Narco‐Infrastructures and the Persistence of Illicit Coca in Loreto

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12972754
AutoresM Silverstein (0000-0002-8995-0867, Wright State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen26
Número3-4
Páginas427-450
Fecha de publicación2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1935-4932 • E-ISSN: 1935-4940
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jlca.12582
OpenAlexW4221076043
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas46

In this article, I examine the persistence of illicit coca in Loreto, in the northeastern Amazonian region of Peru. I engage ethnographically with the formation and perseverance of a mutable yet resilient network that has enabled the movement of illicit drugs: what I call a narco‐infrastructure. Beginning with the “absent state” argument so frequently put forth to understand the proliferation of narco‐economies, I turn attention to the ways in which drug trafficking developed hand in hand with a nascent petroleum industry, setting off a series of social and economic transformations in the region, but also creating new horizons of experience and possibility. Loreto's historical ties to drug trafficking, and particularly its recent emergence as a hot spot of illicit coca production, are helpful for understanding the mutability and resilience of narco‐infrastructures, and the affective work they can and will do

Argument (complex analysis · Coca · Criminology · Development economics · Economics · Illicit drug · Persistence (discontinuity · Political economy · Political science · Psychological resilience · Resilience (materials science · Sociology · State (computer science · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Engineering · History · Politics and Society in Latin America · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology