ABSTRACT
The conflicts in Latin America also expose the limits of the analytical distinction between political and criminal wars. Although the criminal bands in Colombia, the maras in Central America and the cartels in Mexico depend on international networks for their main sources of business and income, their activity is deeply rooted in local dynamics. Decades-long efforts to defeat these groups have failed and at times even escalated violence as in the case of Mexico’s decapitation strategy to eliminate the cartel leaders, or Central America’s Mano Dura. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime consistently ranks El Salvador’s and Honduras’s homicide rates among the highest in the world. Although the maras operating there have not reached the organisational sophistication of those in the neighbouring countries, they may soon pose a similar threat to the Guatemalan state.
