What’s next for the US military campaign against Latin America’s criminal groups?
What’s behind Chile and Peru’s recent security crackdowns?
And are explosives and drones becoming standard weapons for criminal groups in the region?
This week’s top three organized crime stories in On the Radar.
1. Washington Moves to Take Its Anti-Crime War to Land
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the United States plans to expand its war on drugs from the sea onto land. Starting in September 2025, the United States has been bombing suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing more than 200 people.
Hegseth’s announcement came as Colombia joined the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition this week, also known as the Shield of the Americas. Separately, the Pentagon agreed for the first time to let Mexico purchase drones and counter-drone technology through the US Army’s digital marketplace, a deal both governments framed as support for the fight against organized crime.
Both developments signal a deepening of the Trump administration’s militarized approach in the region, but questions about its strategic coherence persist. This week’s InSight Take discusses how five months after its founding, the A3C, as the coalition is also known, still lacks an official operational plan.
InSight Crime research suggests that the missile strikes have not reduced the flow of drugs in the region and that traffickers have adapted to other routes and smuggling methods as a result.
2. Chile and Peru Harden Their Security Playbooks
Chile’s government proposed a constitutional reform that would create a new state of emergency specifically for organized crime and terrorism. If it passes, the president can declare a state of emergency for up to 120 days—with an extension of up to a total of 240 days—without congressional approval. Meanwhile, Peru’s government next door announced that its armed forces will take over perimeter security in prisons and control of border zones, part of new President Keiko Fujimori’s militarized push against extortion and drug trafficking.
Both moves fit the broader regional pattern of governments implementing tough-on-crime policies, as modeled by Trump’s Shield of the Americas, as well as, more specifically, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. More than 15 megaprisons have been proposed across the region in the three years since El Salvador opened its Terrorism Confinement Center, and at least 30 states of emergency were declared between 2020 and 2023, with tough-on-crime rhetoric dominating recent campaigns in Argentina, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Honduras, and Peru. But no country has yet replicated El Salvador’s results, and, despite the rise of hardline strategies, they are unlikely to succeed.
3. Explosives and Drones Now Standard-Issue in Mexico’s Crime Conflicts
Mexican authorities found and disabled more than 300 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and roughly 300 kilograms of explosive materials in El Rosario, Sinaloa, though no arrests were reported. The find is one of several large-scale explosives seizures in Sinaloa this year, as a rift between Sinaloa Cartel factions continues to fuel violence in the state.
The use of IEDs by criminal groups in Mexico has grown sharply. Seizures rocketed from just three devices in 2020–2021 to 1,375 in 2022, according to data InSight Crime obtained from Mexico’s Defense Ministry. These devices are increasingly paired with drones, which criminal groups across Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Panama have adopted to confront security forces, move goods, and intimidate communities.
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