For years we believed that the vote was a shield against barbarism, a civilizational wall against violence. But today, in much of Latin America, that wall has collapsed. Organized crime not only coexists with politics: it penetrates it, finances it, intimidates it and, in many cases, directs it. It is no longer enough to say that it corrupts institutions: organized crime actively participates in politics. Vote, impose and govern.
In Colombiathe recent internal elections of the ruling party showed a disturbing reality: in municipalities under the control of illegal armed groups, electoral participation shot up in an unusual way, up to 30% of those eligible. In areas where abstentionism was the norm, the vote multiplied more than a hundred times. It wasn’t a coincidence. They are territories dominated by the ELN, the FARC dissidents and criminal gangs that replace the State and decide who can or cannot participate. There, voting is obeying: you choose under threat, with dark money and imposed silence.
Mexico is experiencing a parallel drama. The National Electoral Institute has identified more than 14,000 risk areas where drug trafficking violence prevents safe elections from being guaranteed. In the recent elections, about 30% of the circuits were compromised. These are no longer specific interferences, but rather the systematic capture of power by organizations that act as parallel states. In some regions, even justice has been hijacked: judges are elected in popular consultations where only a minority votes, and criminal candidates end up passing sentence.
When intimidation is not enough, murder comes. In Ecuadorthe assassination of Fernando Villavicencio—after denouncing links between politicians and mafias—showed the extent to which crime defines the rules of the game. In Mexico, dozens of local candidates have been murdered in recent years. The message is brutal: whoever does not submit, disappears.
This model of power has reached its most perfected form in Venezuela, where the State was absorbed by corruption networks, drug trafficking and international criminal alliances. There, the regime is not only authoritarian: it is a transnational crime corporation with a political facade. In other words, Pablo Escobar’s dream brought to the present day. It exports not only migration and propaganda, but methods: institutional capture, electoral manipulation, repression and territorial control through mafias and armed groups.
The problem is no longer limited to borders. Latin American crime networks operate today in Europe, the United States and Canada, moving money, drugs, weapons and people. What happens in Culiacán, Tumaco or Maracaibo has global consequences. Crime votes there, but its effects are felt throughout the planet.
The victims are the people of the region: millions of displaced people and migrants who flee not only from hunger or dictatorship, but from the armed power that dominates their territories. They lose not only the right to vote, but something more essential: the right to live with dignity and without fear.
We are not facing simple “failed democracies”, but rather we are facing a new form of criminal authoritarianism, where the ballot boxes cover up violence and institutions are hostages to crime. While the world’s democracies remain silent, crime continues to vote, win and rule. And it is time to recognize it: organized crime is not just a security problem; It is the most urgent political, moral and civilizational challenge facing Latin America.
