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Latin American alliance strengthens strategies against organized crime
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic /Crime & Justice

Latin American alliance strengthens strategies against organized crime

From Diario Libre · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • 23 countries and 14 institutions are meeting in Brasilia to strengthen strategies against organized crime through the Alliance for Security, Justice, and Development.
  • The alliance aims to combat organized crime, which accounts for 30% of global homicides despite representing only 8% of the world's population.
  • The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is a key promoter, highlighting the economic cost of crime and the need for integrated security and development efforts.

An alliance of 23 countries and 14 institutions is convening in Brasilia to forge stronger strategies against organized crime, emphasizing that no single nation can tackle the issue alone. The Alliance for Security, Justice, and Development, driven by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), seeks to create a unified front against criminal networks that operate on a global scale.

To confront crime requires a degree of strategic dedication that no country achieves alone.

— Eduardo VergaraEduardo Vergara, head of the Citizen Security Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), speaking about the necessity of international cooperation against organized crime.

Eduardo Vergara, head of the IDB's Citizen Security Division, highlighted the immense challenge posed by organized crime, noting its patient recruitment of children and sophisticated money laundering operations that infiltrate legal markets. He stressed that combating this threat requires a coordinated effort involving public forces, prosecutors, and financial systems. The region, despite having only 8% of the world's population, accounts for 30% of global homicides, underscoring the urgency of the alliance's mission.

Organized crime does not improvise and operates on a scale that can only be fought through an engine of public forces, prosecutors, and financial systems.

— Eduardo VergaraEduardo Vergara explaining the complex and coordinated nature of organized crime operations.

The economic impact of unchecked organized crime is staggering, estimated by the IDB to be equivalent to 3.4% of the regional GDP annually. This figure dwarfs public spending on education and research and development, illustrating the critical link between security and development. Vergara asserted, "There is no security without development, and there is no development without security."

Organized crime recruits children to build loyalty over years that only yields fruit much later, and launders its money with the same patience, corrupting institutions, infiltrating legal markets, legal mining, and synthetic drugs because it knows that time makes each peso harder to trace.

— Eduardo VergaraEduardo Vergara detailing the long-term, patient strategies employed by organized crime groups.

This summit in Brasilia is the third for the alliance, following gatherings in Ecuador (2024) and Argentina (2025). Previous meetings have mobilized significant funding, with $2.5 billion committed until 2028 for citizen security and justice initiatives, including a regional system for exchanging criminal records. The alliance has also established a permanent rapid response task force to address security emergencies across the region.

There is no security without development and there is no development without security.

— Eduardo VergaraEduardo Vergara emphasizing the interconnectedness of security and development.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Diario Libre in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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