The 'Colombianisation' of Central America

Misconceptions, Mischaracterisations and the Military-Agroindustrial Complex

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3333615
AutoresTeo Ballvé (0000-0003-4645-2865, Colgate University, autor de correspondencia), Kendra Mcsweeney (0000-0002-7961-3023, The Ohio State University)
Año2020
Volumen52
Número4
Páginas805-829
Fecha de publicación2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022216x20000668
OpenAlexW3044891992
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas42

Observers have increasingly described the drug-related violence and corruption affecting Central America as the region's 'Colombianisation'. This narrative is not just confused and misleading; it is dangerous. The Colombianisation discourse perpetuates ineffective and destructive anti-drug policies. It also obscures the circulations and connections that make the drug trade, the drug war and their associated economies of violence possible. We do, however, recognise one form of Colombianisation that actuallyisunder way, but it is not the one imagined by security pundits. The real Colombianisation is a convergence of geopolitical and economic interests that have seized upon the geographical realignments of the drug trade to expand the same agroindustrial-military nexus in Central America that proved so 'successful' in Colombia

Criminology · Development economics · Drug trafficking · Economics · Geopolitics · Language change · Narrative · Nexus (standard) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · History and Politics in Latin America · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America