Feral Jundi

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Industry Talk: Private Security In Bolivia Is Booming

Filed under: Bolivia,Industry Talk,Law Enforcement — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 9:51 AM

At least 563 private security guards, aged between 18 and 50 years, serving in the 39 companies legally established in La Paz to provide physical protection and electronics particular persons, property, and institutions.”They are registered 563 (officials) that offer some of these services in La Paz. All are old, “said Lt. Col. Miguel Angel Rivera, head of the Chief Control of Private Security Companies (Jedecoes).

Insight Crime did a great post on the alarming increase in the use of private security in Bolivia. According to IC, one of the main reasons why it has exploded is the lack of trust the population has in it’s law enforcement.

You know it is bad when 85 % of the people who live in four large cities in Bolivia, do not report crimes. There is also a lot of vigilantism going on, as reported by the Economist (and raising scarecrows to warn criminals). Not to mention the cartels and organized crime there.

What is interesting to me is that these guards are not allowed to be armed. My thoughts about this is that perhaps because of this restriction on guards, that the illegal security outfits are popping up to fill that void? IC made this comment.

In 2010, it was found that only around 15 percent of private companies in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, an organized crime hotbed, were legal.

If cartels are operating there, then it is possible that most of these illegal companies are criminally related. Or, they could be companies actually trying to provide an effective service in a dangerous world.

Also, if the demand is that high for security and the government is not moving fast enough to certify or regulate, then supply versus demand economics will apply. Someone will fill the need as they say, and it looks like PMSC’s in Bolivia are very much in demand… –Matt

 

 

563 private guards watched in La Paz
September 9, 2012
At least 563 private security guards, aged between 18 and 50 years, serving in the 39 companies legally established in La Paz to provide physical protection and electronics particular persons, property, and institutions.”They are registered 563 (officials) that offer some of these services in La Paz. All are old, “said Lt. Col. Miguel Angel Rivera, head of the Chief Control of Private Security Companies (Jedecoes).
A licensed private security company, according to the National System of Public Safety, develops preventive surveillance and early warning under custody and in close collaboration with the Police. For his actions, trains its employees on issues of emergency, first aid, environment, customer service and more.
“We do not act violently. Is not permitted. Our main objective is to develop an efficient system of prevention, only if there is imminent risk, if we intervene, “said Raul Moreno, CEO of Radar.

(more…)

Monday, January 16, 2012

Crime: Politics And The Drug War In Latin America

Filed under: Crime,Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 10:46 PM

In South America, the balloon effect has coincided with another phenomenon: The rise of a generation of populist leaders who view U.S. antidrug efforts as a version of the “Yankee imperialism” they disdain.
Both Venezuela’s Mr. Chavez and Bolivia’s Mr. Morales built support among mostly poor populations as staunchly anti-U.S. leaders. They describe the drug war as a facade for a strategy to control the region’s politics and natural resources, especially oil.
Mr. Chavez and other leaders say they are fighting drug trafficking. But in Venezuela, thwarting U.S. drug efforts appears to be a cause for promotion. In 2008, the U.S. declared Venezuelan Gen. Henry Rangel Silva a drug “kingpin.” This month, Mr. Chavez named Gen. Rangel defense minister.

Imagine this. Several large coca producing countries have leaders that were elected based on their ‘support for coca farming’, and one country elects leaders that were financed and influenced by drug cartels. And then you have multiple countries that dislike the US and try to interpret the drug war to their people as some form of ‘Yankee Imperialism’.  That to me is like the perfect alignment of events to create not just Narco States, but Narco Coalitions. The combining of states that produce the drugs with states that distribute them, all with the intent of pushing those drugs into the US and world and lining the pockets of politicians and cartels. It sounds like a premise in some crazy far out crime/war movie, all wrapped up with ‘world domination’. lol

Except in this case, it is a very plausible scenario and parts of it have already come true. In the articles below, they discuss how vulnerable Mexico’s political process is to cartel influence. The second one talks about how both Peru and Bolivia have seen a huge increase in coca production, all because they have leaders who were elected based on their pro-coca farming views. Ecuador and Venezuela gets a mention because they are all about supporting the drug trade as well. So chalk those countries as lost to the narcos….

As for Mexico, who knows if Calderon can keep his presidency? The cartels are doing all they can to work against him and his party at the local levels, and they are easily using the rules of insurgency to do so. From assassination, to bribes, to kidnapping, to voter intimidation, etc. The cartels are also using media and any other angle to get the public to reject Calderon’s war against the cartels.

Finally, the thing that I am most interested in is how will the US and the rest of the world react to such a Narco Coalition, if Mexico falls? What is the strategy to counter these narco insurgencies, and what does victory or defeat look like in the context of a drug war like this? –Matt

 

Bolivian President Evo Morales, holding coca leaves in 2009, built a political movement by demonstrating against the drug police. He has named coca growers to law-enforcement posts -- including drug czar.

Mexico’s 2012 vote is vulnerable to narco threat
12/21/2011
“We cannot allow organized crime to decide at the ballot box,” said Josefina Vazquez Mota, a leading contender to be the 2012 presidential candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), which ended 71 years of PRI-party rule with Vicente Fox’s election in 2000.
Mexican presidents are limited to one six-year term, and the PAN held on to power in 2006 with Calderon’s narrow win over leftist challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who will top the ticket for the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, again in 2012.
This time around, analysts expect PAN candidates to be hobbled by public dissatisfaction with Calderon’s military offensive against the drug cartels. At least 50,000 people have been killed since he took office in December 2006, and gangland violence has spread misery to parts of the country that were previously considered safe.
Outdated election laws
Calderon has angered rival lawmakers by suggesting that a presidential victory by PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto would represent a capitulation to the criminals. But many Mexicans seem nostalgic for the relative tranquility of life under the PRI, whose network of patronage and corruption once kept organized crime in check.

(more…)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Bolivia: Drug Cartels Using The Serbian Company ‘Combat Team Security Solutions’

   Man, I don’t like to read about this stuff, but this is the reality of our industry. The money these drug cartels are offering is just too much of a draw to some of these unscrupulous companies operating out there.  Obviously Combat Team Security Solutions could care less if they are protecting a scum bag narco boss. For that, I put them right up there with the Los Zetas or the Somali pirates.

   Now I do not want to fall into the trap of labeling all Serbian’s as criminal with this post, because they are not.  There are plenty of Serbian contractors out there who are doing good things and it is companies like this that give them a bad name. Also, I have a lot of Serbian readers and fans of the blog, and I know this kind of thing probably makes them wince.

   Finally, if you want a good chuckle, check out the website below and the youtube videos this company produced.  I am still trying to figure out why anyone would pay for their services other than to get a good laugh. –Matt

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Serb Mercenaries See Prospects in Latin America

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

May 26, 2010

For most Serbs, Latin America is a distant continent held in regard by the older generation as a part of the non-aligned movement.

But when three Serb bodyguards of alleged narcotics boss William Rosales Suarez were killed in Bolivia, near the eastern town of Santa Cruz earlier this month, it put Latin America into the spotlight.

Sasa Turcinovic, 40, Predrag Cankovic, 38, and Bojan Bakula, 29, arrived in Bolivia on May 13 only to be killed the next day along with three locals deployed to protect Suarez’s convoy of vehicles. Suarez was kidnapped and is still missing.

For days Serbian media was teeming with items on the three. It turned out that Bakula and Turcinovic were the owners of a security agency called Combat Team Security Solution, based in Ruma, 50 km west of Belgrade.

Turcinovic was once a member of the Red Berets, the notorious special Serbian police unit in the 90s which carried out atrocities during the wars with neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia.

(more…)

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