An Analysis of Selected Readings on Brazil and Mexico
Rapporteur’s Report: Mexico and Brazil
Introduction
Driven by high levels of demand, the Latin American drug trade continues to flourish despite efforts to dismantle it. While narcotrafficking was originally concentrated in the Andean region of Latin America, as counterdrug programs force traffickers to branch out and establish new channels, a sort of spillover effect has occurred in both production and trafficking activities. Source-country drug control programs have only resulted in minor reductions of overall cultivation and production but moreover caused shifts in the illicit industry leading to heavy permeation across both South and Central America and Mexico. America’s “War on Drugs” has ultimately led to the creation of smaller, vertically-integrated drug production and trafficking networks throughout Latin America. The following articles provide a broad analysis of these growing illicit networks involved with narcotrafficking. They cover important topics such as the permeation of the drug trade in countries like Mexico and Brazil, the role of intermediaries in narcotrafficking, the creation of micro-cartels, and the importance of narco/political nexus in the LATAM drug trade. Ultimately, the works suggest that counternarco efforts over the past couple of years in Latin America have only challenged the traffickers to seek new channels and form new networks at best and exacerbated the problem at worst.
Bruce Bagley: La Conexión Colombia-Mexico-Estados Unidos (Atlas de la Seguridad y Defensa de México 2009)
The essay begins with an introduction explaining how organized crime groups in Mexico are becoming increasingly involved in the cocaine trade, which was originally dominated by the Andes and Colombia. The author uses blunt statistics such as 350 metric tons of cocaine consumed annually in the US and 11,297 recorded drug murders in Mexico from 2006-2009 to demonstrate the gravity of the drug market which now heavily permeates most facets of
Introduction
Driven by high levels of demand, the Latin American drug trade continues to flourish despite efforts to dismantle it. While narcotrafficking was originally concentrated in the Andean region of Latin America, as counterdrug programs force traffickers to branch out and establish new channels, a sort of spillover effect has occurred in both production and trafficking activities. Source-country drug control programs have only resulted in minor reductions of overall cultivation and production but moreover caused shifts in the illicit industry leading to heavy permeation across both South and Central America and Mexico. America’s “War on Drugs” has ultimately led to the creation of smaller, vertically-integrated drug production and trafficking networks throughout Latin America. The following articles provide a broad analysis of these growing illicit networks involved with narcotrafficking. They cover important topics such as the permeation of the drug trade in countries like Mexico and Brazil, the role of intermediaries in narcotrafficking, the creation of micro-cartels, and the importance of narco/political nexus in the LATAM drug trade. Ultimately, the works suggest that counternarco efforts over the past couple of years in Latin America have only challenged the traffickers to seek new channels and form new networks at best and exacerbated the problem at worst.
Bruce Bagley: La Conexión Colombia-Mexico-Estados Unidos (Atlas de la Seguridad y Defensa de México 2009)
The essay begins with an introduction explaining how organized crime groups in Mexico are becoming increasingly involved in the cocaine trade, which was originally dominated by the Andes and Colombia. The author uses blunt statistics such as 350 metric tons of cocaine consumed annually in the US and 11,297 recorded drug murders in Mexico from 2006-2009 to demonstrate the gravity of the drug market which now heavily permeates most facets of
Cited: Luis Astorga, Mexico: Drugs and Politics,” in M. Vellinga, ed., The Political Economy of the Drug Industry: Latin America and the International System. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004, pp. 85--102. Hal Brands, Mexico’s Narco-Insurgency and U.S. Counterdrug Policy. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, May, 2009, 61 p.