La Criminalidad Organizada, un Severo Problema de Seguridad para el Hemisferio

Abstract

In the international arena that has evolved since the start of this century, organized crime has taken on a predominant role in the security agenda. In the Western Hemisphere this situation has fully come to fruition as demonstrated by the significant impact of illegal drug trafficking and consumption, that has a crosscutting effect on other forms of crime in addition to empowering them. Because of this looming phenomenon with its interconnected activities, organized crime has become an unconventional threat to the security of many nations in the Hemisphere that has in turn affected their societies as well as the citizens that inhabit them. This article describes some of the characteristics of this phenomenon in the Hemisphere, with specific emphasis on Latin America with illegal drug trafficking as it examines other criminal offshoots such as the multiple forms of violence corruption, and the costs that nations of the Hemisphere have had to bear because of this scourge