One of the most developed countries in Latin America, Uruguay has traditionally had some of the lowest crime rates and strongest state institutions in the region. But more recently the country has faced elevated homicides and insecurity, much of which is linked to drug trafficking and small-scale gang activity. While Uruguay remains one of the most stable nations in Latin America, its growing role in the international cocaine trade and crumbling prison system pose serious security risks for the country.
Geography
Uruguay is bordered to the north and east by Brazil and separated from Argentina to the west by the Uruguay River, which flows south to the River Plate and empties into the Atlantic Ocean on the westernmost edge of Uruguay’s roughly 600 kilometers of coastline.
Uruguay’s geography has made it increasingly important for international cocaine trafficking. Massive shipments are often loaded in Paraguay then sent down the Uruguay River to the port of Montevideo, where it then goes to international markets, predominantly in Europe. Montevideo’s Carrasco International Airport, has also been used to traffic smaller amounts of cocaine to European markets.
Cocaine shipments are also smuggled across Uruguay’s porous northern border with Brazil, with trucks transporting the drugs south to Montevideo for international shipment. This border region, which is largely rural farmland on both sides of the border, has also been the site of illicit agricultural smuggling and cattle theft, though both crimes have been on the decline in recent years.
Brazilian groups have historically crossed the border into Uruguay to evade authorities and supply local drug markets, though no group has yet developed a significant presence in the country.
History
Colonized by both the Spanish and Portuguese empires, Uruguay spent much of the early 19th century fighting off then-rivals Argentina and Brazil as well as fighting a civil war between the National and Colorado parties – both of which continue to be highly influential in Uruguayan politics.
During much of the early and mid-20th century, Uruguay grew in terms of population and development, until the military seized power in a 1973 coup. Amid an economic crisis, the junta negotiated a return to civilian governance in 1984, and over the next decade the country saw a gradual return and strengthening of its democratic institutions.
In the early 2000s, a highly addictive, partially processed cocaine product known as coca base became increasingly popular across South America. With unemployment skyrocketing in Uruguay as the result of a 2002 economic crisis, the market for the cheap drug grew.
By the late 2000s and early 2010s, concerns about foreign organized crime in Uruguay became more pronounced, with officials warning about the presence of Mexican, Colombian, Brazilian and Eastern European networks. However, the country’s drug consumption market remained relatively small in the regional context, and it was not a major producer of illicit goods, somewhat lessening its attractiveness to transnational crime groups. Still, authorities expressed concern that local Uruguayan groups were developing in sophistication.
In contrast to many other countries in Latin America, Uruguay responded to growing concerns about crime and violence not with heavy-handed or militarized strategies, but with technocratic reforms. In the early 2010s, the government adopted advanced predictive policing technologies and introduced plans to reinforce its anti-money laundering regime.
In December 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize the production and use of marijuana for recreational purposes. The marijuana law put Uruguay at the forefront of the drug policy debate, but implementation of the law moved slowly for several years due to political and regulatory challenges. Legal sales of government-regulated marijuana began in July 2017. According to a government survey, the percentage of Uruguayans that have tried cannabis at least once in their lives has risen since the drug became commercially available, however the percentage that has used it in the month and year before the survey both decreased, indicating regular consumption have fallen since legalization. The amount of cannabis consumers bought from traffickers decreased from 58.2% in 2014 to 6.7% in 2024.
Although these progressive reforms bucked regional trends, they did not necessarily reverse underworld trends like the continued development of local gangs in Uruguay’s urban areas and the persistence of informal drug trafficking and money laundering operations by foreign groups, particularly Brazil’s biggest gang, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital –PCC). Additionally, Uruguay — the country with the highest per capita gun ownership in South America — began to show signs of being a source country for firearms trafficking in the region, in part due to corruption in the military and police.
The 2019 presidential elections were characterized by debate over a perceived spike in urban crime across Uruguay. The eventual victor, center-right candidate Luis Lacalle Pou ran on a law-and-order platform which stressed a crackdown on crime in prisons and drug trafficking. His administration has militarized the fight against organized crime, a significant shift from his predecessors who relied heavily on Uruguay’s professional police force to keep violence levels low. The murder rate in the country decreased from its 2018 peak, but stagnated in the early 2020s at levels higher than the pre-2018 norm.Uruguay has seen an increase in violence against security forces since Lacalle Pou’s election, including police and soldiers.
In 2024, the Yamadú Orsi of the leftist Broad Front coalition won the presidential election, promising security policies more focused on deterrence and police than previous leaders from the coalition.
Criminal Groups
Organized crime has not historically been a major problem in Uruguay. However, small, homegrown crime groups are increasingly operating in Montevideo and several other urban areas. These criminal groups are not as powerful as street gangs elsewhere in Latin America, and their activities have traditionally been limited to petty theft and small-scale drug trafficking. In recent years, soccer fan clubs known as “barras bravas” have also been accused of operating as criminal organizations, engaging in drug trafficking and extortion activities.
Transnational criminal organizations have had a certain presence in Uruguay, though no group controls territory.. Uruguay’s location and prominence as an international port have made it an attractive transit country for cocaine being trafficked from Colombia and Peru to international markets. Brazil’s largest gang, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando Capital – PCC), has been linked to these drug trafficking activities.
In 2021 and 2022, Uruguay experienced an uptick in organized criminal activity in the north. Turf wars between Brazilian gangs have spurred violence and instability in the border provinces of the country. Small criminal rings from southern Brazil working with Uruguayan counterparts have stepped-up cattle rustling activity along the Uruguay-Brazilian border where agriculture is an important part of the economy and moving livestock across borders inhibits investigation.
On the other hand, discoveries of massive drug trafficking networks demonstrate Uruguay’s role as a crucial transit country where criminal groups will hope to expand. Shipments containing cocaine from Paraguay passed through ports in Uruguay before being seized in Europe, indicating links between Brazilian organizations like the PCC and Paraguayan drug couriers transporting drugs via Uruguay.
Uruguay is also an attractive place to launder illicit profits, largely because of the country’s highly dollarized economy. Between 2018 and 2022, money laundering cases linked to drug trafficking nearly doubled in Uruguay. A change to the law in 2020 massively increased the limit for cash payments, which experts warned could facilitate laundering. An independent audit in 2023 concluded that Uruguay’s anti-money laundering institutions lacked the resources and expertise to properly investigate financial crimes.
Several members of international criminal organizations in Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and the Balkans have been locked up in Uruguayan facilities. The escape of an ‘Ndranghetta crime boss has raised concerns over corrupt officials, while it is hypothesized that Uruguayan drug trafficker, Sebastián Marset, built up his international criminal network while behind bars.
Security Forces
Uruguay has a national police force that is overseen by the Interior Ministry, which is the primary institution dedicated to fighting organized crime in the country. According to the Interior Ministry, Uruguay had around 33,500 police officers in 2022 — a rate of more than 950 officers per 100,000 citizens.
Uruguay’s armed forces consist of three branches — the army, navy, and air force — with around 27,000 active personnel as of 2022.
Uruguay has some of the strongest and most trusted institutions in Latin America, but corruption within the security forces remains a prominent concern.
Judicial System
Uruguay’s highest judicial body is the Supreme Court, which also hears constitutional cases. Below this are the Court of Appeals, District Courts, Peace Courts and Rural Courts. Uruguay’s Attorney General’s Office (Poder Judicial) handles organized crime cases.
The World Justice Project’s 2024 Rule of Law Index ranked Uruguay as the country with the least corruption and one of the most effective criminal justice systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Uruguay maintains fair and democratic elections, and independent judiciary and strong protections for civil rights.
Prisons
Uruguay’s prisons are chronically overcrowded, although conditions inside are a far cry from those of other countries in Latin America. With over 16,000 inmates as of 2024, Uruguay is among the 1o countries in the world with the most prisoners per capita. As the number of inmates has risen, per capita spending has fallen, leading to deteriorating conditions. A 2023 study by the government concluded that 43% of inmates suffered “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
Despite its progressive legislation on marijuana, authorities are still locking up low-level drug offenders, who have little chance of rehabilitation while in prison, leading to high rates of recidivism. Uruguay has taken some steps to implement prisoner rehabilitation programs to reduce recidivism rates, including a project launched in 2017 to provide job opportunities to recently released prisoners. In 2019, The Interior Ministry created a prison reform plan that which aims to improve prison conditions by implementing physical improvements, adding educational and work programs for poisoners, and incorporating health and wellness initiatives. These plans, however, have lacked consistent funding and recidivism – particularly for offender of cocaine-related crime – continues to be severe.
Though Uruguay does not yet have prison gangs like in much of the rest of the region, there are worrying signs. Violence rates within prisons are significantly higher than on the street. Two major attacks in recent years involved prisoners being able to escape their cells to light fires in others’, leading to dozens of deaths.
