8 PALEY, Dawn, «Drug War as Neoliberal Trojan Horse», in Latin American Perspectives, 42, 5/2015, pp.7 «Colombia: Peace is Good for Business», in International Monetary Fund, URL: 6 RAMÍREZ, John H., Operation Martillo as a Tool to Reduce Drug Trafficking in the Northern Triangle (.).5 US Embassy-Mexico, Fact Sheet: The Merida Initiative - An Overview, July 2015, URL: 4 SPADE, Kyle M., Plan Colombia: A Case for Political Warfare to Defeat Transnational Criminal Organi (.).In the midst of the violence, the neoliberalization of these countries advance, and transnational corporations and US interests appear to be the greatest beneficiaries from these developments. The armed actors operate as agents of neoliberalism, by conquering a space and reorganizing its economic and social relations so to merge it with the global economy. In this conflict state forces and paramilitary groups either cooperate or fight with each other in an effort to extend their power over specific areas, that are eventually dominated and transformed so to allow for the investment and allocation of international capitals. I will argue that the Drug War does not consist in a war for legality, but in a war for the control of territory and natural resources. Borrowing from the existing literature on the subject, my article will focus on the case of Colombia and Mexico to explore alternative geographic representation of the Drug War which might be more efficient in explaining the violence. (.)Ģ In recent years a growing number of journalists and scholars have focused on the Drug War concept in an effort to show the contradictions and shortcomings in the official discourse that describes it, highlighting the crucial links between neoliberalization and the military strategies that officially aim at eradicating drug trafficking and organized crime 3. 3 See among others: PALEY, Dawn, Drug War Capitalism, cit.The Drug War is a war where soldiers become police officers and the army is deployed internally to patrol the country. In the fight against organized crime the state is not attacking to protect the freedom of its citizens, but merely to protect their bodies and their lives. Since the end of the Cold War power and warfare in the Americas have transformed into tools for security, launching wars against an enemy that is not moved by an idea, but merely by greed. Crime, as the ultimate threat to security, has become the new enemy for the state in the Americas, and the state’s fight is not against subversives anymore, but against drug traffickers. Whereas a few decades ago the US were mostly focused on not losing their neighbours to communism or socialism, today they are concerned with promoting security 2. In fact, today the US’ influence over Colombia, Mexico, and Central America is justified through the Drug War, that invests the US of the role of supporters and protectors in the fight of their allies against drugs. In order to fight organized crime, the Latin American countries that experience it the most have declared a militarization of their societies and they have signed bilateral agreements with the United States to promote a cooperation with the goal of eradicating the phenomenon.
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This term identifies a complex series of strategies that go from military actions to economic reforms, all comprehended within political projects that aim at eradicating drug trafficking and organized crime 1. 2 BAYLIS, John, The Concept of Security in International Relations, in BRAUCH, Hans Günter, SPRING, (.)ġ This article offers a brief critical analysis of the political and military warfare strategies in Northern Latin America that commonly take the name of “Drug Wars”.1 In the United States the term “Drug War” or “War on Drugs” is no longer used at the institutional l (.).