Responses and Reactions to the Threat of Organized Criminality Across Levels of Analysis
This is the third and last essay in the series that examines the rising threat of organized criminality and its spillover effects across levels of analysis.
El Centro
Threat Analysis and Spillover Effects of Organized Criminality
The purpose of this second essay is to develop our analytical framework in more depth and provide a detailed analysis.
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General Kelly Says Mexico Border Security Now ‘Existential’ Threat
Top General Says Mexico Border Security Now ‘Existential’ Threat to U.S. by Molly O'Toole, Defense One
A top United States general in charge of protecting the southern border says he’s been unable to combat the steady flow of illegal drugs, weapons and people from Central America, and is looking to Congress for urgent help.
Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command, has asked Congress this year for more money, drones and ships for his mission – a request unlikely to be met. Since October, an influx of nearly 100,000 migrants has made the dangerous journey north from Latin America to the United States border. Most are children, and three-quarters of the unaccompanied minors have traveled thousands of miles from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
“In comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and [undocumented immigrant] flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance,” Kelly told Defense One. “Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security. I disagree.” …
Criminal Groups: Multifarious Threats to State Security, Regional Stability and Individual Wellbeing
Organized criminal groups have expanded their networks and employed technology in novel and startling ways to counteract efforts to detect, disrupt, and capture them.
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Should Migrants Fleeing Gang Violence in Central America Be Accorded Refugee Status?
What is setting the current influx of migrants apart is the sheer number of unaccompanied children who make up the majority of the tidal wave.
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Mexico Is Not Colombia: Seeking More Productive Analogies for Responding to the Challenge of Violent Drug-Trafficking Organizations
Despite the scope of the threat to Mexico’s security, violent drug-trafficking organizations are not well understood, and optimal strategies to combat them have not been identified.
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American Political Association (APSA) Leonard D. White Award
How Government Structure Encourages Criminal Violence: The Causes of Mexico’s Drug War
A dissertation presented by Viridiana Rios Contreras
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts
December, 2012
This work will be awarded the American Political Association (APSA) Leonard D. White Award at the end of August 2014 for the best dissertation in public administration wrote in the last two years. Dr. Rios Contreras has in the past collaborated with a number of Small Wars Journal El Centro Fellows on projects related to the Mexican narco conflict.
Autodefensas, Vigilantes and Self-Policing in Mexico: Civilian Dominance over Public Safety Policies?
The emergence of autodefensas (self-defense} or vigilante groups in Mexico has far-reaching international implications that may not be readily visible.
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Coordination Failures Among Mexican Security Forces
Coordination Failures Among Mexican Security Forces: How the Mexican Government Botched the War on Drugs
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Hemispheric Crime, Risks to Mexico and Counterinsurgency Needs
Hemispheric Crime, Risks to Mexico and Counterinsurgency Needs by Jerry Brewer, Mexidata
Although there is a myriad of opinion and other pundit conjecture on the status and projected plight of Latin America as it relates to crime and violence, Mexico's apparent unabated rates of homicide, kidnappings and assassinations, with targets that include public figures and journalists, continue.
Last week alone in the resort mecca of Acapulco, another journalist was found murdered with his body bearing signs of torture, four days after he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen. The victim wrote a political column for a weekly newspaper, with one of his final reports describing “protests against violence and extortion by local and federal authorities.” Acapulco today is a battleground of lawlessness and homicide with impunity…