Peruvian Cocaine Tangles

Arrests and Assertions of Innocence in Ayacucho's Drug Trade, 1976-1981

Bibliographic Data

ID2822008
AuthorsJaymie Patricia Heilman (corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume98
Issue2
Pages257-292
Publication date2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-4376692
OpenAlexW2804607561
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited34

Arrests for participation in the global cocaine trade surged in Peru during the 1970s. This article uses court cases to explore complaints in Ayacucho of wrongful arrests in the cocaine trade, examining claims of innocence, false confessions under torture, and police and judicial misconduct between 1976 and 1981. What emerges is a picture of abuse and lives upended by the cocaine trade's repression, often on dubious grounds. Ayacucho police routinely tortured during interrogations, engaging in the kinds of violence that became systematic during counterinsurgent warfare against the Shining Path and its presumed supporters. These cases reveal that many Ayacuchanos profoundly distrusted their police and court systems. That was especially true for impoverished-and predominantly rural and indigenous-men and women who could not afford lawyers or bribes. Ayacuchanos' devastating experiences of cocaine repression fueled anger toward the police, which Shining Path militants capitalized on early in their armed struggle

Criminology · Human rights · Indigenous · Innocence · Misconduct · Political science · Torture · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America · Psychology

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