SWJ–El Centro Book Review – Criminal Non-State Actors: Historical Developments and Impacts in South America

Marcos Alan Ferreira, Criminal Non-State Actors: Historical Developments and Impacts in South America. Contributions to Security and Defence Studies. Princeton: Springer, 2025. [ISBN 978-3031925085, Hardcover, 189 pages]

In recent decades, global fascination with criminal organizations such as the Medellín and Cali Cartels has infiltrated pop culture. Entertainment media productions like Narcos, Sicario, Queen of the South, and El Patron de Mal have captured international attention while shaping a narrative that renders cartels as simple, violent enterprises. The historic rise and entrenchment of criminal organizations are ignored by such narratives, leaving out critical details regarding accumulated economic, political, and social influence and power.

Marco Alan Ferreira provides a grounding framework through his monograph Criminal Non-State Actors: Historical Developments and Impacts in South America to address such complexities. He asserts why cartels, amongst other illicit actors, cannot be deduced into a singular category (violent non-state actors: VNSAs), as they possess features that make them inherently unique as criminal non-state actors (CNSAs). Dr. Ferreira is well qualified to make this assertation. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Federal University of Paraiba – UFPB (João Pessoa, Brazil) and specializes in research focusing on organized crime in Brazil and South America and the governance capacities of the larger Brazilian gangs.

An Argument for Distinction: CNSAs

Ferreira’s monograph advocates for a conceptual distinction of “criminal non-state actors” (CNSA) from traditional frameworks in International Relations, which often conflate violent non-state actors (VNSA) despite characteristic differences. Traditional classifications have prioritized violence as a defining behavior—a problematic approach that results in subjective evaluations of actors and their utilization of violence, observer understandings of violence, oversimplifications of group motivations, and group operations. While violence can be a modus operandi for a CNSA, Ferreira emphasizes that it is not a defining behavior (p.16).

A central feature of CNSAs, Ferreira contends, is their ability to build networks of trust, whether through non-violent or violent means. Such networks are crucial for CNSAs in achieving economic and sometimes political objectives. By strategically combining selective violence (whether direct, cultural, or social) with selective loyal social networks, CNSAs preserve dominance over drug markets and other illicit operations, including cryptocurrency, mining, deforestation, smuggling, and trafficking (p. 26). Market gains and market dominance are a CNSA’s chief aim, with political objectives often being secondary.

CNSAs are further distinctive in that violence is generally a last resort, as the aforementioned primary objective is maintaining control over illicit markets (p.165). Ferreira expresses how drug trafficking dynamics reflect those of contemporary capitalism in that so long as all engaged parties collaborate effectively to maximize profit, violence is actually infrequent. Illicit markets are crucial to a given CNSA’s overall existence, structure, governance, and activity. Through strategic violence and astute tactics, CNSAs have leveraged ownership over psychoactive substances and trade routes to become global actors and, in some regions, regional hegemonies.

Accordingly, CNSAs have amassed substantial power and influence across South American regions, evident through their governance capacity, territory control, and socio-economic influence.  Ferreira’s CNSA typology provides a critical framework for states seeking to better understand and address contemporary security threats. CNSAs should not be categorized as violent groups, but instead as rational and strategic actors that have emerged due to varying social, political, and economic conditions, and need to be understood as so. By reframing traditional understandings and isolating CNSAs as a distinct typology, states and other actors can better assess them and take action appropriately to counter them.

Structure of the Book

Ferreira begins the monograph in Chapter 1 by establishing CNSAs as a distinct typology so that they can be referred to throughout the piece with ease. A strong conceptualization is presented in Chapter 2, which reviews the nature, typologies, and transnational influence of CNSAs in South America. This chapter details historic political, social, and economic issues that have produced conditions that have elicited the emergence of CNSAs.

Chapter 3 examines the governance capacities of CNSAs against the background of the twenty-first century, as non-state actors have gained governance powers threatening and/or surpassing states. Select CNSAs have accumulated governance capacity by dominating markets and social communities, establishing codes and rules followed by large (and often neglected) populations. Ferreira identifies three distinct social space typologies where criminal governance holds power: urban areas neglected by the state that are crucial for illicit markets (i.e., as international transit points or consumption grounds), b) strategically important rural areas for trafficking, and c) prison facilities which are functioning “headquarters.” Chapter 3 also reviews the coexistence of CNSA and formal state governance, with relationship types (cooperation or competition) as they share authority and control.

Chapter 4 provides a crash course on infamous Colombian CNSAs such as the Medellín and Cali Cartels, along with left-wing guerrilla groups ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional), and FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia).

Case Studies

Chapter 5 provides a deep dive into the Comando Vermelho (CV; Red Command), recognized as Brazil’s inaugural criminal group, with a concentration on logistics and paraphernalia sales. Emerging during a period of intense domestic political turmoil, CV was at first a humble prison gang that was aided by the left-wing activists and political prisoners who were being targeted and jailed by Brazil’s right-wing, which had succeeded with a US-backed coup. CV morphed into a sophisticated transnational superpower that dominated the cocaine market before expanding its operations. The CNSA’s ability to adapt, in its structure, activities, and governance within social and economic contexts, allowed for success.

Chapter 6 centers on the iconic Brazilian criminal organization of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC; First Capital Command) that emerged in the 1990s. Initially formed as a prisoners’ group advocating for human rights/improved conditions, the PCC morphed into one of the most powerful CNSAs in the world with an estimated 35,000 members. Through distinctive strategies (dominio de cidades), a decentralized structural command, and an ethical code of conduct, PCC has retained relevance and power within and beyond Brazil. By combining calculated violence with strategic relationships, the PCC has expanded its operations overseas with aided distribution by European mafias/gangs (p.125). The PCC has also seized control over Rota Caipira (one of the world’s central drug trafficking corridors), and embedded its governance within local communities replacing the state.

Chapter 7 examines the Brazilian Amazon as a critical hub for the production and shipment of illicit substances, mainly marijuana and cocaine (pp.135–137). Dominant CNSAs of the Amazon basin (primarily CV then PCC) have impacted the region through environmental crimes and disrupting native social structures. Ferreira also explains how CNSAs in the region such as the FDN (Familia do Norte; Northern Family) have competed amongst one another over territory and resources resulting in intense violence and instability, further exemplified by a weak state presence and the geographic location.

Conclusion

The only demerits to the work are its present cost, given that it has only been published for only several months, cheaper digital and softcover editions do not yet exist. Further, since it’s an academic publication steeped in CNSA-related theory, it’s not an easy read, at least at times, like more journalistic works. Still, for some of the El Centro readers this may be viewed in a positive manner rather than as a detraction.

In summation, Dr. Ferreira’s Criminal Non-State Actors: Historical Developments and Impacts in South America advocates for a vital conceptual separation of CNSAs from traditional categorizations such as VNSAs. Through a robust framework and detailed case studies, Ferreira explains how CNSAs use governance capacity, territorial control, and networks of trust to consolidate power and influence across regional and transnational spheres—all while prioritizing material gains.

Case studies of the CV and PCC illustrate how illicit substance markets have helped fuel the rise of select CNSAs, transforming local prison gangs into global criminal actors extending to Europe, West Africa, and Asia. The monograph offers accessible but detailed language on CNSAs, making it an important resource for professionals and scholars seeking to understand the erosion of state sovereignty, the transnationalization of organized crime, and conditions that allow for the emergence of CNSAs (also known as criminal armed groups or CAGs).

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