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Georgetown Americas Institute

March 3, 2026

The Rise of Organized Crime and Political Realignment in Latin America

Event Series: Latin America and the Geopolitical and Economic Transition: How to Harness the Revolution

RSVP Required
Burned public bus en Jalisco following the death of El Mencho

The Georgetown Americas Institute is pleased to host Lucia Dammert, professor of international relations at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile,  for an expert conversation on public security, governance, and criminal networks. The conversation will be moderated by Eduardo Porter, Guardian columnist and author of the Substack “Being There,” and GAI Founding Director Alejandro Werner.

The session will explore how evolving criminal organizations are reshaping state institutions, influencing electoral politics, and deepening citizen insecurity from the local to the transnational level. This discussion comes amid a surge of violence in the Mexican state of Jalisco this week, where a military operation that killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel triggered widespread clashes, roadblocks, arson attacks, and multiple deaths as the cartel retaliated, underscoring the persistent volatility tied to powerful criminal networks.

This is the third session in the event series Latin America and the Geopolitical and Economic Transition: How to Harness the Revolution, which aims to examine how shifting long-term currents are affecting the world, their potential impact on Latin America, and how the region should adapt and react. The region has historically lived in the shadow of the United States while drawing closer to China. It possesses vast natural resources yet continues to search for a path toward equitable and sustained prosperity. It is a heterogeneous set of countries with a shared history, split by deep rivalries, yet strengthened by the enduring idea of a regional identity. It is imperative that Latin American leaders confront these forces of transformation with clear eyes.

Featuring

Lucia Dammert is a professor of international relations at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Born in Peru, her research interests lie in the field of public security, criminal organizations and criminal justice reform. Her expertise has been widely acknowledged in Latin America. Among her most recent books are Fear of Crime in Latin America (2012, Routledge) and Maras (2011, University of Texas Press) edited with Thomas Bruneau. Her latest book, Anatomía del poder ilegal: Violencia, Crimen Organizado y Corrupción en América Latina was published by Planeta in 2025. The english version will be published in September 2026 by Routledge.
She has held key advisory positions in Chile, Argentina, México and Perú and has served as key advisor at the Organization of American States and other regional organizations. At the global level she has been invited to be part of the UN Secretary-general´s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. She holds a Ph.D. from Leiden University, a masters degree from University of Pittsburgh and a BA from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina.

Eduardo Porter writes “Being There” on Substack and has a regular column in the Guardian. Porter worked for nearly two decades at the New York Times, and he also wrote for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Opinion, and the Washington Post. He has reported from Tokyo, London, São Paulo, and Mexico City. He is the author of American Poison (2020), on how racial hostility shaped the American social contract, and The Price of Everything (2011), an exploration of the cost-benefit analyses that underpin human behaviors and institutions. Born in Phoenix, he grew up in the United States, Mexico, and Belgium, and he now splits his time between Mexico City and Brooklyn.

Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from ITAM.