. citizens rather than just criminals or illegal immigrants, a tremendous panic would ensue, along with demands to catch the perpetrators.
Jeffrey Kessler
Really interesting. What are some examples of these gangs undermining social order in the countries you mentioned?
Goodman
Here’s a good example: In May 2006, a powerful Brazilian gang called the PCC launched a coordinated series of prison rebellions and public attacks in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and financial capital, resulting in massive public panic and around 150 deaths. In Sao Paulo city, the attacks included killing police, robbing banks, setting public buses on fire, and other mayhem. The disturbances spread to other Brazilian states as well, although it was mostly confined to prisons outside Sao Paulo state. The police struck back hard, killing a number of people, probably not all of whom were gang members. Urban Brazilian gangs often control entire poor neighborhoods that police do not even enter, except to conduct paramilitary style raids against the gangs. The Brazilian public generally tolerates police violence against “suspected criminals” — typically minorities, people from poor areas, etc — because people are so fed up with the high levels of criminal violence, which is not good from an individual rights standpoint. However, Brazilian gangs tend to be less established outside of Brazil than the Mexican and Central American organizations, I believe primarily because there is less of a flow of immigrants from Brazil — and back to Brazil from the U.S. — than in Mexico and Central America. This is an interesting background article on the PCC gang: http://www.cfr.org/publication/11542/
Global Policy Memo » WSJ: Legalize it?
on December 27, 2009 at 7:00 pm
[...] have written before about the grave national security threats created by (increasingly internationalized) organized [...]