In Latin America and the Caribbean, private military security companies (PMSCs) as well as mercenaries have profited from various contexts of insecurity including armed conflicts, criminality, and humanitarian crises. Due to the fact that they are often armed, and the types of services that they provide (especially in the case of mercenaries), there are serious questions as to what this means for human, national, and regional security.  

Through new empirical research that extracts information from thousands of articles, this policy brief traces PMSCs as well as mercenary activities over more than four decades and provides an informative analysis of these actors. Its aim is to support LAC governments, multilateral organisations, and civil society in developing and strengthening regulation and oversight in order to reduce these security risks.