Bureau of Sabotage
Third Generation Gangs Strategic Note No. 26: COVID-19, Revolutionaries and BACRIM in Colombia
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the seams in the varied relationships between the state and organized crime. In Latin America, criminal armed groups (CAGs) including Mexican cartels, Brazilian prison-street gang complexes, along with maras in El Salvador (and throughout the Northern Triangle of Central America — NTCA) have exploited the situation to further their goals. Similar situations have been seen among mafias in Italy and gangs in South Africa.