1 Americas

Abstract

The five armed conflicts currently active on the American continent share various characteristics and one key driver. In Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Rio de Janeiro, organised criminal groups fight one another and the state to control the production, distribution routes and sale of illicit drugs, both within the countries where they operate and across their borders. Commonly referred to as drug-trafficking organisations (DTOs), criminal syndicates or cartels, the non-state armed actors in these conflicts are in fact neither monolithic nor hierarchical organisations. Instead, they compete and use armed violence to control territory rather than coordinating to fix market prices (as economic oligopolies do). They engage in various illicit activities, diversifying their portfolios beyond the drugs trade (including arms trafficking, people smuggling, kidnapping for ransom and protection rackets), or enter the narcotics business having evolved from their insurgent origins (as in the case of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia). Urban militias establish sophisticated extortion systems to exploit local resources and businesses (as in the case of Red Command (CV) in Rio de Janeiro’s slums). Americas