By Juan Carlos LIENDO O’CONNOR
Former National Director of Intelligence of Peru (DINI)
Cross-border security in the Americas encompasses a wide of circumstances that extend beyond traditional military and defense matters. The conclusion of the Cold War and the onset of globalization have complicated the range of security risks and threats. These now include non-traditional challenges that can easily traverse national borders, blurring the line between external and internal security. This situation demands a reevaluation of the very concept of border security.
Security issues in the Americas, while not posing a significant threat to global security, face pervasive challenges that affect the lives of its citizens. Latin America is considered the most violent region in the world in terms of average homicide rates, with public safety being a primary concern for its inhabitants.
Transborder security challenges in the Americas are diverse and multifaceted, reflecting the complex socio-political landscape of the region.
Here are some specific examples related to the risks and threads that highlight the breadth and depth of these issues:
Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime: The illicit drug trade is a major cross-border security challenge, as cartels and criminal organizations operate across national borders. Not only does this fuel violence within countries, but it also has spillover effects across borders, as seen in the case of the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and other countries in the region.
Human trafficking and smuggling: Human trafficking is a serious cross-border problem, in which people are illegally transported across borders for forced labor or sexual exploitation or are incorporated into transnational criminal gangs such as the “Tern de Aragua” or drug trafficking cartels. The smuggling of migrants, often in dangerous conditions, is also a critical concern, particularly related to the sudden, massive, and complicated Venezuelan migration of recent years.
Environmental degradation: Problems such as deforestation, water stress, and pollution do not respect national boundaries and can lead to conflicts over natural resources. These environmental challenges can also have security implications, as they can contribute to displacement and migration; and today are closely related to illegal mining activity in almost all countries in the region.
Health crises*: Cross-border health threats, such as the spread of infectious diseases, require coordinated responses from multiple countries. The COVID-19 pandemic is a recent example of how health crises can quickly turn into security issues due to their impact on economies and societies.
Cybersecurity threats: Cyberattacks can originate anywhere in the world and target critical infrastructure, financial systems, or government networks of other nations, posing a significant cross-border security challenge.
Terrorism: The threat of terrorism remains a concern, with the potential for international terrorist groups to exploit porous borders and weak governance structures to establish a foothold in the region.
What’s going wrong?
Bilateral agreements, multilateral conventions, collaboration in strengthening the rule of law, regional initiatives, international organizations, judicial cooperation, capacity-building and training, information and intelligence exchange networks, creation of financial intelligence units (FIUs), and public-private partnerships have been implemented in recent years, have not achieved the expected results; So, what’s going wrong?
The unidirectional vision and approach of “international cooperation” in security matters towards Latin America based on instruments that prioritize and guide the conceptions and interests of the most developed countries as centers of power managed by a global civil society ideologized on a reality of the “Latin American periphery” that is different in fact, is failing. This circumstance, characterized by political, economic, and social particularities, collides with the understanding, objectives, and procedures to manage international cooperation.
In this sense, only a new approach to comprehensive cooperation in cross-border security that includes the self-interests of national governments, regional organizations, and international partners based on the political, economic, and social reality of the weaker cooperating countries can contribute to a new and indispensable approach to meeting the challenges of cross-border security.
Un comentario
La falta de instituciones cordianadas intra fronteras, especializadas y complementadas en la lucha de migracion ilegal, trafico de personas, trafico de drogas, terrorismo; ya sea domido/oculto o acivo. Hacen sangrar a las naciones, algunas mas y otras menos.
Hace falta la inegracion de instituciones como: migraciones, aduana y fuerzas de seguridad, como agentes especiales, formados a tal fin. Transformando este modelo de superinstitucion , en un aparato especializado, que serivra de soporte para la inteligencia criminal y de defensa nacional!.