Security governance in Latin America: new actors, conflict formations, and protection policies

Abstract

The research integrates and continues the interdisciplinary project "Stable Peace, Conflict Formation and Resolution in Latin America: Representation of Regional Security Systems in a Political Atlas", coordinated by Professor Rafael Duarte Villa (USP - DCP / IRI), with the support of CNPq (Process No. 43151 / 2015-6) and FAPESP (Regular Project, No. 2017 / 25163-0). The research project proposes to address the regional dynamics in security governance, mapping the structure and actors involved, as well as the process by which systemic changes are produced. The present intervention, within the framework of this project, will analyze how non-state armed groups (NSAG) have transformed their practices in the region over the last decades. In some countries, through political transition processes, political violence has migrated to forms of criminal violence, as can be seen in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The nexus between armed conflict and crime has also been documented in Colombia's case and similar practices can be identified at various scales in the region. Our proposal is to question, on the one hand, the transformation in the practices of these actors and in the way they exercise their agency, as well as the role that the violence undertaken by them has in transforming power relations and security practices at different scales (local, national, subregional and regional). On the other hand, we analyze how security policies and practices have been altered to face them, ranging from analyzes of agendas and international security policies to the local and community practices of those who have to face armed violence in their daily lives. The data obtained by this research will be used in the elaboration of the Atlas of Conflict and Peace in Latin America (2000-2020). (AU)