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2. Militarized Security and a Cartel Apology in Matamoros
- Author:
- Philip Luke Johnson
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- The abduction and murder of U.S. citizens in the border city of Matamoros is part of a larger pattern of violence with impunity by state and criminal actors.
- Topic:
- Security, Crime, War on Drugs, Narcotics Trafficking, Border Control, Impunity, Violence, and Militarization
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, North America, Mexico, and United States of America
3. Fentanyl Precursors from China and the American Opioid Epidemic
- Author:
- Martin Purbrick
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- China Brief
- Institution:
- The Jamestown Foundation
- Abstract:
- The fentanyl epidemic was born in America, rose from the supply of precursor chemicals made in China and is now even more destructive as Mexican drug cartels profit from huge demand. The involvement of suppliers of fentanyl precursors from China is a controversial issue that negatively impacts U.S.-China relations. The U.S. government has claimed that not enough is being done to curtail the production and trafficking of fentanyl precursors from China. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government has claimed that it has taken strong action while also emphasizing China’s antipathy to illegal drugs by falling back on the historical legacy of the harm wrought by Western merchants’ trading of opium with China in the 19th century.
- Topic:
- Narcotics Trafficking, Organized Crime, Cartels, Opioid Crisis, and Fentanyl
- Political Geography:
- China, Mexico, and United States of America
4. El terrorismo no se compagina con el nihilismo
- Author:
- Eduardo Hodge Dupré
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
- Institution:
- Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
- Abstract:
- This article discusses an idea that has been promoted by several scholars in recent decades, namely the possible relationship between terrorism and nihilism. The hypothesis to be tested is that the most active terrorist groups of recent times are on the opposite side of Nietzsche's postulates: if nihilism is the negation and senselessness of all that exists, terrorists act on the basis of clear motives and fundamental meaning. Such violence was seen as a rational way for certain people to reach their goals. To test this assumption, three types of terrorism are considered: Islamist, ideological-secular and narco-terrorist
- Topic:
- Terrorism, Narcotics Trafficking, Ideology, Islamism, and Nihilism
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
5. The Caribbean in the Crossfire Between Covid-19, Narcotics, China, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
- Author:
- R. Evan Ellis
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- The Caribbean is strategically vital as the southeast maritime approach to the United States. It is a key hub and transit area for commercial logistics serving the eastern coast of the United States as well as the Atlantic side of Central and South America. The region is connected to the United States through ties of commerce, geography, and family. Not only is the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico situated centrally in the Caribbean between the Dominican Republic and the Leeward Antilles islands, but significant diasporas of Cubans, Jamaicans, Dominicans, Haitians, and others are found in U.S. communities, from South Florida to New York and New Jersey and beyond. The United States relies on good governance in the Caribbean and partnership on a range of national security issues, including the entry of illegal narcotics (principally moving north from Colombia and Venezuela) and other contraband goods. Even more importantly, the Caribbean touches—or is proximate to—a substantial number of important U.S. ports and military facilities, such as Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah and Kings Bay, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Norfolk, Virginia. Not only are these facilities critical to U.S. international maritime commerce, but military facilities in some of those areas play important roles in the deployment and sustainment of forces in a range of potential conflicts, be they in Africa, Europe, or Asia. Indeed, during the wars of the previous century, German submarines sought to operate in or near the Caribbean in order to put U.S. facilities and ship convoys at risk.
- Topic:
- Security, Narcotics Trafficking, Military Intervention, Drugs, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, Caribbean, and North America
6. De la fragmentación de las estructuras criminales a una proto-mafia: un análisis del Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) en Sudamérica (From the Fragmentation of Criminal Structures to a Proto-Mafia: An Analysis of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) in South America)
- Author:
- Carolina Sampó and Marcos Alan Ferreira
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal on International Security Studies (RESI)
- Institution:
- International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
- Abstract:
- Este artículo examina cómo el Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) se estructura como un modelo particular de organización criminal en Sudamérica, entre lo que podría considerarse un cartel de tercera generación y una proto-mafia. Tras el fin de los grandes carteles colombianos, las organizaciones criminales debieron modificar la forma en la que se estructuraban. Estos cambios, se tradujeron en una marcada fragmentación que generó una multiplicidad de organizaciones pequeñas en Sudamérica que lograron ingresar al mercado del tráfico de droga, impulsadas por la “democratización” de la cocaína. Sin embargo, en la última década en Brasil se ha visto el proceso contrario. Mientras que en Latinoamérica se pasó de la concentración a la fragmentación – de la existencia de los carteles a la proliferación de un gran número de estructuras criminales pequeñas-, en Brasil, el PCC ha dejado de estar fragmentado para concentrarse y multiplicar su poder, a partir de su presencia y fortaleza en todo el territorio nacional, pero también gracias a su transnacionalización hacia países productores de drogas como Paraguay, Bolivia y Perú. Cabe preguntarnos entonces si estamos frente al surgimiento de una nueva generación de estructuras criminales, que se auto-perciben como empresas transnacionales y que adoptan una forma distinta a la de los carteles tradicionales, mucho más flexible y capaz de adaptarse frente al cambio, lo que las vuelve similar a una mafia, aunque no se han consolidado como tales aún.
- Topic:
- Narcotics Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Cartels
- Political Geography:
- South America, Peru, Paraguay, and Bolivia
7. FARC–Hezbollah: The success of Venezuela–Iran proxy groups and their convergence in the Americas
- Author:
- Jeferson Guarin P.
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Security and Defence Quarterly
- Institution:
- War Studies University
- Abstract:
- Persistence and adaptation are the main characteristics that have allowed FARC and Hezbollah to become perhaps the most successful proxy groups in recent years. Both Iran and Venezuela have sponsored the military, political and criminal actions of these alleged insurgent organisations. The main objective of this research was to identify and conceptualise the mitotic evolution of FARC and Hezbollah from purely armed organisms into consolidated political organisations in Colombia and Lebanon, and how this evolution has presented a criminal convergence in Venezuela based on drug trafficking and money laundering. This article is based on a comparative case-study of published research papers, documents, and official statements of FARC and Hezbollah, by applying a rational perspective that allows their performance to be deduced. The research results showed a constant mutation of these hybrid threats. Thus, not only was the political and military success of these organisations established but also the strategic support of a criminal dimension which converged in Venezuela, where the FARC drug trafficking and Hezbollah money laundering were amalgamated. Consequently, the investigation exposes the possible consequences of the FARC-Hezbollah criminal convergence in the Americas and its destabilising effects in the next decade.
- Topic:
- Narcotics Trafficking, Hezbollah, Drugs, FARC, Destabilization, Money Laundering, and Proxy Groups
- Political Geography:
- Iran, South America, and Venezuela