Organized Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Completing the picture

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) is a leading provider of data on organized violence.

This project aims to improve data on Latin American and Caribbean, as the UCDP has not been able to code conflicts in the region to the same standard as the rest of the world.

The type of violence prevalent in the region is mainly related to drug cartels and gangs which operate under anonymity, and regular reporting of these conflict events is oftentimes scarce and unclear.

In a pilot study we have showed that it is possible to significantly improve the data through the use of local and specialized sources focusing on specific countries, regions within countries and specific actors.

We therefore propose to improve UCDP data by using the sources identified in the pilot study, and by similarly researching additional sources for other violence affected countries in the region.

The proposed additions will increase UCDP data’s comparability across regions and time periods, as well as make possible systematic analysis of the violence in Latin America and the Caribbean.