Private Security Companies in Latina America: a comparative study between Colombia and Mexico

• In Event: Military Forces, Police and Private Security

Abstract

The private security industry in Latin America has grown exponentially in the last decades. Although it has proven to be a very booming business, there is still very little scholarly work on the impact posed by this industry. This paper aims to deepen the discussion regarding the privatization of security in the region through a comparative analysis of the evolution of the private security industry in Colombia and Mexico. In these two countries, the process of expansion of the industry has followed opposite paths, a situation that provides a wider array of elements for analysis.
The research focuses on public choice theory and principal-agent theory to build an analytical framework to evaluate the existing relationship between the national government and the private providers of security in each country. In this way, it will be possible to identify best practices and learned lessons that Colombia, Mexico, and all Latin American countries may take into account when dealing with the growing industry of private security.

Author

• Andrea Carolina Pernett Gonzalez