Diploma thesis "Effect of NAFTA agreement on drug trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico" analyzes the phenomenon of illegal drug trade in the Americas. The aim of the thesis was to seek causes of drug trafficking based on the proven asymmetry of the U.S. - Mexico political and economic relations and analyze its development to the present. Particular emphasis was placed on NAFTA agreement and evaluation of its effect on drug trafficking. The last chapter provides possible solution proposals globally applicable.

The main objective of thesis ''Narcoterrorism: Crossroads between drug trade and political violence'' is to describe and analyze the phenomenon of narcoterrorism, a concept that combines in its core the politically-motivated violence, the illicit drug trade, and the use of terrorist methods. The goal will be to establish a comprehensive theoretical framework for the various types of narcoterrorism and the different supportive types that may occur between the politically-motivated or ideological groups, and the drug-trafficking criminal groups. This framework will be later primarily tested on the case of Colombia, where various warring ideological and criminal groups will be observed and analyzed. Other cases that will be secondarily used to further prove the established assumptions, will be focusing on other countries which seen in recent history a surge of political or criminal violence, and are either manufacturing or trafficking illegal drugs. These will include Peru, Mexico, and Afghanistan. In the final section of the thesis, the theoretical framework will be assigned to real historical cases, and a question of the prerequisites of narcoterrorist emergence will be discussed.

Under den rådande covid-19-pandemin har polisen i Malmö fått information från hotell i Malmö som uppmärksammat en förändring i den kriminella klientelen, med specifikt fokus på prostitution och narkotikahandel. Denna rapport ämnar därför att, genom en kvalitativ ansats, undersöka hotellanställdas upplevelser av förekomsten av dessa brottstyper på olika hotell samt att se om det skett någon förändring i förekomsten under covid-19-pandemin. Genom att intervjua personal på olika hotell i Malmö och Lund var det möjligt att undersöka upplevelser av förekomsten samt den potentiella förändring som uppmärksammats. Upplevelserna av förekomsten av prostitution och narkotikahandel verkar variera mellan de två städerna där hotellen i Lund menade att brottstyperna är sällsynta, medan hotellet i Malmö upplevt mer frekventa händelser. Samtliga menar även att det varit få förändringar i förekomsten av dessa brottstyper sedan början av pandemin fram tills idag och de förändringar som har skett har varit minskningar. Slutsatserna är att brottstyperna inte är vanligt förekommande på de hotell som tillfrågats och att brottstyperna varit relativt stabila och i vissa fall minskat under covid-19-pandemin. / During the current covid-19 pandemic the Police authority in Malmö has received information from local hotels that a more prominent criminal clientele has been observed, a criminal clientele involved in drug trade and prositution. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative report is to gather further information from the employees of hotels about their perceived picture of this more prominent criminality. In addition to this, the report aims to compare how the employees perceive the current frequency of crimes, compared to before the pandemic severely diminished the number of guests staying at the hotel. Interviews were conducted with employees at hotels in Malmö and Lund to study both questions to give a better understanding of the framework of the problem. The results show that the perceived frequency of drug trade and prostitution varies between the two cities. The three hotels from Lund describe the two crime types as a rare occurrence. Malmö on the other hand, where only one hotel participated, had experienced a larger frequency of both of the studied crime types. All the hotels from both cities are however unanimous in that they don’t see a big difference between pre-pandemic times and spring of 2021 when this report was conducted. If anything, the changes they have seen has been that the numbers are dropping.

Borderlands are critical security zones but remain poorly understood. In regions plagued by drug violence and conflict, violent groups compete for territorial control, cooperate in illegal cross-border activities, and substitute for the functions of the state in these areas. Despite undermining physical security, fuelling fear, and challenging the state’s sovereignty, the exact modi operandi of these groups are little known. Against this backdrop, this thesis explores how different interactions among violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in the Colombian-Ecuadorian and Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands impact on citizen security. These border areas attract rebels, paramilitaries and criminal organisations alike: they constitute geo-strategic corridors for the global cocaine industry and are sites of supply and operation for the major actors involved in Colombia’s decades-long armed internal conflict. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis consolidates the literature on conflict, security and organised crime, borders and borderlands, and anthropological approaches to fear and violence. It integrates theories of cooperation among social actors with original empirical research. It is based on a comparative, multi-sited case-study design, using ethnographic methods complemented by quantitative data. The research involved over twelve months of fieldwork with 433 interviews and participant observation on both sides of the crisis-affected Colombia-Ecuador and Colombia-Venezuela borders, and in Bogotá, Caracas and Quito. Developing a typology of VNSA interactions, I argue that these create not only physical violence but also less visible types of insecurity: when VNSAs fight each other, citizens are exposed to violence but follow the rules imposed by the opposing parties. Fragile alliances produce uncertainty among communities and erode the social fabric by fuelling interpersonal mistrust. Where VNSAs provide security and are socially recognised, "shadow citizen security" arises: security based on undemocratic means. I show that the geography of borderlands reinforces the distinct impacts of VNSA arrangements on citizen security yet renders them less visible.

Orientador: Reginaldo Carmello Correa de Moraes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T20:56:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Oliveira_DanielSimoes_M.pdf: 1311572 bytes, checksum: b711e7694374f0201cc16ec0c2762fc5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O presente trabalho tem como objetivo aprofundar o conhecimento acerca dos sentidos da atual ordem mundial vigente a partir do estudo da dinâmica conflituosa observada no território colombiano. Nesse sentido, toma como objeto central de sua reflexão a constituição de duas importantes regiões no interior do país, cujos contornos se definem pela presença de atividades econômicas de grande porte mediadas pelos movimentos guerrilheiros que, através do controle da circulação espacial nos espaços em questão, passam a impor uma organização peculiar e funcional aos interesses desses movimentos armados. As duas Regiões em questão, a Cocaleira e a Petrolífera, serão tomadas destarte em suas particularidades internas, para que posteriormente seja pensado o significado destes espaços na lógica do capitalismo contemporâneo, expandido ao nível global / Abstract: The objective of the present work is to deepen the knowledge concerning the directions of the current effective world-wide order from the study of the conflicting dynamics observed in the Columbian territory. In this direction, it takes as central object of its reflection the constitution of two important regions in the interior of the country, whose contours are defined by the presence of great economic activities mediated by the guerrila movements that, through the control of the space circulation in these regions, impose a peculiar and functional organization to the interests of these armed movements. The two Regions in question, the Petroliferous and the Coke one, will be taken in its internal particularities so that later the meaning of these spaces in the contemporary capitalism logic, expanded to the global level, can be thought / Mestrado / Política Externa / Mestre em Relações Internacionais