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This event is hybrid. To register for the online session, click here.
Speakers: Sandra Ley, Coordinator of the Security Research Program at México Evalúa; Hernán Flom, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Trinity College; José Miguel Cruz, Director of Research at the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University.
Moderated by Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez, PhD candidate in the Department of Government, Harvard University; Graduate Student Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Crime and security have emerged as dominant political issues across Latin America. Panelists will provide comparative perspectives on how concerns over crime are (re)shaping elections and democratic politics in the region, with a focus on Ecuador, El Salvador, and Mexico.
Sandra Ley is the Coordinator of the Security Research Program at México Evalúa, an independent think tank that provides evidence on the quality and effectiveness of public policies in Mexico. Previously, she developed a productive academic career as Associate Professor at the Political Studies Division at CIDE (2015-2023), with more than twenty publications in international peer-reviewed journals, focused on research on criminal violence in Mexico and its impact on political behavior. Together with Guillermo Trejo, professor at the University of Notre Dame, she coauthored of the book Votes, Drugs and Violence. The Political Logic of Criminal Wars in Mexico (published in English by Cambridge University Press, in 2020, and in Spanish, by Debate, in 2022), recognized as the Best Book of the Autocracy and Democracy section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 2021. Her academic articles have also been awarded by the AmericasBarometer, as well as by Comparative Political Studies and the Journal of Peace Research.
José Miguel Cruz is director of research at the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University. He is a fellow of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in public policy in Latin America from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the Central American University of El Salvador (UCA). Dr. Cruz was also the director of the Public Opinion University Institute at the UCA from 1993 to 2006 and has served as a consultant for many regional institutions and international cooperation agencies. Dr. Cruz is a researcher on issues of security, violence, youth gangs, political culture, and democratization, and has published more than 100 articles, chapters and academic reports, and books in English and Spanish.
Hernán Flom is a political scientist who researches organized crime, violence, and policing. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Trinity College. Flom’s work has been published in Comparative Politics, Governance, Latin American Politics and Society, and the Journal of Urban Affairs, among others. His book, The informal regulation of criminal markets in Latin America, has been published by Cambridge University Press (2022). He obtained his PhD in Political Science from UC Berkeley (2016). He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies of the University of Notre Dame and worked as a Coordinator for the National Ministry of Security of Argentina, and as a consultant on citizen security for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Peace in Our Cities, among others.
Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government. His research examines contemporary challenges to democratic institutions in Latin America, with a focus on Central America and Mexico. His dissertation explores the causes and consequences of efforts by criminal organizations to influence elections. He is a 2022-23 USIP and Minerva Peace and Security Scholar and a graduate of the University of Oxford and Harvard College. Manuel was born and raised in El Salvador.
Presented in collaboration with Weatherhead Institute for International Affairs.