Private Security and Firearms in Latin America

This work, done in 2015 together with Ana Yancy Espinoza and Antoine Perret, presents up-to-date information about Private Security Companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in relation to their use and management of firearms, and also about policies and regulations on those issues. This work intended to see their strengths and weaknesses and also good practices and possible solutions to the problems often associated with private security and firearms use. This was part of a consultancy carried out for DCAF and UNlirec.

The report showed that private security industry was growing steadily across the region, and there were 16,948 private security companies, with 2,460,654 agents.  Also, the sector suffered large levels of informality, which affected its standards and undermined its control. However, regulatory agencies occasionally considered that controlling the informal or illegal part of the industry is not their main task. In addition, there were  572,693 firearms owned by private security companies, in 17 countries.
In addition, the edition of the final report done by those organizations can be found in shorturl.at/ekFIU

Diego Fleitas

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