current armed conflicts in latin america

As such, few people outside of the involved nations have heard of the conflicts and thus the fact there were, and still are, significant numbers of landmines is surprising. The number of landmines in Latin America – both mines removed and still waiting to be removed – is also surprising because many of the historical interstate conflicts that led to mining never became large shooting wars. The intrastate conflicts are a sign of the relative political instability of many countries in the region over the last decades (of which the proxy civil wars of the Cold War were a part). Indeed, many of the current landmines are from intrastate struggles between a government and rebel group or a result of criminal gangs marking their territory. The huge number of landmines in Latin America is somewhat surprising given the absence of recent interstate conflict. The increase in landmine use is especially disheartening considering that the region had made great strides in reducing landmines in the last twenty years in what Voice of America declared in 2021 as the “region hit-hardest by mines in the whole world.” Latin America is experiencing a disturbing uptick in the use of landmines, reflecting growing criminality and lack of state control in many areas.

← Back to portfolio Criminal Gangs and Landmine Use in Latin America Published on 4th April 2022Īn uptick in landmine use by criminal gangs is a result of a weak, corrupt and coopted state in a region working hard to demine after decades of conflict

Current armed conflicts in latin america