New Forms of Organized Crime in Spain and Latin America: A Comparative Analysis
María López García , Universidad de Sevilla Metropolitana, Spain
Abstract
This paper includes a comparative text of the new emergent manifestations of organized prone which arise in Spain and in Latin America regarding their development, modalities of operation, as well as their socio-political implications. With globalization, advancement in technology, and the neoliberal principle of the economy changing the face of the world crime dynamics, demarcations of areas between legal and illegal businesses have been blurred to a greater degree. In Latin America and Spain, there have been massive changes in the organized crime profile, with the old hierarchical and mafia-type of organization way giving way to more loosely structured nets of crime that can change at a moment in time. This transformation has allowed crime groups to enter legitimate markets and political institutions freely and with ease due to their increased cross-border activities. The occurrence of fragmentation of large cartels in Latin America has contributed to the spread of smaller and more violent groups of criminals as they enter into various illicit economies, such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, arms trafficking, and human trafficking. Such new hybrid criminal-political actors have been discovered in countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, where they take advantage of poor governance and social inequalities. In comparison, Spain, though previously considered a transitory nation toward Latin American flows of drugs penetrating Europe, has been transformed into a business hub for international criminal organizations. The results have shown that Latin American organized crime is deeply rooted in violence and territorial control. Still, the Spanish criminal organizations focus on financial sophistication and entry into legal economies. Still, there is a wide range of social costs of organized crime in both areas, such as the decline of trust in organizations and the insecurity of a community that leads to political corruption. Finally, the research tries to emphasize the necessity of the region-specific approach based on social development, the strengthening of institutions, and international cooperation. The comparative analysis helps policymakers and scholars see the ever-changing landscape of organized crime in a new light and develop more efficient and humane strategies that would combat one of the most urgent security threats of the 21st century.
Keywords:
Organized Crime (OC), Spain (SS), Latin America (LA).
