HomeNewsBriefIs Argentina the New Colombia?
BRIEF

Is Argentina the New Colombia?

ARGENTINA / 6 SEP 2015 BY MICHAEL LOHMULLER EN

A former Buenos Aires police chief has compared Argentina today with the Colombia of Pablo Escobar, a somewhat flawed analogy but a warning of the potential risks of allowing the drug trade to flourish unopposed.

In an interview with Infobae, former Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police Chief Eugenio Burzaco said Argentina’s current situation with drug trafficking is comparable to Colombia’s five years before the emergence of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel. While Argentina does not yet have cartels, Burzaco stated, “we have criminal organizations, like Los Monos in Rosario.”

According to Burzaco, Argentina is at a point where drug traffickers in “the large cities are beginning to dominate physical enclaves and spread by confronting other groups.” And it is not just a question of drug transit, Burazco asserts, with local drug consumption markets “the most important” right now.

Additionally, Burzaco feels Argentina is close to a stage “characterized by the deep penetration of power structures in order to co-opt them, such as politics, the police, and justice.” According to Infobae, he recalled a conversation with a Colombian diplomat, who said Argentina is like Colombia was in the late 1970s and early 1980s: “In denial of the problem.”

InSight Crime Analysis

While an interesting comparison, Burzaco’s paralleling of Argentina and pre-Escobar Colombia is not entirely accurate.

For starters, Argentina is not a major drug producing country. And while synthetic drug production has been on the increase, this largely feeds Argentina’s domestic drug market; something Colombia had little of during Escobar’s time. Nor have Argentinian criminal groups, such as Los Monos, demonstrated a capacity for industrializing the drug trade or exporting multi-ton drug shipments like Colombia's Medellin or Cali Cartels. Instead, these groups focus on microtrafficking and locally-focused crimes such as extortion or kidnapping.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Argentina

Nonetheless, this is not to say Argentina will not suffer the epidemic levels of violence of Colombia during the time of Escobar. Indeed, as Burzaco suggests, Argentina is in a delicate position, with organized crime and drug trafficking becoming increasingly prevalent in the country.

For instance, in addition to the rise of local criminal groups, evidence shows foreign criminal networks are moving into Argentina, using it as a drug transshipment point and market -- and in some case a place to live. The presence of these transnational criminal networks has contributed to an increase in violence, as competing groups battle for control.

Unfortunately, given these trends, and the slow government response in confronting the problem, events such as the recent killing of three Paraguayan nationals in Argentina -- which authorities believe was a “settling of accounts” among drug traffickers -- could become more common.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARGENTINA / 3 AUG 2022

Floodlights from Chinese fishing boats illuminate the darkness off Argentina’s Atlantic Coast, where the armada harvests tons of squid.

ARGENTINA / 10 AUG 2022

Uruguay has made Latin America's largest ever seizure of European methamphetamine, marking a new phase in drug trafficking dynamics.

ARGENTINA / 30 SEP 2022

The capture of a young member of the Cantero family, leaders of the Monos, underlines their persistence in Argentina.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…