Narco-state
Panaman leader Manuel Noriega, following his arrest by U.S. authorities.
Narco-state (also narco-capitalism or narco-economy[a]) is a political and economic term applied to states where all legitimate institutions become penetrated by the power and wealth of the illegal drug trade.[2] The term was first used to describe following the 1980 coup of Luis García Meza in Bolivia which was seen to be primarily financed with the help of narcotics traffickers.[3]
Contents
1 Usage
2 Examples
2.1 United Kingdom
2.2 Guinea-Bissau
2.3 Mexico
2.4 Suriname
2.5 Venezuela
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Usage
It has been argued that narco-states can be divided into five categories depending on their level of dependence on the narcotics trade and the threat the narcotics trade in said country poses to domestic and international stability. These five categories are: incipient (e.g. Papua New Guinea, Iran ), developing (e.g. Senegal, Thailand), serious (e.g.Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador), critical (e.g. Tajikistan, Peru, Colombia), and advanced (Afghanistan, Guinea-Bissau, North Korea, Venezuela and Myanmar).[4]
However, recent use of the term narco-state has been questioned by some for being too widely and uncritically applied, particularly following the widespread media attention given to Guinea-Bissau as "the world's first narco-state" in 2008,[5] and should instead refer only to those countries in which the narcotics trade is state-sponsored and constitutes the majority of a country's overall GDP.[6]
Examples
United Kingdom
United Kingdom is called the first narco-state:thanks to the opium wars,UK became the biggest nation in the drug traffic.[7]
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa, has been called a narco-state due to government officials often being bribed by traffickers to ignore the illegal trade.[8] Colombian drug cartels used the West African coast as Jamaica and Panama increased policing. The Guardian noted Guinea-Bissau's lack of prisons, few police, and poverty attracted the traffickers.[9] An article in Foreign Policy questioned the effectiveness of money from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations designated to combat the illegal trade.[10]
Mexico
Corruption within the Mexican government has been a problem within Mexico for decades. The Mexican cartels have known to be quite influential within Mexican politics, going so far as to pumping money into Mexican electoral campaigns. [11]During the court hearing for the most wanted cartel leader, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán after his capture, it was alleged that former president Enrique Peña Nieto had accepted a $100 million bribe from the drug kingpin. [12]
Suriname
Suriname has been labelled as narco-state due to President Dési Bouterse and his family involvement in drug trafficking. Bouterse was sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands to 11 years' imprisonment after being convicted of trafficking 474 kg (1,045 lb) of cocaine.[13]. His son Dino Bouterse has been arrested twice in three different countries and currently serving 16 years imprisonment in United States on charge of drug trafficking
Venezuela
More recently, Venezuela has been labeled a narco-state, due to the relations between some Venezuelan government officials to drug cartels and criminal factions all across Latin America. For example, former vice president of Venezuela Tareck el Aissami has been accused of supporting drug trafficking and helping Mexican drug cartels. El Aissami has been sanctioned by the United States since 2017.[14] The nephews and sons of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro are also being accused of financing drug trades and we involved in the Narcosobrinos affair. In November 2017, the United States's UN ambassador Nikki Haley accused Venezuela of being a 'dangerous narco-state'.[15]
See also
- Mafia state
- Crack epidemic
- Failed state
- Mexican Drug War
- Narco-submarine
- Opium War
- Philippine Drug War
- War on Drugs
Notes
^ The terms are standard words with the prefix "narco-", defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "associated with the trade in illegal drugs".[1]
References
^ "narco-". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em} (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Islamic State of Afghanistan: Rebuilding a Macroeconomic Framework for Reconstruction and Growth (Report). International Monetary Fund. 2003.
^ Weiner, Matt (August 2004). An Afghan 'Narco-State'?: Dynamics, Assessment and Security Implications of the Afghan Opium Industry. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence (Report). Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ Kan, Paul Rexton (2016). Drug Trafficking and International Security. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 9781442247581.
^ Vulliamy, Ed (2008-03-09). "How a tiny West African country became the world's first narco state". Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud (2016). "The myth of the narco-state". Space & Polity. 20 (1): 26–38. doi:10.1080/13562576.2015.1052348.
^ https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/08/global-britain-was-built-as-a-narco-empire/amp/. Missing or empty|title=(help)
^ Washington Post newspaper: Guinea-Bissau coup: Prime minister arrested for helping drug trade, military says 13 April 2012 "Analysts told the AP that in Guinea-Bissau, traffickers have bought off members of the government and military, turning the country into a 'narcostate.'"
^ Vulliamy, Ed (2008-03-09). "How a tiny West African country became the world's first narco state". The Guardian.
^ "How Not to Fix an African Narco-State".
^ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/10/mexico-drug-cartels-grip-on-politicians-and-police-revealed-in-texas-court-files. Missing or empty|title=(help)
^ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/el-chapo-trial-100m-bribe-former-mexican-president-pena-nieto-witness. Missing or empty|title=(help)
^ "NOVA – detail – Nieuws – Hoge raad bevestigt veroordeling bouterse". novatv.nl. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2012-06-09.
^ "US accuses Venezuelan vice-president of role in global drug trafficking". The Guardian. Associated Press. 2017-02-14.
^ "Trump Administration praised by democracy activists for calling Venezuela a 'narco-state'". 2017-11-14.
Further reading
Abrashi, Fisnik (August 16, 2006). "Afghan opium cultivation hits a record". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 4, 2016.Now what they have is a narco-economy. If they do not get corruption sorted they can slip into being a narco-state
Blackman, Shane (2010). "Drug war politics: Governing culture through prohibition, intoxicants as customary practice and the challenge of drug normalisation". Sociology Compass. 4 (10): 841–855. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00324.x.
opendna (March 20, 2002). "The Narco-State Cometh". Kuro5hin. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
Petras, James; Veltmeyer, Henry (2016). Beyond Neoliberalism: A World to Win. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-17464-6.In other words, narco-capitalism played a major role in saving the world financial system from collapse, highlighting the ties between lumpen capital and barbarous imperialism
Pine, Jason (2007). "Economy of speed: The new narco-capitalism". Public Culture. 19 (2): 357–366. doi:10.1215/08992363-2006-041.
- Seattle Times, "Seattle pot-shop mural: art, or ad appealing to kids?" [1]
- US Drug Enforcement Agency, "Seattle Police Officer Arrested as Part of a Drug Conspiracy Transporting Large Amounts of Marijuana to East Coast"
[2]
External links
"The Economics of Cocaine Capitalism"
^ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/marijuana/seattle-pot-shop-mural-art-or-ad-appealing-to-kids/
^ https://www.dea.gov/divisions/sea/2017/sea050817.shtml
