Subnational Political Responses to Urban Drug Trafficking in Latin America

• In Event: The Politics of Urban Exclusion and Subnational Social Policy in Latin America: New Research Agendas

Abstract

While drug trafficking is an international form of organized crime, its consequences are felt locally, demanding responses from subnational authorities, which differ markedly across cases and over time. Additionally, while trafficking groups often promote violence, this enterprise requires certain levels of stability and order, which they can often enforce. Governments, in turn, have incentives to not necessarily clash but to make informal arrangements with criminal groups to regulate violence. Why do some governments opt to negotiate with drug traffickers while others choose to confront them? While politicians may design security strategies, police forces who often are involved in corrupt dealings with drug traffickers or prone to unlawful use of violence implement them. When, and how, do politicians exercise more control over their police forces? What political factors shape these interventions? This paper explores the political responses to drug trafficking in the main metropolitan areas of Argentina –Buenos Aires and Rosario- and Brazil -Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Using interviews and process tracing, I will explain the various types of interactions between politicians, police forces and organized criminal actors within the context of urban drug trafficking and their implications for criminal violence. This paper illustrates the main differences between these cases: from the continuous (yet selective) confrontation in Rio de Janeiro through the Police Pacification Units and the six-year truce in Sao Paulo, to the persistent and ruptured police-criminal pacts in Buenos Aires and Rosario, respectively, and their relative impacts on violence levels.

Author

• Hernán B Flom, University of California/Berkeley