scholarly journals “Only Versace”: Knock-Offs, Ostentation, and Desire amid the Mexican War on Drugs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (29) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Isaac Vargas
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Mexican War ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Complex Landscape ◽  
Underground Economies

ince the war on drugs began in 2007, Mexico has accumulated more than 250,000 murders and 70,000 disappearances. A complex landscape of criminal organisations has been shaping the violent conditions in the country, accompanied by an imaginary that projects their presence in multiple forms. We can identify a dire example with the bodies found in mass graves that are still wearing their clothes, often designer knock-offs inspired by the wardrobes of drug lords. In this scenario, I argue that an overlap exists between two underground economies: drug trafficking and counterfeit clothing. To understand this relation and its connection to criminal power, my analysis focuses on one of the basic aspects of organised crime: governance, especially its symbolic vein as well as its interpretation and dissemination through media outlets. The names of my interlocutors have been changed in order to protect their security.

Part II UN Core Conventions on Transnational Organised Crime, 6 The Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1988 and the Global War on Drugs

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vogler Richard ◽  
Fouladvand Shahrzad
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Illicit Drugs ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Psychotropic Substances ◽  
Global War ◽  
Control Regime ◽  
Illicit Traffic ◽  
Narcotic Drugs

This chapter examines the origins of the global drug control regime that was established between 1961 and 1988, the cornerstone of which is the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1988 (the Trafficking Convention). It attempts to explain how the humanistic and philanthropic enterprise represented by the Trafficking Convention and supported by overwhelming international sentiment has become distorted by state policy and organised crime to become the source of wars, offending, disease, and loss of life on an unprecedented scale. It suggests that the unremittingly penal and prohibitive approach to the problem of illicit drugs represented by the Trafficking Convention has served only to magnify the criminality associated with drug trafficking and it concludes by considering the ways in which states have sought to escape from the Convention’s restrictions as well as investigating contemporary moves for reform.

Coercive Inclusion in the Mexican War on Drugs: A Field Study of Human Rights and the State in Michoacán

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 91-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Wolfesberger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Private Property ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Mexican War ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Derechos Humanos

Qualitative ethnographic study of the human rights violations committed in the course of the militarized combat against drug trafficking organizations in rural Michoacán unmasks state practices of coercive inclusion. The violation of human rights and the subsequent processing of human rights claims paradoxically bind the marginalized population to the formal state and foster its subordination. The practical configuration of the current arena of human rights is not the lever for a democratic, inclusive Mexico but a curtain that conceals the repressive practices that it makes possible. In the processing of human rights complaints, the legal rights of physical integrity and private property become moral rights with no effect of legal justice. Un estudio etnográfico cualitativo sobre las violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas durante la lucha militarizada contra las organizaciones de tráfico de drogas en el Michoacán rural sirve para desenmascarar las prácticas de inclusión coercitiva del Estado. Las violaciones y el posterior procesamiento de las denuncias paradójicamente vinculan a la población marginada con el Estado oficial, fomentando su subordinación. La configuración práctica del actual contexto de los derechos humanos no funge como la palanca de un México democrático e inclusivo, sino como una cortina que oculta las prácticas represivas que el Estado hace posibles. En la tramitación de las denuncias sobre violación de derechos humanos, los derechos legales de la integridad física y la propiedad privada se convierten en derechos morales sin ningún efecto de justicia legal.

Military to retain domestic security role in Guatemala

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domestic Security ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
The Military ◽  
Focus Point

Subject The militarisation of security. Significance Lack of police capability and the scale of Guatemala's security challenges mean that the military role in combatting organised crime will continue, despite concerns. President Jimmy Morales recently announced that the military would continue to support police with domestic security. This comes as security challenges remain acute, particularly in urban areas and the northern Peten department. Impacts Peten will remain the focus point of drug trafficking activity, though extortion in urban areas will be a more pressing concern. Public pressure for a tough approach to crime means that periodic excesses by security forces will continue to be tolerated. While Guatemala faces similar security challenges to neighbouring countries, there is little prospect of increased cooperation.

Drugs and crime gain new priority in Argentina

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Border Security ◽  
Public Security ◽  
Buenos Aires Province ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Security Concerns ◽  
One Year ◽  
Drugs And Crime

Subject Drug trafficking and security concerns. Significance On January 19, President Mauricio Macri signed a decree declaring a one-year public security emergency for the purpose of fighting organised crime and drug trafficking. Macri's success in tackling drug trafficking and insecurity, particularly in Buenos Aires province, will be crucial to his chances of bidding for a second term in office in 2019. Impacts Elements of the security emergency decree will face congressional opposition. Insecurity and drug trafficking were key election issues in Buenos Aires province last year, and will remain so in future. Returning border and coast guards to their original task of controlling frontiers will be necessary to improve border security.

Drug Trafficking and Organised Crime in Afghanistan

2013 ◽  
Vol 158 (6) ◽  
pp. 6-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bewley-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Organised Crime

scholarly journals US IN LATIN AMERICA: KEY CURRENT INTERESTS AND METHODS OF THEIR ADVANCEMENT

2017 ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
T. Kulinich
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Latin American Countries

The present article reviews the current set of interests of the United States of America in respect of Latin American countries. The author believes that the key groups of interests pursued by the US in Latin America are as follows: political and security interests, economic interests, and combined interests, the most important of the latter being the interests relating to combating drug trafficking. The author believes that the economic interest, albeit being a secondary one in terms of formal hierarchy of interests, is in fact one of the core US interests in the region at present. The US is interested to preserve its influence upon the Latin American market, and further engage the Latin American workforce and industrial capacities to the benefit of the US economy. The US pursues its interests in Latin America, inter alia, through various integration projects, including NAFTA, CAFTA-DR, FTAA, and a range of free trade areas. The article also addresses the interest of the US in the field of prevention of drug trafficking, which constitutes an important area of cooperation between the US and the Latin American countries concerned. The author argues that, despite the fact that the current outcomes of the ongoing war on drugs may be perceived as controversial, the issue in question serves as a strong factor contributing to the growth of the US influence over, and its presence within, the region. The article also reviews key methods used by the US to further its interests in Latin America, including the classical methods and those relating to soft power.

scholarly journals Drug Trafficking and Youth Mortality in Brazil: An Expression of Human Rights’ Violations

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (34) ◽  
pp. 235-251
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Motta Costa ◽  
Dani Rudnicki ◽  
Julia Maia Goldani
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Victims Of Violence ◽  
Social Causes

This paper aims to analyze the intersectional problematic that surrounds the vio-lations of adolescents’ human rights that happen in Brazil nowadays. It focuses, more specifically, on the involvement of these youths with drug trafficking, and on the relations between their participation in crime and the rising mortality rates amidst young age groups. A large part of Brazil’s children and teenagers grow up in contexts of social vulnerability, lack of opportunities, difficult access to economical assets, and personal devaluation. This situation often pushes young individuals into involvement with drug trafficking or armed robbery, since crime represents, in their context, a possibility for economic and social ascendance. In parallel, the criminal policy adopted by the Brazilian State, synthesized in the expression “war on drugs” and manifested in the promulgation of Law 11.343/06, focuses on repressive police actions, and favors imprisonment, while doing nothing to attack the social causes of the problem. The result is the mass incarceration of young and economically disfavored individuals as well as, not infrequently, their deaths during police approaches, characterizing a situation where these adoles-cents are both perpetuators and victims of violence.

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