The historical evolution of violence actors in Latin America

Violence has always been a marking characteristic of Latin America in the 19th and 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century violence was a "normal" expression of state terror produced by state agents, generally during the military dictatorships and the "dirty wars" against their own citizens. However, in the 1980s, when the military establishment withdraws from the political arena and democracy is restored, a severe crisis affects the region, producing long lasting effects in terms of mass poverty, informality and social exclusion. In this domain, and especially in territories where the representatives of law and order are relatively absent, new non-state violence actors emerge, like narco-economy bosses, pandillas, maras, organised crime, and the "dark forces", joined by former actors of the Andean and Central American civil wars.