Growing insecurity in Latin America, not only in traditionally violent countries such as Colombia or Central America, but now in other countries such as Ecuador, is closely linked to linked to the large number of firearms flooding the continent despite the fact that there are stricter laws regarding the possession of this type of weapon than in the United States, where a good part of them come from.
In recent years, the number of murders in the region has been increasing. According to 2022 data collected by a specialized portal Insight Crime, Venezuela registered the highest rate at 40.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Honduras at 35.8; Colombia from 26.1; Ecuador – 25.9; And Mexico, s 25.2.
Although Chile has a rate of 5 per 100,000 people, a far cry from the most violent countries, homicide rates have doubled in the last decadecausing concern among citizens -50% consider crime the most important problem at the national level-.
Left government Gabriel Boric increased security spending and even deployed the army to try to resolve the migrant crisis on the border with Peru, which did not stop the right wing from winning the recent elections to elect those who should draft the country’s new constitution.
Furthermore, in Ecuador, alarming levels of violence have played a key role in the political crisis the country is facing when the President, Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly, controlled by the opposition, given the impossibility of control. Here, the president in early April authorized “the possession and carrying of civilian weapons for personal protection,” among other measures to try to curb the nascent instability associated with rising drug trafficking.
“A key factor in this epidemic of gun violence is diversion and trafficking in small arms and light weapons throughout the region”, highlights Carina Solmirano, an expert at the head of the Arms Trade Treaties Observatory (ATT Monitor) at Control Arms, a coalition of organizations committed to strengthening control on the issue, in an article for America Quarterly.
It is the latest report prepared in 2018 by ATT Monitor that shows that more than 75% of homicides in the region are associated with the use of firearms, very far from the global average of 40%. In addition, Latin America has 10 of the 15 countries with the highest homicide rates outside of armed conflict.
The 2018 Small Arms Survey estimated that approximately 60 million weapons were in possession of civilians in the region that year, with 17.5 million in Brazil and 16.8 million in Mexico, many of which are not legally registered. To this should be added some 8.8 million people at the disposal of the forces and organs of state security, as well as private security companies, whose business in Latin America is gaining momentum.
“The millions of illegal weapons circulating in the region and the constant traffic between countries and from the United States have allowed the activities of criminal organizations to expand and This made their actions even more violent.” Solmirano denounces, tying the hemisphere’s rising levels of gun violence to drug trafficking.
The origin of the illicit light weapons circulating in Latin America varies depending on when and how they are diverted from legal channels. Most of them originate in armed conflicts that devastated countries like Guatemala, El Salvador or Nicaragua decades ago. According to the aforementioned ATT Monitor report, at the end of the El Salvadoran civil war, an estimated 360,000 military-type weapons were not delivered.
Nevertheless, The United States will be the main source of this illegal arms trade. In many cases, according to ATT Monitor, a person legally acquires weapons in the US but then exports them illegally. Mainly to Mexico but also to other countries in the region.
Between 2010 and 2012, it is estimated that around 253,000 firearms acquired through these “front men” crossed the border between the two countries each year. Also 70% of weapons seized by Mexican authorities between 2009 and 2014, more than 73,000 originated from the US, confirming the level of this traffic.
Another area of illicit arms trade is forgery or unauthorized use of end user certificates. In conflicts like the one in Colombia, there have been instances where legitimate a priori purchases have been diverted to armed groups through fake certificates and corrupt officials.
corruptionone of the endemic problems of the continent, also plays a key role in this whole process of diversion weapons. Security forces and corrupt officials have turned government arsenals into an important source of supplies for armed groups and drug traffickers in Latin America.
And if in the past the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega supplied weapons to the warring parties, for example, in El Salvador, now they suspect that the Venezuela of Nicolás Maduro supplies weapons to the National Liberation Army (PLA), second guerrilla in Colombia, according to the above report.
The proliferation of private security groups in the region also contributes to arms trafficking. According to ATT Monitor, it is assumed that some 16,000 companies employing at least 2.4 million people.
Thus, it is estimated that there are two private security agents for every police officer in the subcontinent, although this figure is even higher in countries such as Brazil, Colombia or Mexico. as well as in Central America. The lack of regulatory and oversight mechanisms for these private companies and their weapons makes it easier for abuse to occur and for some of the weapons they use to end up on the black market.
Small arms and light weapons diversion “this continues to be a major problem in the Latin America and Caribbean region”according to ATT Monitor, which also acknowledges the difficulty of dealing with this problem and warns that it is not the sole responsibility of these countries, especially emphasizing the role of exporting countries in securing the final destination of their sales and in particular the United States.
On the other hand, violence has significant economic costs for these countries. According to a 2017 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study, crime costs Latin America 3% of GDP, in the range of 2.42% to 3.55%, in which the countries of Central America are in the worst position. Here the cost is twice the average for the region.
This corresponds to the total cost up to $236,000 million and an average of $300 per capita in the 17 countries analyzed. As Solmirano warns, “it is very likely that these costs would be much higher today if the same variables were measured again,” given that Latin America was one of the regions hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under these conditions, according to the expert, “militarization of public safety”, as happened in Mexico or Brazil, did not give the desired results. For this reason, he is committed to other measures such as increasing the security of arsenals, greater destruction of confiscated weapons, or greater information sharing, and warns that to prevent Latin America continues to be “the most violent region in the world.”
(According to information from Europe Press)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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