Latin America establishes regional alliance to combat organized crime | International

Organized crime and violence are an obstacle to development and growth in Latin American countries. Security has become one of the main concerns of citizens. According to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), violence has weakened states, increased the cost of doing business and cost the region 3.5% of GDP. The problem is not new and political leaders are aware of it. They agree that criminal groups are more organized and interconnected, do not respect borders and that additional efforts are needed to combat them. Under these premises, the Latin American Security Summit opened on August 19 in Guayaquil, one of the most unsafe cities in Ecuador, where 1,650 violent crimes have been registered so far this year and where 45% of the murders in the country are committed.

“We know that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to combat organized crime, especially when these organizations are developing rapidly,” said Ilan Goldfajn, President of the IDB. Goldfajn proposed the creation of a regional alliance to strengthen security and law in the region and coordinate the implementation of government policies and the mobilization of resources. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay will join the alliance, and Ecuador has committed to taking the first chair. The IDB announced that it would serve as the technical secretariat.

The aim is to fight organized crime in three ways: limiting its influence among the most vulnerable populations, strengthening state institutions and disrupting its financial flows. The challenge in any project is to mobilize resources. The IDB's proposal is to support countries with technical assistance, training, scientific data and technology. “We need to use evidence-based analysis and intelligence tools to know where crime is taking place and where to focus our resources, because we are dealing with increasingly sophisticated groups,” said the IDB President.

In this context, the institution also announced in Guayaquil an agreement with the World Bank and the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean – to deepen collaboration and cooperation and to generate knowledge and support public policies related to transnational organized crime in the countries of the region.

The discussion also turned to the analysis of other business axes that organized crime gangs use to maximize their illegal profits and the ease with which they reach markets. “The Gulf clan used to specialize only in cocaine trafficking; now it is involved in migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and we are seeing more and more groups using illegal mining to launder their wealth,” said Candice Walsh, representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the Andean Region, at one of the forums. The host country can confirm this.

Less than a week ago, a massacre took place in a mine in the town of Ponce Enríquez, in the province of Azuay. Six people were killed in clashes between criminal groups fighting for control of the deposit. “One negative effect of globalization is also the globalization of crime; criminal structures do not come from one country, one city or one neighborhood, but occupy entire regions and have intercontinental logistics chains,” said Daniel Noboa, President of Ecuador and host of the summit.

Another objective is to reduce the opportunities for these groups to recruit children and young people. The IDB announced its collaboration on a program to prevent and combat violence and crime in Ecuador, similar to those implemented in Costa Rica and Brazil. It also aims to create integrated social service centers for at-risk youth and a new model for a specialized police service. “The IDB also needs to modernize and change. We need to adapt,” Goldfajn added. The various organizations participating in the forum agreed that mechanisms must be put in place to control the financial flows of criminal organizations. “This is the blood that circulates and if we do not have transparency in financing, we will not have control of the flow and corruption,” Reitano, deputy director of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said on Tuesday.

The summit will end on 20 August, when the framework for organised crime and strategies for prevention and community empowerment in areas affected by criminal violence will be presented.

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