Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Bolivia all have several things in common that create a fertile ground to create gangs.

1. They are all poor countries with poor education system.
2. You are born poor and you will died poor no hope for a better future
3. Unstable state
4. The poor is super and the rich is super rich.
5. corrupt government and police there is not sense of safety
6. The all hear about Pablo Escobar the farmer that became rich and powerful and help the people. They overlook the violence and chaos created by him

200 words supporting the above statement please provide examples and list references

In response to this post

One of the things I found really interesting while doing the readings this week was how drug cartels and criminal organizations were able to grow and prosper in areas like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. According to the reading, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia had areas within their states where the state "lacked authority," and insurgent groups, private paramilitary groups, and organized criminal gangs effectively ruled the area (Thachuk, 2007). It is easy to see why these groups were so successful, and became so powerful when they were pretty much operating without fear of repercussions from the government's of the countries they were operating in. They were allowed to operate even with government officials knowing exactly what they were doing in these areas. They followed a code with the government officials to choose either the silver, or the lead which meant the law enforcement and government officials could either take a bribe, or risk being shot or their families being shot (Thachuk, 2007). I wonder if the United States had not put so much pressure on these countries if these groups would still be operating without fear in these areas?

There were many things that were very interesting when it came to border security and understanding the threats at the border. I found it particularly interesting learning about their risk management process. One of the things they used to work out their risk management process was the likelihood of all the border threats. To find out the likelihood of border threats they would look at the past frequency of given events to determine how likely they were to occur (Rosenblum, 2013). This can be a flawed metric when trying to determine likelihood of an event happening. The example the reading gives is that over 1.7 million kilograms of were seized at the border (Rosenblum, 2013). The problem is this does not give the amount of drugs which made it through the border. They just estimate the actual flow of drugs based off this. This can give a completely false likelihood. Maybe 50% of the illegal drugs crossing the border were seized, maybe 5% were seized. There is really no way of knowing for sure so the entire risk management process they are using may be off. I wonder if this is really the most effective process in evaluating the threats?

The fight against organized crime, especially drug traffickers from Central and South America is a fight that continues to evolve. The cartels have successes like back in the 1980's, then law enforcement adjusts and the cartels find a new way to get their drugs to America. A good example of this is that in the 1990's the Colombian cartels were weakened and Mexican groups assumed most of the trafficking. Then after 2000, and especially after 2006, law enforcement started to crack down on these Mexican groups and Central America started to take on a new important role as a "transit and storage area" (UNODC, 2013). I wonder how law enforcement is going to adjust to the returned role in Central America and then what the drug traffickers will do to counter that? Will they move back to Mexico as the heat goes down there? I feel like this is a giant game of whack a mole, and I wonder if the problem can ever be stopped, or even contained?

Notes:

Franco, Celinda. Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean: A Threat Assessment. Congressional Research Service. September 2012.

Thachuk, Kimberley L. (2007). Transnational Threats: Smuggling and Trafficking in Arms, Drugs, and Human Life. Retrieved from https://psi-praeger-com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/Topics/Display/2014786?cid=137&sid=2014786

Rosenblum, Marc R., Jerome P. Bjelopera and Kristin M. Finklea. Border Security: Understanding Threats at U.S. Borders. Congressional Research Service. February 21, 2013.