Fernando Iglesias is a member of Parliament in Argentina and the Director of the Campaign for a Latin American and Caribbean Criminal Court Against Transnational Organized Crime (COPLA). Pervasive organized crime in the region is a huge drag on social and economic development, has led to sky-high levels of violent crime, as the mafias that fuel drug trafficking, money laundering and bribery operate in many countries with impunity in a context of weak states and scant respect for the rule of law. COPLA could be an instrument to enforce the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, also called the Palermo Convention. Iglesias discusses why COPLA is needed, the challenges of establishing a court in a region where free and powerful mafias have often captured the politicians and other public institutions. What is at stake in a region that, over the past 2 decades, has had one of the weakest economic growth performances in the world and what role has organized crime played in this outcome?