On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we look at how criminal organizations offer basic order and security in Latin America and how decades of authorities resorting to repressive strategies in order to address underlying social problems have provided fertile platforms for criminal shadow governments. 

Misguided state policies have shown that political questions have to change and there is now the need to rethink how to deal with the engines powering criminal governance in the region. We discuss how mass incarceration and repression strengthens the criminal groups it aims to constrain. 

We are joined by Benjamin Lessing, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of the forthcoming book: "Criminal Leviathans: How Gangs Govern from Behind Bars." 

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