Community Policing and Drug Trafficking in Neo-Socialist Ecuador, 2011 - 2017

• In Event: Latin American STS Experimentations: Innovating Security Studies in the Region

Abstract

This paper discusses the philosophy of community policing in Ecuador to understand the emergence of a punitive counter-reform of drug interdiction during Rafael Correa's neo-socialist regime. I argue that a novel moral epistemology, that is, a somewhat coherent doctrine comprising knowledge claims and moral judgments developed under the label of community policing between 2011 and 2017. This security discourse recycled old fears against drug trafficking in view of new bureaucratic strategies for law enforcement. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, my research shows how community-policing ran against an initial progressive drug agenda aimed to decriminalize drug use and possession in the country. Furthermore, in analyzing police knowledge practices and their associated ethical justifications, I suggest community policing has become part of a global drug governance modality focused on supplier countries.

Author

• Daniel Ponton, Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales