Latin America Armed Conflict & Cartel Violence Dashboard

Key Findings

• The region recorded approximately 146,000 conflict events and 130,000 fatalities between 2019 and 2024 across 17 active countries, underscoring the scale and sustained intensity of organized violence in Latin America.
• Battles were the most common event type (~43K), followed by violence against civilians (~30K) and strategic developments (~29K), while explosive incidents remained comparatively rare (~2K) — suggesting that most violence is direct and confrontational rather than indiscriminate.
• Mexico accounted for the largest share of regional conflicts (31.2%), followed by Brazil (27.7%) and Colombia (10.9%); together these three countries represent nearly 70% of all documented events, concentrating regional security risk in a small number of states.
• Conflict activity trended upward over the observation period, rising from approximately 22,000 events in 2019 to a peak of roughly 25,900 by 2023–2024, suggesting a gradually worsening regional security environment rather than isolated spikes.
• Ecuador's share (4.86%) is notable given its historically lower conflict profile, reflecting the rapid escalation of cartel violence in the country beginning in 2022–2023 as transnational criminal organizations expanded territorial control.
• Venezuela's 5.31% share likely understates the true scale of conflict given documented limitations in data collection access, indicating that regional figures should be interpreted as a floor rather than a ceiling for actual violence.