Organized crime in the Americas: A call to action

Key Points

• Transnational organized crime (TNOC), in some cases abetted by hostile and lawless regimes in Latin America, is a principal threat to US security; however, US officials have failed to respond effectively.
• A narcostate has emerged in Venezuela, but US diplomats have coddled the criminal regime in defiance of ongoing US investigations and in violation of the president’s explicit anti-TNOC strategy.
• The United States should use law-enforcement tools to expose and punish senior Latin American and Caribbean organized-crime conspirators, to rally support for the benefits of the rule of law, and to reinvigorate antidrug cooperation.

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In March 2014, General Martin E. Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told an audience of midshipmen at the US Naval Academy that “transnational organized crime [TNOC] from our southern hemisphere” ranked with Russia, China, and al Qaeda among the principle national security threats confronting the United States.[1] Criminality that used to emanate from particular countries has metastasized, operating across national borders, weakening the rule of law in the Latin American region as a whole, and sowing mayhem in countries with institutions too weak to resist.

The reach and impact of organized crime in the Americas has grown more profound in recent decades, as criminal organizations have adopted the practices and technology of a globalized economy to build transnational networks. In Latin America, antidrug cooperation—characterized by the promising progress of the US-backed security and development strategy known as “Plan Colombia”—has been dismantled in the last decade. A cadre of anti-US regimes, inspired and financed by the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, has effectively ended cooperation with US antidrug efforts. In some cases, these governments now aid, abet, or engage in narcotrafficking.

Just as antidrug cooperation is being undermined, criminal networks have grown stronger. Today, they are able to organize complicated conspiracies involving drug acquisition from suppliers in Colombia, transportation with the complicity of security officials in Venezuela, transit across porous borders in Central America, marketing and smuggling by criminals in Mexico, and money laundering in banks around the world. Terrorist groups such as the Colombian guerrillas and Hezbollah are profiting from many of these transactions.

To its credit, the Obama administration has produced a comprehensive anti-TNOC strategy.[2] However, the plan has not received the intense political support and resources required for an ambitious international law-enforcement campaign. Worse yet, in many cases in Latin America, US diplomats are not applying the Obama administration’s anti–organized crime strategy. For example, they have ignored the emergence of a narcostate in Venezuela; failed to impose sanctions that might have prevented criminality in Venezuela, El Salvador, and elsewhere; and stood by as Mexico’s new president reversed antidrug cooperation with the United States and let down his guard down at home.

President Barack Obama has ample opportunity to make significant strides against TNOC close to US borders by encouraging federal prosecutors to bring indictments against leaders of the Venezuelan narcostate; using executive orders to block and freeze the assets of corrupt officials and coconspirators; encouraging Mexico, Colombia, and other states to renew their commitment to international cooperation; and using public diplomacy to rally support for this international campaign.

The indictment of corrupt officials for their involvement in bribery schemes surrounding FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, won international acclaim for a team of US federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York.[3] Yet the damage done by TNOC—in human carnage and exploitation, public corruption, quality of life, and economic growth—far surpasses that caused by scheming FIFA officials. By opposing billion-dollar sociopaths, the United States can promote the rule of law by demonstrating its benefits to people besieged by crime.

Transnational Organized Crime: Definition and Response

According to a 2011 strategy document produced by the National Security Council (NSC):

Transnational organized crime refers to those self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate transnationally for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial gains, wholly or in part by illegal means. . . . Transnational organized criminals act conspiratorially in their criminal activities and possess certain characteristics, which may include, but are not limited to:

• . . . commit violence or other acts which are likely to intimidate; . . .
• . . . exploit differences between countries to further their objectives, enriching their organization, expanding its power, and/or avoiding detection/apprehension; . . .
• . . . attempt to gain influence in government, politics, and commerce; . . .
• . . . economic gain as their primary goal; . . . and
• . . . attempt to insulate both their leadership and membership from detection, sanction, and/or prosecution through their organizational structure.[4]

President Obama’s commentary included in that 2011 NSC strategy provided a straightforward description of how TNOC has emerged around the world, highlighting many of the dangerous characteristics found in Latin America and the Caribbean. The president committed his administration “to build, balance, and integrate tools of American power to combat transnational organized crime and related threats to our national security—and to urge our partners to do the same.”[5]

The NSC strategy directs 56 “priority actions,” including enhancing US intelligence; protecting the US financial system; strengthening interdiction, investigations, and prosecutions; disrupting the drug trade; and building international cooperation.[6] Unfortunately, in each of these areas, the United States is losing ground close to home, and the damage done to US security and interests in its own hemisphere is overwhelming:

• With hostile intent, US foes in Latin America have undermined US security by building a political-criminal alliance to disrupt regional antidrug cooperation.
• They have put government agencies and resources and state-run commercial enterprises at the disposal of smuggling and money-laundering operations.
• Public officials and managers of parastatal companies have afforded criminal and terrorist organizations easy access to the US financial system by using government-controlled firms to mask unlawful transactions.
• Governments have sustained terrorism against sister republics by helping irregular armed groups produce and sell illicit drugs, launder profits, and obtain weapons.
• Corrupt officials have manipulated diplomacy and politics to support allies in other governments and to impair government and law-enforcement institutions.
• And, most important, these government-backed criminal networks have increased the flow of drugs and profits to strengthen and sustain their dangerous conspiracy.

If President Obama is serious about fighting TNOC, his administration can begin by acknowledging the interlocking, complex political challenges and security threats in the Americas and by committing US foreign policy and law enforcement to more robust, effective, and urgent countermeasures.

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Notes

1. Dempsey presented current threats as “2-2-2-1,” explaining, “Two heavyweights will influence our future strategy, Russia and China. Two middleweights, North Korea and Iran. Two networks, al-Qaida and transnational organized crime from our southern hemisphere. And one domain—cyber.” See Martin E. Dempsey, “Remarks at the Naval Academy to Class of 2014,” (speech, Annapolis, Maryland, March 26, 2014), http://ift.tt/1ORrlMR.
2. US National Security Council, Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security, July 25, 2011, http://ift.tt/1DkQzfj.
3. “Twitter Reaction to the FIFA Indictments,” New York Times, May 27, 2015, http://ift.tt/1dx99LK.
4. US National Security Council, Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime.
5. Barack Obama, “Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Letter from the President,” July 19, 2011, http://ift.tt/1JyIxqh.
6. Ibid.

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