Organized Crime in South America

Recently in Sao Paulo, Brazil - the largest city in the southern hemisphere and Brazil's economic capital - a wave of violence reportedly organized by one of the country's largest gangs over the movement of several of their members to high-security facilities resulted in the deaths of over 150 people. The gang's leaders organized the violence from prison using cell phones, which of course they're not supposed to have.

The recent violence has drawn attention to the fact that in Brazil, as in much of South America, organized crime has become powerful enough to challenge the region's weak national governments. Columbia's recent successful election, for instance, went as well as it did only because FARC rebels agreed to let the process take place.

In a region with a history of coups and brutal military dictatorships, what are the prospects for democracy if elected governments lose control of their territory to gangs and drug traffickers? (TIME reports speculation that the gang behind the violence has the ability to influence, if not direct, Brazil's upcoming election.) What about the security not only of Brazil's residents, but that of the region as a whole? How linked is the failure of developing countries like Brazil to deal with rampant inequality to their failure to deal with crime?

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