Gangs No Longer: Reassessing Transnational Armed Groups in the Western Hemisphere

Authors

Douglas Farah, Center for Strategic Research (CSR), Institute for National Strategic Studies
Marianne Richardson, IBI Consultants and National Defense University

Files

Description

MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) in the Northern Triangle of Central America and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC; First Command of the Capital), based in S.o Paulo, Brazil, are both tier-one criminal/political/military threats to the stability of the Western Hemisphere.1 These groups—no longer gangs but community-embedded transnational armed groups (CETAGs) in the pantheon of nonstate armed actors—are becoming more deeply enmeshed in the global drug trade, the body politic, and armed conflicts in the hemisphere. These CETAGs, rooted and enduring in their communities of origin, are likely to expand across the hemisphere and are driving multiple types of corruption that President Joe Biden in December 2021 vowed to fight as a core U.S. strategic interest.

Publication Date

5-2022

Publisher

National Defense University Press

City

Washington, DC

Recommended Citation

Farah, Douglas and Richardson, Marianne, "Gangs No Longer: Reassessing Transnational Armed Groups in the Western Hemisphere" (2022). INSS Strategic Perspectives. 7.
https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/inss-strategic-perspectives/7