Drug cartels respond to the pandemic

More than 13.6 million Brazilians live in large poor communities known as favelas. Historically, these territories suffer due to social rights insufficiency and violent conflicts orchestrated by the police and the drug cartels. In this context, the dismantling of the public health care system and denialism of the pandemic by the federal government increases the vulnerability within the favelas during the COVID-19 crisis. Although the federal government failed to take up measures to control the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a criminal organization that dominates the trafficking of drugs in several Brazilian favelas, known as Comando Vermelho, instead dictated those protective actions. This study aimed to discuss the ethical aspects of the relationship between primary health care professionals and the drug cartels in order to promote health care in the favelas.

“Complete Labelling” and Domestic Prosecutions for Crimes Against Humanity

Fair labelling is an established principle of criminal justice that scrutinises the way that States use language in labelling criminal defendants and their conduct. I argue that “complete labelling” is a related but separate principle which has not received any explicit attention from commentators. Whereas fair labelling focuses, usually, on the protection of defendant’s rights, the principle of complete labelling explains and justifies whether the labels attached appropriately represent the nature and scale of the wrong done to the community. As a case study, I apply this lens in the context of regional (U.S./Mexican) criminal justice responses to crimes against humanity perpetrated by “drug-cartels” in the context of the Mexican Drug War. Successive administrations in Mexico and the U.S. have tended to charge cartel leaders (and/or their political supporters) with so-called “transnational crimes” (for example, drug-trafficking, money-laundering, bribery/corruption). This is despite the fact that many of the most powerful cartels have controlled territory, attacked entire towns, carried out acts of terror, and disappeared thousands of people. The principle of complete labelling is useful in normative terms because it helps in the critical examination of a State’s prosecutorial practices, exposing problems that might otherwise be missed. In relation to the case study discussed, for example, a focus on complete labelling helps to expose the regional prosecutorial policy as either an unjustified exercise in selectivity or, at worst, an expression of collective denial. After considering certain counteracting reflexions which speak to some of the foundational anxieties of international criminal justice, the article concludes that domestic prosecutions for crimes against humanity in the context of drug-cartels may, sometimes, be justified.

The Later Work of Gabriel García Márquez

If the Bolívar novel embodies the collective memory of a region in a manner spare yet ingenious, the novelist’s other major late work tends toward personal memory. In Of Love and Other Demons, García Márquez comes as close to magical realism as in any work since the short stories and One Hundred Years of Solitude and reaffirms the multiracial and Caribbean character of the author’s own definition of Spanish America. In News of a Kidnapping, García Márquez ventures onto the territory of drug cartels and violence, which became the preoccupation of the next generation of Colombian writers, relating this material from the deadpan, appalled stance that is as characteristic of his viewpoint as the mesmeric incantations so commonly associated with him. In Memories of My Melancholy Whores, a late in life moral transformation redeems a lifetime of iniquity and testifies to the strangeness of the new territory of extreme old age, in a sense as unexplored a country as Macondo once was. In Living to Tell the Tale, García Márquez reflects upon the first half of his own life. Unlike in the case of Bolívar, García Márquez did not get to tell the ending of the story, leaving later writers and readers to do so in their own minds, as the great master had done for the General.

Ecuador prison crisis threatens to escalate

Significance The attack, which involved drones, illustrates the evolving tactics of crime groups, and follows a string of violent, sometimes coordinated, incidents at prisons this year. These have resulted in the deaths of over 120 inmates. Prison violence comes alongside rising crime and growing concerns over the strengthening of transnational drug cartels. Impacts Lasso will face increasing pressure from international human rights groups to protect prisoners and improve prison conditions. Rising violence and crime will increase concerns among international investors about the security of investments and risks of extortion. Lasso might seek to exploit improved relations with the US and Colombian governments to strengthen international coordination.

India will be increasingly key to Asian drug cartels

Significance The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned that India’s north-east is becoming a major hub for the regional drug trade. Asian drug cartels have long relied on India as a source of drug precursors, the chemicals used in narcotics manufacture. Impacts Pandemic-related hardship will prompt a rise in consumption of relatively cheap drugs such as methamphetamine in the region. Drug cartels based in India and elsewhere in South and South-east Asia will rely increasingly on online platforms to conduct their business. The different states in India’s north-east will struggle to coordinate their efforts to crack down on drug trafficking.

Narcotics trafficking will increase in South-east Asia

Significance The ‘Golden Triangle’ -- centred on the tripoint of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar -- has long been a hub for production of illicit drugs. The area is rife with drug cartels. Impacts Regional authorities will continue to make large narcotics seizures but struggle to curb the trade in precursors used in drug manufacture. Laos and Cambodia will find it especially difficult to clamp down on drug trafficking, given their limited resources. Estimating the scale of drug production in Myanmar will get harder as governance in the country weakens.

Comparative Analysis of the United States’ War on Drugs Policy in Mexico and Colombia: Failure and Success Factors

Drug smuggling activities in the United States carried out by drug cartels from Mexico and Colombia contribute to the region's instabilities. Many threats and terrorist acts that accompanied the distribution of illegal drugs left civilians in fear. The War on Drugs policy promoted by the United States, which aims to apprehend drug cartels, causes severe losses in the long run. Colombia is the only successful case. On the other hand, Mexico offers a different story despite both are countries with unstable political and weak law enforcement. The paper conducts a comparative study on Colombia and Mexico to evaluate the factors that contribute to the success and failure behind the implementation of the War on Drugs policy. The paper concludes that an aggressive approach (i.e., military) is less efficient in combatting drug smuggling activities than the developmental approach (i.e., socio-economic development).