Narcotrafficking

This paper aims to fill some of the glaring gaps in the history of Mexico’s pre-cartel drug trade by viewing it as part of an international system connecting European and Latin suppliers with North American organized crime syndicates. It opens with a brief review of Mexico’s early development as a supplier of both narcotics and alcohol following the passage of prohibition laws in the United States. It examines the role of major U.S. organized figures, and their prominent “legitimate” business partners in businesses such as racing, gambling, and the cross-border narcotics trade. After World War II, U.S. crime organizations shifted their source of supply from Mexico to Europe, where more advanced chemists converted Turkish opium and morphine base into prized white heroin. However, almost from the start, French Corsican and Sicilian traffickers used Mexico as a transit country to evade U.S. Customs and narcotics agents at East Coast ports and the Canadian border. Mexico thus became deeply integrated into a global drug supply chain, at the same time “modernizing” leaders such as President Alemán were opening Mexico up to international trade and capital. Ultimately, as we will see, Miguel Félix Gallardo and the "Guadalajara cartel" inherited the priceless business and political connections of this international network, allowing them to enjoy a meteoric rise with protection from the Mexican state.

Combinando enfoques filosóficos, semióticos y hermenéuticos, en el presente libro se realiza un análisis de diversas producciones audiovisuales que tienen como temática central al narcotráfico. Se trata de un escrito colectivo donde las distintas voces y perspectivas se amalgaman en una sola preocupación: pensar el fenómeno narco. En la introducción se abordan diversos aspectos metodológicos, semióticos y ontológicos presupuestos en el análisis de los discursos audiovisuales, se realiza un breve repaso del contexto en el que tiene lugar el narcotráfico y del impacto en la cultura mexicana del narcorrido. En estas piezas musicales ya están presentes la mayoría de los elementos que conformaran los estereotipos de la narcocultura. En el primer capítulo se presenta una contraposición entre la manera de narrar la vida de Pablo Escobar en NARCOS y en PABLO ESCOBAR, EL PATRÓN DEL MAL, que invita a repensar los intereses de quienes crean y distribuyen estas producciones audiovisuales. En el segundo capítulo, a propósito de BREAKING BAD, se analizan los fundamentos de lo legal y su necesidad de encaminar a los hombres hacia la justicia y la libertad. En el tercer capítulo se aborda la frágil y volátil contención que aportan el dinero, el poder y los símbolos del narcotráfico en EL CARTEL DE LOS SAPOS y SICARIO. Finalmente, en el cuarto capítulo, el filme PAULETTE es ocasión para pensar tanto las adicciones en una sociedad de consumo exacerbado como las arbitrariedades e inconsistencias de las políticas sobre drogas y demás delitos asociados con el narcotráfico.

“Who is in charge of Sinaloa?” This is a question about  power relationships, exclusively addressing the young people of Los Mochis, Culiacán, and Mazatlán. Of the 350 participants, aged 15 to 25, 75% replied that they believe the drug traffickers are the ones in charge of Sinaloa, while just 18% referred to politicians, leaving business people, journalists, and the police very far down on the scale of power. Of those same young people, 98% were convinced that the most influential politicians of Sinaloa have made agreements with the drug traffickers, while 86% firmly believed that, in order for a drug trafficker to be successful, they must reach agreements with politicians. What is being referred to here is a brutal symbiosis, with degrees of mutual protection at high levels.

SANTIAGO JUAN-NAVARRO studies Arturo Perez Reverte’s best-selling novel La Reina del Sur (2002) as a paradigmatic example of the globalized trends in the promotion and distribution of narco-literature. From northwestern Mexico to southern Spain and Morocco, the novel’s is a Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Continental story of a female drug trafficker who inserts herself into larger structures of power to eventually dominate over most of her male criminal competitors. Juan-Navarro’s reading focuses on Perez Reverte’s depiction of frontiers at multiple levels (geographical, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, literary, and sexual) within the context of two of the most pervasive examples of globalization: drug/human trafficking and migratory movements. At first sight, the novel seems to transgress these frontiers and to denounce the most abject aspects of globalization, but, as Juan-Navarro argues, La Reina del Sur is simply a hollow tale that fails to denounce (and, in fact, embrace) neoliberal modes of circulation of capital and humans. The novel’s adaptation in one of the most successful, albeit technically deficient, narco TV series, in which moral critique is blatantly absent, only attest to the limitations of narco-novels to adopt a critical stance in the debate on criminality and globalization.

While investigating the beginnings of Colombia's involvement in drug-trafficking, historian and economist Eduardo Sáenz Rovner discovered, in the United States National Archives and elsewhere, a wealth of hitherto unused documents that led him to very different shores. The result of this investigative detour is a densely packed and highly readable book on the Cuban role in the narcotics trade between the 1920s and the early days of the Revolution. Populated with colorful actors-not limited to Cuba's corrupt officialdom, but including Chinese opium dealers, Corsican smugglers, well-heeled Colombian traffickers, prominent North American Mafiosi, and their "legendary", if rather "obsessive", antagonist, the chief of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger (p. 26)-this account aims not just at a small circle of academics interested in the intricacies of narcoeconomics, but at a larger audience. The shipments of marijuana, opium, heroin, and cocaine that found their way into Cuba and from Cuba into the United States were, by today's standards, rather small. Measured in grams, pounds and kilograms, rather than in tons, they nevertheless triggered an increasingly irritated response from U.S. officials who viewed the island as one of the main culprits in the supply chain fueling addiction and loose morals in the United States. Anslinger and his colleagues at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) tried their best in pressuring Cuban governments into rigid drug enforcement policies, but to little avail. The Cuban police and judiciary, where they did become active, limited themselves to harassing the poor and marginalized, such as prostitutes consuming marijuana, Chinese immigrants addicted to opium and minor drug dealers, rather than trying to get hold of the bigger fish (pp. 53-55, 94-97, and 196-197). The latter were comprised, as Sáenz Rovner shows, of well-to-do businessmen, often of immigrant stock, who had the contacts, capital, and know-how required for a successful engagement in international commodity trading (pp. 17-19). This picture changed dramatically after the Cuban Revolution. Highly repressive policies put an end to drug trafficking, but this did little to endear Castro's regime to the United States. On the contrary, as Cuban-American relations became increasingly tense, the FBN soon turned to charge the revolutionary government with deliberately fostering the narcotics trade as a weapon to corrupt U.S. society (pp. 222-225).

Несмотря на отдельные успехи в борьбе с незаконной наркоторговлей, ситуация в Латинской Америке остается сложной и противоречивой, наркомания и незаконная наркоторговля в целом сохраняют свои позиции, что объясняет, как поиск новых путей противостояния наркомафии, так и настоятельную необходимость международного сотрудничества в этой важной области. Автор прослеживает изменения в подходах латиноамериканских правительств, к проблемам борьбы с незаконным оборотом наркотических средств и их прекурсоров в контексте острых социально-политических проблем региона.
Ключевые слова: Латинская Америка, наркотик, наркосиндикат, прекурсор, наркоторговля, наркополитика

Despite separate successes in combating drug-trafficking, the situation in Latin America remains difficult and inconsistent. The drug abuse and drug-trafficking as a whole keep the positions that explains, both search of new ways of counteraction to a drug mafia, and an imperative need of the international cooperation in this important area. The author traces changes in approaches of the Latin American governments to problems of struggle against illegal circulation of narcotics and their precursors in a context of sharp sociopolitical problems of the region.
Key Words: Latin America, drug, narcotic, drug ring, precursor, drug-trafficking, narcopolitics.

Una geopolítica del narcotráfico se centra en considerar el ejercicio del poder respecto al control de territorios, rutas y grupos humanos asociados. El narcotráfico moderno puede atribuirse principalmente a británicos, holandeses y franceses en Asia y África. Tanto con fines de lucro como para obtener influencia política sobre los países en aquella región del mundo. Desde la década de 1960 los Estados Unidos se suma a tal ejercicio, en cuanto sus consumidores demandan cocaína de Bolivia y Perú, como su gobierno reprime tal narcotráfico. El éxito es relativo pues los focos del negocio se desplazan temporalmente a países como Colombia. Igual si las rutas del narcotráfico se modifican según las circunstancias, junto con los focos de producción, tienden a mantener continuidad histórica. También el crimen organizado y las mafias se adaptan a las mismas circunstancias para controlar la producción, el tráfico y la rentabilidad del negocio. Ejercicio que afecta mucho más a los países débiles, subdesarrollados o recién creados. Por lo anterior, la ubicación geográfica de Colombia es circunstancial para el narcotráfico pues se deriva de esa dinámica internacional. Por lo mismo no debe considerarse una amenaza para el estado, sino contra la seguridad.

For several years, Mexico has replaced Colombia when one speaks about violence related to the drug trafficking. The multiplication of the massacres in the cities of North close to the border, and in particular in Ciudad Juárez, focused the attention of the medias and caused the concern not only of the international political milieu but also of the foreign investors. Between 2006 and 2010, the war launched by the government against the cartels would have made more than 28,000 deaths and does not seem to be able to be gained.

"When I Wear My Alligator Boots examines how the lives of dispossessed men and women are affected by the rise of narcotrafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. In particular, the book explores a crucial tension at the heart of the “war on drugs”: despite the violence and suffering brought on by drug cartels, for the rural poor in Mexico’s north, narcotrafficking offers one of the few paths to upward mobility and is a powerful source of cultural meanings and local prestige.

In the borderlands, traces of the drug trade are everywhere: from gang violence in cities to drug addiction in rural villages, from the vibrant folklore popularized in the narco-corridos of Norteña music to the icon of Jesús Malverde, the “patron saint” of narcos, tucked beneath the shirts of local people. In When I Wear My Alligator Boots, the author explores the everyday reality of the drug trade by living alongside its low-level workers, who live at the edges of the violence generated by the militarization of the war on drugs. Rather than telling the story of the powerful cartel leaders, the book focuses on the women who occasionally make their sandwiches, the low-level businessmen who launder their money, the addicts who consume their products, the mules who carry their money and drugs across borders, and the men and women who serve out prison sentences when their bosses' operations go awry."

​O objetivo do presente artigo é investigar a relação entre as políticas de drogas e a segurança na Bolívia de 1997 a 2013, período este que abrange os governos que vão de Hugo Banzer a Evo Morales. Para empreender esta tarefa, na primeira seção, abordaremos brevemente a trajetória histórica da luta antidrogas na Bolívia, a partir dos anos 1970, para compreender o processo de combate ao tráfico de drogas que culminou no Plano Dignidad, lançado em 1998, durante o governo Banzer. Na segunda seção, discorreremos sobre o Plan Dignidad, a política de “coca cero”, as estratégias antidrogas e o emprego das forças armadas no decurso dos governos bolivianos de Banzer a Sánchez de Lozada para enfrentar diretamente os cultivos ilícitos de coca e combater o tráfico de drogas. Na última seção, examinaremos as mudanças nas políticas de drogas e no controle dos cultivos ilícitos durante os dois primeiros mandatos do governo de Evo Morales. Para tanto, discutiremos a Estrategia de Lucha contra el Narcotráfico y Revalorización de la Hoja de Coca 2007­2010 e a Diplomacia de los Pueblos para compreender a mudança na postura do governo boliviano no que tange à questão das drogas no plano nacional e internacional, principalmente no que se refere à descriminalização da folha de coca e o seu cultivo.

Uyuşturucu kaçakçılığı hem toplum sağlığını hem de güvenliği tehdit eden bir unsur olduğundan devletlerin yıllardır mücadele ettiği uluslararası bir problemdir. Devletlerin mücadelesi karşısında bu illegal faaliyeti yürütenler yeni yollar bulmayı başarmıştır. Batı Afrika’nın küresel uyuşturucu kaçakçılığı ağlarının öneminin artması da bu çerçevede ele alınabilir. Batı Afrika’da büyüyen bir diğer tehdit ise terördür. Bilhassa Cezayir, Libya ve Mali’deki iç savaşların ardından etkisini artıran terör örgütlerinin mali kaynaklarını nasıl elde ettiği önemli bir sorundur. Bu bağlamda iki illegal faaliyet, terör ve kaçakçılık, arasında simbiyotik bir ilişkinin var olduğu iddia edilmektedir.

Analiz kapsamında iki tehdit arasında nasıl bir bağ olduğunu ortaya koymak için Batı Afrika’nın Sahra-Sahil  bölgesinde uyuşturucu gibi illegal ürünlerin kaçakçılığından evvel oluşturulmuş ticaret yollarının kaçakçılığa nasıl açıldığı incelenecektir. Daha sonra Sahra bölgesinde etkin olan Mağrip Kaidesi ve kolları üzerinden terör örgütlerinin ortaya çıkışı ve gelişmesi anlaşılmaya çalışılacaktır. Son olarak örgütün üyeleri ve bölgenin dinamikleri dikkate alınarak iki tehdit arasındaki ilişkinin niteliği analiz edilecektir.

The US Consulate in Guadalajara, Jalisco was attacked with two grenades in the hours before Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (ALMO) was sworn in as Mexico’s new president. The attack, which occurred around 2300 hours on Friday, 30 November 2018, involved two grenades thrown at the consulate. While the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG)—has been mentioned as a possible suspect group in the attack—which yielded no injuries the CJNG denies involvement.

El presente trabajo se propone analizar la evolución en la relación que existe entre las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas (FARC) y el narcotráfico desde la década de 1960 hasta la actualidad.
Para ello, se explica cómo la completa oposición que, en 1960, sostenía el grupo guerrillero frente al desarrollo de esta actividad fue mutando a través del tiempo, comenzando con la imposición de “gramajes” a los productores cocaleros de las zonas bajo control guerrillero, hasta las actividades ilícitas que estos grupos realizan hoy en día. A fin de conseguir dicho objetivo, este trabajo establece una conexión entre la evolución de la estructura organizativa de las FARC y de su discurso político-ideológico, que empezó con el movimiento guerrillero campesino de raigambre comunista que tuvo lugar en Marketalia, con las diferentes formas de financiamiento que ha ido adoptando en su existencia, poniendo especial atención en las relaciones a actividades ligadas al narcotráfico. A su vez, se esboza un paneo de la opinión e intervención internacional sobre el tema, en especial, sobre la discusión entre el calificativo “grupo terrorista” sostenido por Estados Unidos versus el de “grupo beligerante” propuesto por Venezuela y, sobre esta base, las diferentes posturas y acciones que han emprendido dichos países para con estos grupos insurgentes, así como la asociación o  no que han establecido entre ellos y el narcotráfico.

; también conocido como El Patrón, fue uno de los mayores narcotraficantes de Colombia. Nació el uno de diciembre de mil novecientos cuarenta y nueve (1949), en Rionegro, un pequeño pueblo a menos de cuarenta kilómetros de Medellín. Se crió en el ceno de una familia humilde religiosa. Es hijo de Abel Escobar, campesino y de Hermilda de los Dolores Gaviria, una maestra rural y madre dedicada. Pablo Escobar era el tercero de siete hermanos. Desde pequeño ya mostraba dotes de mando y ganas de obtener dinero propio. Trabajó en diversos oficios, lavando coches, trabajando en los mercados, como criador de vacas. De adolescente se asoció con su primo Gustavo Gaviria, que más tarde se convertiría en su mano derecha para iniciarse en la carrera delictiva con la compra de objetos robados y el contrabando a pequeña escala. Con veintidós años comienza a hacerse un nombre en Medellín y con el inicio de la exportación masiva de cocaína a Estados Unidos, Pablo, a la sombra del contrabandista Alfredo Gómez López; El Padrino, empezó a trabajar primero como intermediario y más tarde llevando él mismo las partidas de droga a Norteamérica. Su uso indiscriminado de la violencia y su capacidad de mantenerse sereno, pronto le hizo subir escalones en el mundo de la droga. En mil novecientos setenta y seis (1976), decide ampliar el negocio construyendo sus propios laboratorios de procesamiento de cocaína. Ese mismo año se forma el cartel de Medellín, con Pablo Escobar como jefe. Una organización delictiva que abarcaba los tres escalones del mundo de la droga, la producción, el transporte y la venta. A partir de este momento comienza un periodo imparable, en el que llega a controlar el ochenta por ciento del tráfico de drogas que entran a Estados Unidos y con veintinueve años ya es un hombre rico. Escobar dio rienda suelta a una vida de excesos. Uno de sus primeros actos de derroche fue la compra de siete mil cuatrocientos acres (cerca de 3000 hectáreas) en un pueblo cerca de Medellín por unos cincuenta millones de Euros con el fin de construir una casa para su familia, La Hacienda Nápoles, una mansión totalmente equipada, llena de lujos en la que llegó a tener un zoológico. Escobar era un amante de los automóviles, de joven fue corredor de autos y participó en varios campeonatos. A los veinticinco años se había casado con Victoria Eugenia Henao Vallejo, alias La Tata, con la que tuvo dos hijos; Juan Pablo y Manuela. manuelverdugo.com

Women's involvement in drug trafficking in recent years has expanded dramatically. Yet there are few studies of female drug smugglers, the causes of female involvement in smuggling, and the impact of smuggling on women's lives specifically. In this article, I provide in-depth ethnographic interviews and observations of a broad spectrum of female drug smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico border. Moving beyond stereotypes, I examine how drug trafficking affects women's relationships with men and their position in society.

Many analysts and policy makers agree that the withdrawal of the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces and formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will exacerbate the political, social, ethnic and religious fault lines in Afghanistan and may lead to civil war and chaos in Afghanistan reminiscent of the 1990s. This will also exacerbate non-traditional security threats such as Islamic fundamentalist and transnational terrorism, drugs/narcotics trade and human migration/refugee crisis in the neighbouring countries and beyond. This
article argues that tackling the non-traditional security threats facing the region and beyond is a public good. It analyses the tackling of non-traditional security threats –terrorism, narcotics trade and human migration/refugee inflow –through the prism of collective action problem that is joint production of a good or joint action to tackle the problem. It illustrates that difference in threat perception, clash/conflict of interests and geopolitical rivalries will hinder cooperation and intelligence sharing, and lead to uncoordinated action and free riding. It will also create problems of leadership and affect the choice and efficacy of the organisation/institution to tackle the threats. The article highlights that in the absence of collective action, it will be extremely difficult

This book provides the first comprehensive study of narco cinema, a cross-border exploitation cinema that, for over forty years, has been instrumental in shaping narco-culture in Mexico and the US borderlands. Identifying classics in its mammoth catalogue and analyzing select films at length, Rashotte outlines the genre's history and aesthetic criteria. He approaches its history as an alternative to mainstream representation of the drug war and considers how its vernacular aesthetic speaks to the anxieties and desires of Latina/o audiences by celebrating regional cultures while exploring the dynamics of global transition. Despite recent federal prohibitions, narco cinema endures as a popular folk art because it reflects distinctively the experiences of those uprooted by the forces of globalization and critiques those forces in ways mainstream cinema has failed.

El gobierno estadounidense ha declarado una guerra contra las drogas que lleva aproximadamente medio siglo y obedece a un asunto de seguridad nacional, más que de salud pública. En este tiempo, han sido extraditados y apresados importantes narcotraficantes latinoamericanos, sin embargo, muy pocos ciudadanos estadounidenses se han visto involucrados públicamente en la industria, lo que establece una dicotomía entre criminales latinos y víctimas norteamericanas. La narcoliteratura entrega su propia visión histórica de esta guerra, cuestionando el hecho de que los estadounidenses no sean parte del negocio. Contrario al discurso oficial, los escritores Don Winslow, Armando Ayala Anguiano y Francisco Haghenbeck proponen que Estados Unidos ha utilizado la guerra contra las drogas a favor de sus propios intereses: con el fin de proteger las ganancias de sus altos empresarios, para apropiarse del negocio más lucrativo del mundo y para encubrir sus luchas políticas en contra del comunismo. Así, los escritores de la narcoliteratura estarían denunciando que Estados Unidos es parte fundamental de la red de narcotráfico internacional que busca combatir.

Medellin was particularly affected by the war that began more than fifty years ago, and the ghost of its infamous cartel still haunts Colombia's second largest city. However, it is now often singled out as a transformed city, and tourism is rapidly developing. In this context, local guides are now leading tourists in the footsteps of the notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar. These tours usually include sites in Medellin related to Escobar, such as his grave or some of his former residences, one of which has been transformed into an informal museum by his brother, Roberto Escobar, who was also the bookkeeper for the Medellin cartel. Although the memory of Pablo Escobar is certainly part of Colombian history, these tours are nevertheless controversial, especially for local authorities who are trying to promote the image of a city recovering from its dark age of violence. This article explores the touristification of Medellin's narco-related past, taking a close look at the diverse stakeholders involved and the different narratives they produce. Focusing on so-called narco-tours or Pablo tours, it will look at the way they contribute to shaping the notion of " the familiar " and " the strange, " which constitute the central theme of this special issue. Despite promising prospects for peace, Colombia is still one of the world's main actors in the production of cocaine and remains a key symbol of narco-business. Thanks to the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar—founder of the Medellin cartel—the second-largest city in the country is closely associated with what is often referred to in the United States as the War on Drugs. Pablo Escobar has also inspired many television and cinema productions in the past decade, as well as the growing tourism sector of Medellin, where his infamous memory is now center stage. In the past few years, despite ongoing armed conflict between the government, crime syndicates, paramilitary groups, and leftist rebels, several initiatives relating to the war, such as memorials, museums, or artistic projects, appeared in different parts of the country. Tourism entrepreneurs are also part of the process, offering historical tours for the emerging tourism market related to the violence that plagued and still affects Colombia. Here again, Medellin is center stage, since many tour guides describe how the city moved from " the most violent to most innovative in the world " (Naef 2016a). In this context, many of them are also taking tourists to follow the footsteps of the drug lord Pablo Escobar.

RESUMO: Com a saída dos militares do centro do governo e o fim da guerra fria ganha corpo um debate sobre o papel das Forças Armadas no Brasil contemporâneo. Nessa direção, o presente trabalho começa abordando o que se convencionou chamar de crise de identidade militar como uma porta de entrada à análise da construção de novas missões de ordem e segurança internas pela instituição militar no panorama pós-guerra fria. Ao lado disso, com uma agenda específica para as Forças Armadas latino-americanas, os EUA passaram a propugnar e pressionar o envolvimento dos militares em tarefas policiais rotineiras em detrimento da clássica função de defesa externa. Dentro desse quadro mais amplo, a "Operação Rio" foi utilizada como importante teste crítico às forças sociais interessadas na questão da participação das FFAA em missões de tipo policial. Efetivamente, ela viria a abrir as portas a uma participação mais ativa dos militares nas mais distintas missões ligadas à temática interna durante o primeiro governo Fernando Henrique Cardoso, com a definição prática de uma missão militar de ordem interna e o início da superação da crise de identidade militar então existente. Tal como está configurada hoje, a missão militar acha-se assentada em bases precárias, sendo o principal traço a destacar o da manutenção da vocação interna, sobretudo por intermédio do Exército.

Published in 'South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2017' (Corp Ed) London, Routledge (2016)

Historically, the USA has dictated the terms of the ‘war on drugs’, and has used its political and economic might to crush any debate on alternatives. However, over the past 10 years Latin American governments and civil society organizations have pushed back against prohibitionist drug policies. A regional debate has emerged, focused on the failure of present policies to achieve their desired objectives and the high cost of implementing supply reduction efforts, in terms of drugs- fuelled violence, corruption and institutional instability.
This essay begins by outlining the characteristics of the global cocaine market. It then examines some of the objectives, methods and consequences of the US-designed and -funded ‘war on drugs’ in Latin America and the Caribbean. The regional debate in Latin America is then introduced—with a focus on the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs of April 2016. Finally, localized steps towards drug policy reform are outlined.

Am 15. April 2020 wurde der türkische Mafiaboss Alaettin (auch Alaattin) Çakıcı im Zuge der Massnahmen gegen die Corona Pandemie, mit der die überfüllten Gefängnisse entlastet werden sollen, aus der Haft entlassen. Die Entlassung gewöhnlicher Krimineller war von der türkischen Öffentlichkeit erwartet worden, ebenso wie man sich bereits damit abgefunden hat, dass politische Gefangene-Oppositionspolitiker, Intellektuelle, Künstler-nicht in den Genuß dieser Amnestie kommen werden.

The War on Drugs, launched by the United States in the 1970s and subsequently waged with the collaboration of governments throughout Latin America, has helped to consolidate the transnational drug trade, which according to official sources now earns more than US$400 billion in annual profits worldwide. By the 1980s, when the television series Miami Vice first brought a glossy and glamorized version of the drug war to the global public, Latin American drug traffickers had developed complex distribution routes and smuggling methods to satisfy the great demand for cocaine, marijuana, and heroin in the United States and Europe. Since the capitalist crisis of the 1980s and the implementation of neoliberal policies in the past two decades, drug trafficking has become the most important illegal global industry and a source of political corruption, judicial impunity, and violence throughout Latin America. Without denying the contested nature of the world of the narco and its impact, here we theorize narcoscapes as both real and fictional, true and "imagined." We attempt to go beyond the drug war to understand how real communities and individuals are rethinking the effect of drugs and the violence generated by the "war" in the context of globalization.

Despite existing in practice, as well as in other social science and policy literature, narcotourism has not appeared in tourism journals, and its full scope remains unarticulated. This paper aims to introduce narcotourism to a broad audience of tourism scholars, provide its conceptual foundations, and guide subsequent tourism scholarship on this topic. Looking beyond writings that have previously focused on the consumption of drugs during travel and tourism experiences, this paper presents a conceptual framework distinguishing six different tourism-related activities encompassed by the term narcotourism: consumption-oriented narcotourism, production-oriented narcotourism, acquisition-oriented narcotourism, dark heritage narcotourism, narcotrafficker tourism, and emulatory narcotourism. This framework describes the hallmark characteristics of each form of narcotourism, identifies linkages between these forms of narcotourism and other areas of tourism scholarship, and concludes by suggesting a future research agenda for narcotourism. Given a long history of association between tourism activities and drug consumption, shifting legal dynamics regarding drug use, insights emerging from related disciplines, and narcotourism's coexistence alongside myriad forms of tourism already explored by tourism scholars, this paper provides a timely foundation for future research on narcotourism within tourism studies.

The first-phase cartel form originated in Colombia during the 1980's in response to the increasing demand for cocaine in the United States. This type of cartel, characterized by the Medellin model, realized economies of scale not known to the individual cocaine entrepreneurs of the mid-1970's. This early cartel was an aggressive competitor to the Westphalian state because of its propensity for extreme violence, uncompromising nature, and willingness to directly challenge the authority of the state. The Medellin model was hierarchical and revolved around its kingpin, Pablo Escobar. The second phase of the cartel form also originally developed in Colombia in the city of Cali. Unlike its Medellin counterpart, the Cali group, which emerged in the early 1980's, was a shadowy organization devoid of an actual kingpin. Its organization was more distributed and network-like, rather than traditionally hierarchical. Many of its characteristics and activities were stealth-masked and dispersed, thereby providing many operational capabilities not possessed by the first-phase cartel form. Third-phase cartels, if and when they emerge, have the potential to pose an even more significant challenge to the modern nation-state and its institutions. A third-phase cartel would result from unremitting corruption and co-option of state institutions. Although this "criminal state successor" has yet to emerge, warning signs of its eventual arrival are present in many States worldwide. Such an entity would challenge our current institutions and, at least during a transitional period, could be expected to exploit corruption, co-option, terrorism, crime, and violence toward its ends.

Diez reconocidos investigadores internacionales se reúnen en este libro para reflexionar acerca de este fenómeno transnacional que se ha dado en llamar narcocultura. Diferentes latitudes geográficas e investigativas, así como diferentes registros interdisciplinarios -que van desde la narcoliteratura, pasado por el narcocorrido y el cine hollywoodense, hasta las narcoseries- se dan cita en esta compilación de ensayos para dar cuenta de una realidad cultural compleja y quizás inasible. En este texto no hay soluciones sino muchas preguntas, no hay certidumbres sino sólo divagaciones, de y entre académicos, que buscan contribuir a la discusión contingente respecto del papel de los actores culturales en el problema de la violencia y el narcotráfico. Un libro que marca un precedente en los estudios literarios contemporáneos, por la calidad de los autores y sus textos, y por abordar el vínculo de las expresiones culturales con el narcotráfico. Miradas internacionales e interdisciplinares que lo harán un referente para futuros trabajos de investigación.

En el marco de la temática de las Segundas Jornadas de Derechos Humanos, organizadas en ocasión de los 20 años de la Carta Democrática Interamericana, se propone una perspectiva ética en el ejercicio de la función gubernamental dirigida a preservar los valores implícitos en la idea democrática y la efectiva vigencia de los derechos humanos. Asimismo, se explica el impacto destructivo de la corrupción en la efectividad de la dogmática de derechos humanos en el Caso Venezuela, siguiendo la orientación de realizar un enfoque sobre el país de origen del conferencista. En este escenario particular, se manifiesta la calificación de “Estado Fallido” y se plantea la existencia de una relación directa entre un pésimo gobierno ejecutor de políticas económicas erradas y la proliferación de actos de corrupción. De manera que se producen incumplimientos del Estado en su carga obligacional de bienestar y en el resguardo de las necesidades básicas de la población, lo que ha impulsado la emigración de millones de personas y ha convertido a Venezuela en un riesgo para la Región al manifestarse en la más aguda crisis migratoria después de Siria. Esta situación se combina con una crisis humanitaria compleja y la existencia de un Estado Forajido en el que se ejerce el poder bajo un anómico y sistemático desconocimiento de la constitucionalidad y de la legalidad, lo que ha derivado en la depredación de los recursos de la Nación, un daño sistemático al ambiente, la lesión a la integridad del territorio y la claudicación de la soberanía ante la delincuencia transnacional que determina el accionar del Estado Forajido.

Resumen: el artículo expone un análisis de contenido sobre las representaciones incluidas en la narcoserie Narcos: México, un documental dramatizado que expone el origen del narcotráfico actual. Se identificaron tres grandes representaciones: el tráfico de drogas como empresa ilegal, las pugnas por el poder y la riqueza, y la imbricación de la vida y la muerte. Se concluyó que los creadores tratan de exponer la complicidad del gobierno en la consolidación del crimen organizado en México, y justificar una mayor injerencia del gobierno norteamericano en las políticas nacionales contra el narcotráfico; para ello, recurren a la dramatización a fin de abordar estos temas mediante la ficción y lograr mayores audiencias. Artículo de América Tonantzin Becerra Romero

Las relaciones se han visto afectadas por la presencia transnacional de los estupefacientes y las estrategias de su combate. El narcotráfico se ha expandido no sola territorialmente, sinotabién en cuanto al número de crímenes y se a vuelto el neocio ilegal más atractivo a nivel mundial. El poderque han adquirido los cárteles de la droga les ha permitido constituirse en centros de poder paralelos. Se vislumbran cambios en los circuitos productivos y comerciales de los diferentes tipos de drogas y asimismo en el blanqueo de los beneficios. Las dificultados de controlar y atajar las redes internacionales del narcotráfico han dado origen a debates acerca de la necesidad de reenfocar las políticas de drogas y las posibilidades de su regulación. El presente volumen recoge estas deliberaciones con aportaciones de analistas de América Latina y EE.UU.

Bolivia integra, junto con Colombia y Perú, el reducido grupo de países en los cuales se produce la cocaína que se consume en todo el planeta. La elaboración local de ese estupefaciente se sustenta básicamente en las plantaciones de coca situadas en las regiones de los Yungas y el Chapare, aunque también se nutre de hojas y pasta base de origen peruano.
Sin embargo, la clave de la importancia boliviana en esta actividad criminal radica más en la ubicación del país y las crecientes dificultades para controlar de manera efectiva las fronteras, que exhiben un alto grado de porosidad. Estos elementos interactúan para constituir al país en una pieza clave en el trasiego de cocaína a las naciones vecinas, sea para abastecer a la demanda doméstica o para su reenvío a mercados de consumo en ultramar. Las modalidades de tráfico son múltiples y complejas, e involucran a organizaciones criminales exógenas que interactúan con grupos autóctonos.

For over 100 years, the state of Sinaloa has been characterized by the presence of drug related activities. Besides becoming part of the everyday landscape, this prolonged relationship between Sinaloa and drug trafficking has resulted in the development of particular symbolic and cultural bond between drug trafficking and the people of Sinaloa, that can be evidenced through the way this activity is understood and the stance that`s assumed towards it. The present study explored the sinaloenses`s collective memory of drug trafficking in an attempt to learn how the existence of drug trafficking in Sinaloa is explained and justified, as well as the social practices and stances that are assumed regarding this activity and its agents. To this end a mixed 4-study methodological design was proposed: 1) History of drug trafficking; 2) Memory-makers’ collective memory of drug trafficking, 3) Memory-consumers` collective memory of drug trafficking; and 4) Psychosociological proximity to drug trafficking. The participants of the study were divided amongst two classes: experts (historians, journalists, novelists, drug traffickers and drug traffickers` family) and lay people (divided according to generational cohort: youth and adults). In general terms, the results showed that certain elements are lost from one register to another, thus showing that collective memory and history are not the same thing; thus showing social oblivion processes parallel to collective memory. In regards to the stance, youths expressed higher levels of psychosociological proximity to drug trafficking than the adults; this implies higher levels of acceptance to this activity and its agents. Finally the relationship between collective memory and psychosociological proximity are explored, as well as possible future research alternatives.

De la reseña del prof. Juan Gutiérrez Cuadrado, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid:

"Maja Zawierzeniec utiliza <<voces sordas>> con un significado polisémico. En un principio, con voces sordas se refiere a los libros académicos que no llegan al público y duermen en las bibliotecas especializadas, incapaces de traspasar la barrera de especialidad. Pero también y, sobre todo, con voces sordas se refiere <<a los silenciados y los marginados>>(...) Pretende devolver la voz <<a los intelectuales, artistas, periodistas, educadores conscientes, en fin – a quienes dedican sus vidas a luchar en contra de la maldad, la injusticia, la ignorancia y la superficialidad, pero rara vez son escuchados.>> (...)
La autora respeta las convenciones académicas, pero no utiliza una voz neutra e impersonal propia de la especialidad; prefiere mostrarse abiertamente ante los lectores. En cierta medida, por tanto, deja de lado la máscara académica, más confortable, y confiesa las dificultades de su implicación personal en la investigación (…) Para desistir deliberadamente de buscar una neutralidad (...), la autora se ha servido de dos decisiones metodológicas capitales. En primer lugar, situarse en la perspectiva posmodernista de los estudios culturales y asediar su materia desde las diferentes ópticas de las distintas disciplinas. Cree abiertamente (…) que la violencia y el arte se encuentran interconectados en una red de procesos políticos, culturales, económicos, sociales e históricos, donde el presente y el pasado se encuentran. Pero, por otro lado, es partidaria de la unidad de todas las artes, tal como defienden los humanistas: pintura, música y literatura se comunican en un nivel profundo, a pesar de las diferencias formales. (…) Reconoce que sus diferentes puntos de vista son múltiples, pero solo consiguen captar una realidad fragmentada. Por ello, confiesa que, en realidad, lo que ofrecerá será un relato, uno más entre los otros varios posibles."

This chapter synthesizes the asymmetrical violence on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border. It includes open violence in Mexico, and hidden violence in the United States. By violence I mean both direct physical violence, including mental health, and so-called structural violence (Galtung 1969). The latter term includes reduction of human capacity caused by broader societal conditions. For example, U.S. refusals of asylum-seekers make them wait in places where violent criminals victimize them; the violence is done by the U.S. government as well as the criminals in Mexico. As Slack et al. (2018: 85–87) point out, so-called U.S. border “security” policy actually makes
many migrants insecure, to deadly effect. Here I build on that insight. I propose that it occurs through processes of hiding of violence in the United States and displacement of violence into Mexico. Both sides are thus implicated in violence. A central argument at the core of my work (Heyman 2017) has been that at the U.S.–Mexico border, safety and wealth accumulate on the U.S. side, and poverty, risk, and insecurity on the Mexican, but they constitute one dynamic whole. This unifying pattern of uneven and combined development (Smith 1984) cuts across specific phenomena: money, drugs, guns, migration, etc.

El 90% de la cocaína que entra ilegalmente a los Estados Unidos tiene su origen en Colombia. De ese muy alto porcentaje el 94% es transportado por vía marítima, saliendo de las costas colombianas sobre el mar Caribe y el océano Pacífico. En su tránsito deja una estela de violencia y corrupción que debe ser neutralizada con estrategias novedosas y eficaces, como las puestas en práctica de manera exitosa por la Armada Nacional de Colombia durante los últimos 20 años.

No obstante, el reto de controlarla se hace cada vez mayor. Ingentes cantidades del alcaloide se producen como resultado del inusitado incremento en Colombia de los cultivos ilícitos de mata de coca, en zonas en las que antes habían sido erradicados. Así, las enormes cantidades de cocaína producidas –910 toneladas en 2016 (DEA, 2017)– buscan su salida a los mercados de destino en Norteamérica a través del medio natural para hacerlo, el narcotráfico por vía marítima.

En el presente capítulo se hace un análisis del tráfico ilícito de narcóticos que utiliza el mar como ruta principal, en el ánimo de aportar a una mayor comprensión de este delito y de ampliar las posibilidades de encontrar soluciones prontas y efectivas.