Criminal Violence in Latin America

Albarracín, Juan Diego Hernández; Barnes, Nicholas M.

doi:10.25222/larr.975

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…The first focuses on the lack of consensus on whether violence derived from drug-trafficking organizations is a (new) civil war or not. Despite public policy and international discourse being built around the slogan "War on Drugs" (Arias, 2017;Armenta & Jelsma, 2015;Sandvik & Hoelscher, 2017) or academics using terms as "drug wars" (Albarracín & Barnes, 2020;Kalyvas, 2015;Lessing, 2018;Mackey & López, 2009) there is not a common ground on the acerbity of classifying this type of violence as a kind of war, even if it is accompanied with a complement such as new civil war (Kaldor, 2001), postmodern civil war (Giraldo, 2009), or by a substitute, like conflict, armed-conflict, or cartel-state conflict as described by Lessing (2018).…”

Section: Colombia Drug-trafficking and Peacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study of the phenomenon as a potentially "new" way of civil war has received different names in the literature over recent years, such as drug wars (Kalyvas, 2015), cartel-state conflicts (Lessing, 2018), or non-conventional violence (Sandvik & Hoelscher, 2017). It has been addressed from diverse disciplines and angles (Albarracín & Barnes, 2020;Kalyvas, 2015, pp. 1-2), but there is no consensus on how to refer to the violence derived from it; in other words, to the victims of the armed factions that work for -or are part of-cartels.…”

Section: Drug-trafficking Derived Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…An important aspect on why the description of organized crime group fails to fully comprehend DTOs is that many criminal groups take analogous form toward the state (Albarracín & Barnes, 2020). For example, insurgent and paramilitaries groups in Colombia became active in illicit markets to finance their squads as well as to fund their political projects (Arias, 2017;Durán-Martínez, 2018).…”

Section: Drug-trafficking Derived Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another case is the one from El Salvador, where existing street gangs were incorporated in the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) during the country's civil war, where those same groups were later absorbed by the maras after the peace agreement (Wolf, 2017). The Zeta's in Mexico, which were originally Mexican and Guatemalan special force units created to fight counterinsurgency, later became the armed faction of the Gulf cartel (Albarracín & Barnes, 2020;Correa-Cabrera, 2017). Despite the group's origins, their warfare familiarity becomes tempting for cartels not only because of their expertise with weapons but also because of the context of Latin American countries with relatively young democracies, following an existing violent legacy, and where it is not novel to find legality and illegality closely intertwined with corruption.…”

Section: Drug-trafficking Derived Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…From another perspective, if the state and organized crime do not cooperate, then indiscriminate violence increases (Albarracín & Barnes, 2020), but if they do work together, then democracy is hit by corruption and political power if seized by illegal armed groups that will continue to affect civilians. One thing these two ways have in common is the lack of the monopoly of violence from the state, which makes it especially difficult to find an alternative focused on protecting people and communities, while a weak democracy is incapable of fully guaranteeing the rule of law.…”

Section: Exploring Alternatives To Overcome Dtos Derived Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Drug-Trafficking in Colombia: The New Civil War Against Democracy and Peacebuilding

Espejo

2021

co-herencia

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Drug-trafficking in Colombia has been a widely researched phenomenon, especially now, as the country undergoes a transition process with its older guerrilla. Now more than ever it is fundamental to examine how drug-trafficking organizations violent activities affect the consolidation of peace. This article considers different approaches to study violence derived from drug-trafficking, in order to advance towards the objectives of transitional justice. For that matter, this work is based on the idea that drug-trafficking directly generates and reproduces violence which is fueled by the structural violence present in the Colombian context. My thesis is that this phenomenon deters non-repetition guarantees and weakens democracy, which is why there will be three main arguments presented that will revolve around the lack of consensus and the implications of considering drug wars as civil wars, how decisions related to the conceptual apprehension limit the competence of international humanitarian law, and the need for holistic strategies capable of facing drug-trafficking’s political and violent power. Later, alternatives will be explored around the possibilities that each argument offers, as well as which aspects could contribute to a more appropriate approach to combat drug-trafficking. Lastly, I will defend why implementing bottom-up oriented actions can advance towards transitional justice’s intermediate and final objectives, as it is the only alternative that escapes fatalist, utopian or interventionist scenarios.

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