- Political Scientist
- Criminologist
- Field Researcher
Jorge A.
Mantilla
PhD in Sociology, Law and Justice. Studying criminal governance, borderlands, organized violence, and the political economy of climate change across Latin America and beyond.
About me
Scholar. Practitioner. Field Researcher
I am a Colombian Political Scientist and Criminologist with a PhD in Sociology, Law and Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2025). My work is grounded in the conviction that understanding violence, crime, and governance requires going beyond theory — into the communities, borderlands, and ecosystems where these forces shape everyday life.
Over more than a decade of fieldwork across Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and the Amazon basin, I have studied how organized crime interacts with formal and informal institutions, how smuggling economies emerge at state margins, and how armed groups construct alternative orders in the absence — or harmful presence — of the state.
My research has been published in leading journals and supported by the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank, and major international NGOs. I have advised governments, peace processes, and multilateral organizations on conflict, security, and organized violence.
Currently, I lead research on organized crime and environmental impacts in the Amazon and direct health-tech innovation at Medical M&B in Bogotá — combining analytical depth with applied impact.
Research
Investigating Power, Crime, and Contested Territories
My research agenda spans three interconnected themes — each grounded in extensive fieldwork and committed to methodological pluralism, combining ethnography, elite interviews, and institutional analysis.
Criminal Governance & Borderlands
How organized crime groups develop state-like capacities, regulate social order, and co-produce governance in contested territories — with focus on the Colombia-Venezuela borderland.
Amazon: Slow Violence & Tipping Point
Investigating the political economy of environmental criminality in the Amazon — illegal mining, deforestation, and the systemic risks propelling the region toward ecological collapse.
Global Tech Order & Legitimacy
How geopolitical rivalries, democratic erosion, and climate change shape the emerging global tech order — examining war, human rights, and climate as arenas of technological legitimation.
Selected Publications
2025
From Conventional Insurgency to Binational Criminal Syndicate? ELN’s State Capture in the Colombia-Venezuela Borderland
Small Wars & Insurgencies, Vol. 36(4) — with Andreas E. Feldmann
2024
Post-insurgencies and Criminal Subcultures: The Influence of Colombian Organized Crime in Ecuador’s Armed Conflict
Small Wars Journal
2023
Why Cities Fail: The Urban Security Crisis in Ecuador
Journal of Strategic Security, Vol. 16(3) — with Carolina Andrade & María Fernanda Vallejo
2021
Criminal Governance in Latin America
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice — with Andreas E. Feldmann
2021
Street Urban Peace in Contested Informalities: The Hidden Face of Colombia’s War on Drugs
Journal of Illicit Economies and Development (LSE Press)
2021
Contested Borders: Organized Crime, Governance, and Bordering Practices in Colombia-Venezuela Borderlands
Trends in Organized Crime, 24(2) — with Viviana García Pinzón
Consulting
From Field Insight to Policy Impact
Grounded in over a decade of fieldwork and policy engagement, I advise governments, international organizations, and NGOs on conflict dynamics, organized crime, security policy, and environmental governance.
European Union / FCDS & Instituto Igarapé
Amazon Security Coordinator — Security, Conflict & Environment (2025)
European Institute of Peace (EIP)
Regional Advisor, Colombia & Venezuela (2024)
Pan American Development Foundation (PADF)
Extortion & Organized Crime Consultant, Ecuador (2023)
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Migration & Security Consultant (2021)
Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), Colombia
Director, Conflict & Organized Violence (2021–2023)
Bogotá Security Secretariat
Territorial Interventions Advisor (2014–2017)
Conflict Analysis
In-depth analysis of armed conflict dynamics, peace negotiations, and post-conflict transitions in Latin America.
Organized Crime Assessments
Fieldwork-based research on criminal governance, extortion markets, drug trafficking, and criminal group dynamics.
Environmental Security
Analysis of environmental crimes, illegal mining, deforestation, and wildlife trafficking as security threats in the Amazon.
Policy & Advocacy
Strategic communication and advocacy design for international, national, and local actors working in fragile environments.
Security Sector Reform
Technical support for citizen security policy, urban intervention protocols, and law enforcement reform processes.
Training & Lectures
Academic and practitioner training on criminology, political economy of crime, conflict resolution, and peace processes.
Media & Public Engagement
Translating Research into Public Debate
Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP)
Conflict and Organized Violence in Colombia
Regular technical and public policy documents on armed conflict dynamics, peace negotiations, and the Colombian Total Peace process.
2021 — 2023
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
Expert Profile: Criminal Governance in Latin America
Contributing analyst on organized crime, borderlands, and criminal governance in the GI-TOC network of global experts.
Ongoing
Policy Briefs & Reports
Ecuador: The Urban Security Crisis in Guayaquil
Detailed analysis of the rise of violence and organized crime in Ecuador's main port city — produced for the Pan American Development Foundation.
2023
Amazon Research Initiative
Environmental Crime as a Security Threat in the Amazon
Cross-border analysis of environmental crimes — illegal mining, deforestation — and their relationship to organized violence and the Amazon tipping point.
2025
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Teaching: Political Economy of Crime & Peace Processes
Courses on criminological theories, drugs and society, comparative criminal justice, and conflict resolution — across UIC, Universidad del Rosario, and UNAL.
2013 — Present
Let's Talk
Open to Collaboration, Consulting & Research
Whether you are a researcher, institution, journalist, or organization working on issues of conflict, security, crime, or environmental governance — I would be glad to hear from you.
Bogotá, Colombia — Available internationally