首页> 外军国防科技报告 >A Strategic Overview of Latin America: Identifying New Convergence Centers, Forgotten Territories, and Vital Hubs for Transnational Organized Crime > National Defense University Press > News Article View
【2h】

A Strategic Overview of Latin America: Identifying New Convergence Centers, Forgotten Territories, and Vital Hubs for Transnational Organized Crime > National Defense University Press > News Article View

机译:拉丁美洲战略概述:为跨国有组织犯罪确定新的融合中心,被遗忘的领土和重要中心>国防大学出版社>新闻文章查看

代理获取
代理获取并翻译 | 示例

摘要

This paper outlines a number of critical strategic challenges in Latin America for U.S.policymakers, which were directly identified in the December 2017 National Security Strategy.1However, despite this recognition, these issues are seldom featured in policy discussions aboutthe region. Through the framework of the convergence paradigm, which contends that multiple criminal/terrorist groups work collaboratively when such cooperation is mutually convenient, weconsider a number of territories, key commodities, and new money-laundering methodologiesthat have allowed transnational organized crime (TOC) networks to flourish in seemingly marginalregions of the hemisphere. Long considered to be a critical challenge in Latin America,regional TOC groups, often under the direct protection of state actors, are able to adapt andthrive when policymakers do not understand the evolution of their operations, recognize theroles criminalized states often play, or develop innovative tools to combat TOC adaptations.2Through examination of these evolving challenges, this analysis seeks to raise awareness amongpolicymakers and to demonstrate how relatively few strategically targeted, well-placed resourcescan curb the financial and territorial reach of TOC groups. Furthermore, the analysis showsthat continuing neglect of these challenges can enable the growth of criminalized, anti-U.S.regional powers, and hamper the ability of key U.S. allies to promote the rule of law and democraticgrowth throughout the region. This analysis begins with a study of convergence in the illicit gold trade, drawing on fieldworkin Puerto Maldonado, Peru. It then considers three countries—Paraguay, Bolivia, andNicaragua—that receive little attention from policymakers but are key players in the emergingdrug trafficking, gold trade, money-laundering, and extra-regional illicit networks in LatinAmerica. The discussion of both Bolivia and Paraguay features a brief study of the activities ofthe Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Command of the Capital), based in Brazil but rapidlyexpanding its operations across South and Central America. Despite being one of the largestand fastest-growing criminal gangs in the hemisphere, it is seldom viewed as an importantconsideration for regional trends. Finally, an overview of the Ramiro Network, a massive regionalstate-sponsored money-laundering structure based on fictitious oil sales, highlights akey convergence point for TOC activity in El Salvador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia—including the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces ofColombia or, FARC), FARC “dissidents,” and Russia.Many trend lines in Latin America are worrisome, and the actors discussed here are directlytied to the more visible crisis in Venezuela and the growing threat in Colombia. Ties betweenthe FARC secretariat in Colombia—recently demobilized after a historic December 2016peace agreement—and FARC dissident structures that remain engaged in cocaine traffickingand other illicit activities are now clearly documented and demand serious responses in order toensure the continued security of Colombia, a close U.S. regional ally.3 Leaving the actors in thesenew regions of convergence to grow unchecked presents a serious security risk to the UnitedStates and the region.1 2 For a closer look at how criminalized states use transnational organized crime as instrumentsof state policy in Latin America, see Douglas Farah, 3 On April 9, 2018, Colombian police arrested a former senior Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionariasde Colombia (FARC) commander named Seuxis Paucis Hernández Solarte, better known by hisalias Jesús Santrich, on charges of conspiring to export 10 tons of cocaine. The Colombian governmentagreed that, because the conspiracy began after the peace pact was signed, the commander could be extraditedto the United States. Colombian intelligence and law enforcement officials had long believedthe FARC general secretariat, of which Santrich was a member, remained in contact with several of thegroups that had declared themselves in dissent after the peace pact was signed and continued to engagein the production and trafficking of cocaine, as well as illicit gold trafficking. For more informationon the investigation and arrest, see Mimi Yagoub, “Four Troubling Takeaways from FARC Leader’sArrest,” InSight Crime, April 12, 2018, available at <>.

著录项

  • 作者

  • 作者单位
  • 年(卷),期 2019(),
  • 年度 2019
  • 页码
  • 总页数 60
  • 原文格式 PDF
  • 正文语种
  • 中图分类
  • 网站名称 美国国防大学出版社
  • 栏目名称 所有文件
  • 关键词

  • 入库时间 2022-08-19 17:00:21
代理获取

客服邮箱:kefu@zhangqiaokeyan.com

京公网安备:11010802029741号 ICP备案号:京ICP备15016152号-6 六维联合信息科技 (北京) 有限公司©版权所有
  • 客服微信

  • 服务号