The Latin American Report # 546
When organized crime decides to take to the streets in Latin America, it is difficult for government security forces to contain it. When we see a spike in violence like the one occurring in the Ecuadorian provinces of Guayas and Manabí, it is usually not the State that stops the bleeding, but rather a natural retreat or an agreement between the criminal groups involved in the fierce confrontation—if they see fit. If we look at the cartel war that erupted last September in the Mexican town of Culiacán, Sinaloa, the authorities themselves shamefully acknowledged they could not resolve the situation. Thus, it was the warring cartels who held the power to decide whether the macabre pile-up of corpses—some decapitated, adorned with decorative hats or pizza boxes nailed to their chests—should end. And, unfortunately, it has not ended.
In the first month of the war between followers of "Mayo" Zambada and the sons of "El Chapo" Guzmán, 189 homicides were recorded. In an assessment shared last June, marking nine months since clashes began between these two main factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, the average indicates that around 160 people were killed monthly—including nearly 50 minors—, at a rate of over five per day. While it is true that the vast majority of casualties belong to organized crime itself, the fact remains that this makes it very difficult for society to develop safely. On June 29, authorities found 16 bodies abandoned in a van—one decapitated—and also four decapitated bodies hanging by their limbs from a bridge, alongside a bag containing the five corresponding "cephalic extremities."
Playas
In Ecuador’s case, it is clear that the military and police deployment ordered since last year by President Daniel Noboa to confront the "internal armed conflict" has indeed struck criminal structures. However, it has fallen far short of pacifying the most violence-prone areas, located on the coast. When crime decides to go out for a "walk", apparent peace hides fearfully inside homes.
Last Saturday, a massacre occurred at a pool hall in General Villamil Playas municipality, Guayas, where nine people were brutally gunned down—including three municipal officials, one of whom was the son of a councilman. Do you know the main problem here? All the victims were collateral damage—the gunmen had stormed the establishment hunting just one man on the run, who had hidden there but ultimately escaped. Indeed, the majority of those fatally shot were young people with no known criminal records. Their bodies—except in one case—were collected by their own relatives and local residents due to the forensic personnel’s shameful delay. About 80 bullet casings were found at the scene. This is also Latin America, my friends.
José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, Leader of Los Choneros Transnational Criminal Organization Extradited to Brooklyn Federal Court to Face International Drug and Gun Charges https://t.co/2Doyx76NNW
— US Attorney EDNY (@EDNYnews) July 21, 2025
Meanwhile, in Mexico 👇
🇲🇽✊ #Protests continued in #Mexico City on Sunday as residents voiced frustration over rising housing costs, blaming mass #tourism and the growing presence of foreign digital nomads.
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) July 21, 2025
Demonstrators say the government isn’t doing enough to address #gentrification 👇 pic.twitter.com/ijsZXFTt6v
I homeschooled my sons. I began teaching them firearms safety and proper use at the age of three. There were never any accidental discharges, any mishandling of firearms, nor did my sons ever threaten anyone, not even one another in the heat of their sibling disputes. My sons and I faced several armed groups that posed a threat to our household, brandishing arms and trespassing openly on our property, and each time when we turned out to be armed and prepared to fight for our lives, the thugs immediately left without ever firing a shot, never to be seen again. One time a tattooed ex-convict grabbed my eldest son around the neck from behind. My sons were provided martial arts classes from the age of four, and my eldest son was 13 when this happened, competent to get his black belt. Suddenly the ex-con was on his back on the floor and my sons left hand was squeezing his throat, while his right fist was pulled back to his shoulder, ready to strike a likely fatal blow. The bully held up both hands and promised he would never, ever do that again - and he never did. No one was hurt - because my son was deadly dangerous.
When my father went to school (up to the 7th grade) there were firearms clubs in public schools across America. The USG sold surplus military long arms to club members at cost, arms that had seen action in WWI and WWII in some of the most desperate battles the world has ever seen. There were no school shootings, no madmen hyped up on SSRI's slaughtering children, no epidemics of suicide, and no accidental shootings by the well trained students.
The problem is that peace is attained by being deadly dangerous to attack. That is why my sons never got into a fight with their peers. That is why no one ever robbed us, and that is why there were no school shootings - until schools became gun free zones and children became helpless victims of anyone willing to break the law and deranged enough to hurt the innocent. The solution Latin America needs is to arm EVERYONE, as soon as they enter public schools and are able to be trained to safely and effectively wield personal arms. That will end the cartels, and the corrupt governments that profit from the blood and drugs. The slaughter and oppression by tyranny and gangsters will continue to worsen the more helpless populations become, until the people are held captive in cells wholly at the mercy of whoever is armed.
It is not wrong, or a crime, to be dangerous. That is the only thing that enables civil society to live in peace. It is because they are dangerous that people don't attack lions, tigers, and bears with their bare hands. For that men needed pointy sticks in prehistory. For armed gangs of thugs, people need modern personal arms to be dangerous enough to be left in peace. Throughout history free men were armed by right. Wherever they have been enslaved they have been disarmed. Samurai could slaughter peasants at will without consequence, because only Samurai were allowed to bear arms. What stopped the Samurai from murdering anyone they wanted wasn't disarming the Samurai, but arming the peasants. That is what lifted the yoke of tyranny off the American colonies - not disarming the British empire. Disarming violent thugs will not happen, therefore the peaceful and law abiding people must be armed in equal measure. Nothing else will end the suffering and slaughter of good people.
Arm everyone, and the criminals, whom are cowards that only dare to bully helpless, disarmed people, like children, will become polite, honest, and law abiding hard working men, if they have the merit to earn their way. Them without that merit will still not dare to be criminals and face overwhelming force in the hands of every potential victim, and the good people that will also defend them, and will be reduced to begging for alms, rather than pathologically killing innocent and helpless kids.
Freedom and sovereignty is the solution to tyranny and oppression, and personal arms are votes in liberty's election. That is what allows peace to create prosperous civil society, and nothing else ever will.
Thanks!
My friend, I am increasingly adopting this perspective, especially on a personal level. On a broader societal level, I find it a bit more difficult, because perhaps, from a sociological standpoint, today's society is not as prepared as the one you describe with university gun clubs, where everyone could be armed.
Essentially, a dispute that might be settled with fists could instead end in gunfire. These are some initial doubts that always come to mind, without dismissing the idea entirely, because I do recognize the opportunism of criminals targeting defenseless people, without any dissuasion power.
Elementary. Primary school clubs.
When you consider the level deeper than societal, the species level, then solving disputes with fists that could instead be opportunities to advance evolution become wasted opportunities to improve the lot of our posterity. Peace is only availed them dangerous to assault, which is why I ensured my sons were the most dangerous of their peers. I did not neglect their socialization, and they did not cause hazard, did not afflict their social circle with harms, but were the leaders and participated in the social programs that their peers enjoyed instead. It is important we are a bastion to the good people that depend on civil society for their felicity, and a threat to them that would tear it down.
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Indeed, I'm trying this approach with my 5-year-old son. I know it's the right one based on my own school experiences. Thanks for adding more insightful thoughts to the conversation, my friend.