Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and Criminalized States in Latin America: An Emerging Tier-One National Security Priority
Abstract
The emergence of new hybrid (state and nonstate) transnational criminal and terrorist franchises in Latin America poses a tier-one security threat for the United States. These organizations operate under broad state protection and undermine democratic governance, sovereignty, growth, trade, and stability. Similar hybrid franchise models are developing in other parts of the world, which makes understanding their new dynamics essential, as they are an important element in the broader global security context. This threat goes well beyond the traditional nonstate transnational organized crime (TOC) activity, which includes drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking. It also encompasses trafficking in and the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by designated terrorist organizations and their sponsors. These activities are carried out with the support of regional and extra-regional state actors whose leadership is deeply enmeshed in criminal activity, yielding billions of dollars in illicit revenues every year in the region, and trillions globally. Leaders of these organizations share a publicly articulated doctrine to employ asymmetric warfare against the United States and its allies that explicitly endorses the use of WMD as a legitimate tactic. The threat centers around an improbable alliance of groups that often seem to have irreconcilable world views and ideologies; e.g., Iran, a conservative Islamist theocracy and primary state sponsor of Hezbollah and the Bolivarian alliance espousing 21st-century socialism, led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Such alliances, in turn, offer material and political support to the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Being capable of understanding and mitigating this threat requires a whole-of-government approach, including collection, analysis, law enforcement, policy, and programming. The historical divide between transnational organized crime and terrorism is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA565540
Entities
People
- Douglas Farah
Organizations
- United States Army War College