ABSTRACT
The Latin American region often evokes associations with turbulent politics, military regimes, fragile or patchy rule of law, and high levels of inequality. The Central American and Andean countries, including Colombia, are often characterised as riven by criminality linked to the drug trade and/or migration. The southern part of the region is known for brutal military dictatorships that used violence against guerrilla insurgencies, leftist activists, and members of social movements, casting a shadow of state terror over entire societies in the 1960s and 1970s.
