Nowadays terrorism is like a disease that has extended its evil actions through the borders of several countries. This disease is propagated by groups that use violence indiscriminately, targeting innocent people, trying to overthrow the institutional order and political structure, although sometimes it takes place in countries with political power emptiness. Terrorism is the method that embraces some groups or organizations that try to get by force what they are not able to get by reason.
Latin America is not exempt to the existence of terrorist groups and the violence that is exercise by these groups although with a lower incidence than in others regions of the world, which indicate that terrorism does not find a stronghold in the continent.
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In Colombia under the lord of the drug Pablo Escobar Gaviria, who in a moment of desperation to force the Colombia government to restrain the extradition agreement to avoid be extradited and judged in the United States began an indiscriminate wave of terrorist attack against journalist, policy makers, and chief of rival’s cartels. However this reign of terror end whit Gaviria’s death in 1993, as he said that ‘he prefers a grave in Colombia to a cell in the United States'. On the other hand in Mexico the narco-terrorism also is declining due to the assassinations between the cartels’ leaders that dispute the control of the drug trafficking to the United States, and for their incarceration and extraditions to the U.S. The most powerful blow against drug trafficking came with the capture of Joaquín Guzmán Loera ("El Chapo" Guzmán) which left his organization without its maximum …show more content…
Indeed Latin America was a region that was colonized by Spain, which makes as a predominant the Roman Catholic religion. Catholicism is a religion that promotes peace, unity and brotherhood, and by no means allows suicide. Nowadays these widespread and well known characteristic of the religion avoid any distortion that could influence its believers to plan and carry out terrorist attack or any sort of violence to achieve neither religious nor political means like in the Crusades and the Inquisition times.
In conclusion, Latin America is a region with distinctive characteristic that until now do not represent a safe haven to the domestic terrorism, neither to extremist groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Al Qaeda in Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Latin America despite its struggle as a developing region makes efforts to combat terrorism like is recognized by the United States Department of State in its Country Reports: Western Hemisphere Overview state that “the countries in Latin America have porous borders, limited law enforcement capability, and established smuggling routes. Transnational criminal organizations continued to pose a more significant threat to the region than terrorism, and most countries made efforts to investigate possible connections with terrorist
Modern terrorism, as deduced from this literature, is acts to violence strategically used by secular groups spanning international borders with the aim of achieving a desired outcome. Further, it can be seen as organized activity whose genesis can be traced back to the 1880’s. From then to now there are identifiable traits and patterns observed from different (terrorist) groups which have allowed for the conceptualization of the term modern terrorism. This concept therefore, can be best explained in the context of being a wave or having a life cycle. That means it is a cycle of activity demarked by phases from inception and expands along the way then eventually it declines. The world, thus far, has experienced four waves of modern
The word ‘terrorism’ can be traced back to the French Revolution and the reign of terror committed against the population of France in the 1790s. During this time, thousands of people were killed and the general population was severely oppressed. Also, some of the first instances of terrorist tactics, such as assassination and intimidation, were witnessed in the killing of prominent officials and other opponents of the Revolution. In general, terrorists aim to incite fear in the population through pre-meditated violent acts and gain publicity as a medium in achieving their goals. Such acts include taking hostages, bombings and assassinations, all of which create fear and compliance in a victim or audience. Terrorism can be distinguished from other types of political violence through its disregard for and intentional harming of innocent civilians. Also, terrorists usually adopt a state of mind where one side is always good and any opposition is bad and deserves to be punished. As a result, terrorists will always have some supporters who share the same radical thoughts as them and thus terrorism, as a whole, will always be accepted as a legitimate use of violence. This is the reasoning behind the famous phrase by Gerald Seymour, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”(QUOTE
The United States has been an important part in the history of all of Latin America. Many times, the United States influenced Latin American countries with its economic, political, and military power. The United States looked down at Latin America as its backyard, constantly using its influence to benefit from the land and supporting dictators in the region. The United States used this power to effectively influence Latin America for decades, even when the U.S. faced communism as a new threat during the Cold War. The United States feared the communist influence of the Soviet Union in countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, because the “evil empire’s” plan for world domination included infiltrating Latin America. Even though these
Terrorism is defined as an act of violence that is committed by an organization or a single person in order to be heard. Terrorist acts are usually based on a couple factors such as, historical grievances, foreign policy decision, poverty, and religion. Terrorism is not a new act amongst the world but something that has been around since the beginning. To understand a criminal you must think like a criminal, and understand why they committed a crime or a violent act, then you can prevent and conquer.
This book illustrates several key issues and social problems that Latin American politics faced and continue to struggle with to this day. The matter of insurgent movements and the counter-insurgency methods that have been throughout the
Terrorism, while difficult to define, still has a few key features that are mostly agreed upon. These features will be explored in depth through a discussion of the definition. Following the definition of terrorism, the paper will examine the cartels in Mexico. Their history, their goals, and their strategies will all be important for determining whether they should fall under the umbrella of terrorism. Finally, this paper will argue that the cartels in Mexico display the characteristics of terror and terrorist organizations and they should be considered and classified
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Domestic•(FBI) categorizes terrorism in the U.S. as one of two types: Terrorism – is terrorist activities that focus on facilities or populations without foreign direction. International Terrorism – is terrorist activities that are foreign‐based and/or sponsored by organizations or groups outside the U.S (). International terrorism poses the greatest threat to our national security. Global trends indicate that the growing number of terrorist groups will become more networked and even harder to identify and
Terrorism has had a negative effect on the world. In the United States the role of terrorism is steadily a growing, creating new issues and situations which the United States government must battle. The department of Home land security has an active and significant role on ensuring the security and safety of the United States of America. Acts of terrorism differs in every region, what one might consider terrorism the other might not. Terrorism comes in several forms such as domestic, international, bioterrorism and cyber terrorism. Every law enforcement agencies has a different approach to terrorism. Strategies for battling terrorism in multicultural communities are different compared to communities inhabited by a less diversified group.
Terrorism, in a modern day perspective, has been molded as a Middle Eastern threat to Western Civilization; although the whole idea of terrorism itself has existed for ages. Undoubtedly, “The War on Terror,” is a western form of saying to depict the general aspect of terrorism. Through all aspects of the world, terrorism, is defined as an act of unruly and warlike tactics that mainly creates harm to civilians. Usually, these acts of violence are not simply for the use of harming citizens, but to voice specific mutinous organizations that do not comprehend with the standard civilization. This analysis will numerically discuss the main aspects of the United States intervention with terrorism, past terrorist acts, and a modern day
Over the last several decades, violence has consumed and transformed Mexico. Since the rise of dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business. Mexican authorities count at least 12 major cartels, but also talk of an untold numbers of smaller splinter groups. (Taipei Times). Five cartels
Since 1980, terrorism has become a growing threat in Latin America. In the 1980’s, Latin America experienced more terrorist attacks (17,293) than all other regions combined (13,643), and nearly four times as many as the next most active region—Western Europe (4,729) (Jensen pg 1). Most terrorism in Latin America comes from within with groups like the Shining Path in Peru, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) (Jensen pg 1). Violence decreased dramatically in the mid-1990s, after a number of governments waged successful anti-terrorism attacks at these insurgency groups. (Jensen pg 1). Although terrorism is a less prominent problem now, there are still threats,
Terrorism in the twenty-first century has some similarities and differences from terrorism in the twentieth century. Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use or threatened use of violence in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. Also useful to remember that because the two entities involved, the terrorists and the terrorized, are on the opposite end of the political, religious or ideological continuum, the same act is viewed by them differently. There is much sense in the phrase one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
On the other hand, the authors outline the importance of drug trafficking as the most significant and current source of income for both terrorist and international criminal organizations. Similarly, The Jamestown Foundation cites the example of how profits of narcotrafficking have been used to strengthen international links between terrorist organizations: ‘ETA has been training FARC members in explosives and weapons. In exchange, the FARC compensated the Basque terrorists, using financial revenues obtained through drug trafficking’ . Thus, one could affirm that the market of illegal drugs and narcotics produce enormous revenues which often support criminal organizations, revolutionary groups, and terrorist organizations among many other illegal forms of crime.
Crime, death, and destruction in Latin America is a big issue that’s spreading around the whole world. It’s becoming a worldwide problem and it needs to be fixed. Trafficking drugs to other countries and what not, are the main cause of crime, death and destruction of property in Latin America. “According to police data, these countries collectively saw 17,422 murders in 2015, 11% more than in 2014. However, there are signs the security challenges are changing, both in Northern Triangle and across Central America as a whole.” This shows that murders are occurring more often than they should. El Salvador is increased in murders between 2014-15 and its one of the highest in the world. The
Terrorism, which has been around for as long as people can remember, has been on the rise for the past ten years. Terrorists usually use murdering, kidnapping, hi-jacking and bombings to achieve their political purpose. For instance, according to Wikipedia.com (2006), in 1985 816 deaths, then in 2003, more than 1,000 people died by terorist acts around the world. In recent years, terrorism seems to be at a new height and attacks are much more violent than in the past. Unfortunately, in spite of many anti-terror campaigns, projects and organizations are being created for prevention (to prevent) terrorism, the number of terrorists only is increasing. These days terrorism is all over the world.