Following the Money: Guatemala Joins Hemispheric Push Against Organized Crime Finances
The fight against transnational organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean is entering a new phase. Beyond capturing kingpins or seizing drugs, governments are increasingly focusing their efforts on identifying, tracing, and dismantling the financial structures that sustain criminal organizations. That shift was reflected in Guatemala with the September entry into force of the Comprehensive Law for the Prevention…
Cryptocurrencies and Organized Crime: The New Front in Latin America’s Financial Fight
Created to enable fast digital transactions without traditional intermediaries, cryptocurrencies have become an increasingly popular tool for criminal organizations to move funds globally through complex digital financial architectures, making it ever more difficult for authorities to trace illicit money. Innovation has also reached cryptocurrency mining, the process by which specialized computer systems validate transactions on certain blockchains — the decentralized…
Ecuador Tightens Regional Net Around Transnational Organized Crime
The capture in Colombia of Ronald Javier Macías Villamar, alias Javi, an alleged leader of the Los Choneros terrorist organization, demonstrated the operational reach of Ecuador’s cooperation with its regional partners against transnational organized crime. The intelligence sharing that led authorities to locate him in Bogotá is part of a series of bilateral and regional mechanisms through which Ecuador seeks…
Colonel Verón: Interoperability and Trust to Confront Common Threats
From infantry and jungle operations to military education and the command of special operations forces, Argentine Army Colonel Eduardo César Verón Rodríguez has spent decades serving in some of the military’s most demanding roles. Today, as commander of the Argentine Armed Forces Joint Special Operations Command (CCOE), that experience comes together in one mission: preparing forces to operate jointly and…
China’s AI Expansion in Latin America: Security Risks
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key instrument of China’s strategic projection in Latin America. Beyond expanding AI applications, Beijing is seeking to expand its presence in the infrastructure that supports them, including data centers, cloud services, and telecommunications networks. The concern is that its growing control over these assets could strengthen China’s intelligence and defense capabilities, expand its influence…
Terrorist Designations Increase Pressure on Criminal Networks in Ecuador
Ecuador and the United States continue to expand the tools available to confront transnational criminal organizations and the networks that sustain their operations within and beyond the country. As authorities intensify actions against these organizations, new terrorist designations are strengthening the legal and financial tools available to target their resources and support networks. Among them are the U.S. designations of…
Brazil, US Strengthen Fight Against Transnational Crime Through Intelligence Sharing
Transnational organized crime networks increasingly operate through logistics, financial, and commercial chains that span multiple countries and jurisdictions. In response, Brazil and the United States, which have a long-standing partnership in the fight against transnational crime, have deepened intelligence sharing, risk analysis, and operational coordination to anticipate threats and strengthen their ability to respond across borders. As part of these…
Guatemala, US Elite Forces Partnership Strengthens Fight Against Transnational Crime
As transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) become increasingly sophisticated, Guatemala continues to strengthen its special operations capabilities through sustained cooperation with U.S. special operations forces. That strategic partnership was demonstrated during a March 2026 exercise in Poptún, Petén Department, where U.S. Army Green Berets assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) trained alongside personnel from the Guatemalan Army’s Naval Special…
Brazilian Criminal Networks Deepen Their Reach into Peruvian Amazon
Brazil’s two largest criminal organizations, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV), have expanded their transnational reach by building relationships with local criminal groups and gaining access to different stages of the cocaine supply chain. In the tri-border region connecting the Colombian, Peruvian, and Brazilian Amazons, the most visible expansion has been that of CV, which has…
South American Countries Join Forces to Counter Expansion of Criminal Networks
Transnational criminal organizations are expanding across Latin America at a pace that increasingly challenges the ability of individual countries to respond. They manage integrated illicit supply chains, control logistics corridors that span multiple borders, and exploit differences in national legislation, judicial systems, and border controls, making purely national responses increasingly inadequate. The 2025 Global Organized Crime Index ranks several South…
General Delgado: “It’s Impossible for a Single Country to Confront These Types of Threats”
Ecuador faces increasingly structured criminal organizations, with ties that extend beyond its borders and illicit activities ranging from drug trafficking and illegal mining to arms trafficking and money laundering. In response to this threat, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces are strengthening their operational capabilities and deepening cooperation with the United States and other countries in the hemisphere. Leading these efforts is…
Cross-Border Alliances Link Colombia’s Cocaine Corridors to Ecuador’s Criminal Networks
The Colombian armed group Comandos de La Frontera (CDF) has expanded its relationships and logistical networks in Ecuador through an alliance with Ecuadorian gang Los Lobos. Together, the groups have become part of a transnational criminal system that moves cocaine and other illicit goods between southern Colombia, Ecuador’s Amazon region, and ports on the Pacific coast. The CDF emerged following…
