Narco Robin Hoods: Rural Community Support for Illicit Economies and Violence

• In Event: Criminal Politics: Political and Criminal Violence

Abstract

Indigenous and Afro-descendent territories in Central America are often prime locations for drug traffickers to operate. The marginalization and seclusion of these rural areas can facilitate criminal organizations gaining legitimacy within certain communities and result in narcos assuming roles traditionally associated with the state. This relationship between criminals and communities is typically symbiotic: traffickers provide a form of economic development or investment in zones where the state has failed to do so and, in turn, communities can help shield criminals from authorities and provide support networks and/or cheap labor pools. Traffickers can also impose alternative forms of order, striving to reduce crimes unrelated to their business (e.g. theft) which could draw attention from state actors and/or result in community frustration. However, I argue that the local-level legitimacy of illicit economies is usually contingent on criminal organizations limiting their use of violence. Moreover, community support for narcos has implications not only for the overall level of criminal violence, but also on the visibility, targets, and geographic location of violence. To support this argument, this paper draws on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in drug trafficking hubs along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

Author

• Laura Blume, Boston University