Security & Strategic Review - November 2017 (ISSN 1741-4202)

An armed clash between rival criminal gangs in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, has laid bare the lack of effective firearms control and the authorities’ failure to combat growing levels of criminality. All of this has sparked a public debate about these issues, which has led many to revaluate their vision of Uruguay as being a peaceful and safe country, to one that has a growing criminality problem.