Abstract
This chapter explores some propositions regarding the political consequences of drugs-driven state restructuring, particularly in relation to security policies and forces.1 This process of change has been conditioned by the new post-Cold War security agenda that emphasizes ‘non-traditional’ threats — mainly drugs and illegal migration in the case of the Caribbean — as well as by broader economic and social transformations that have elicited new forms of state control. The case of Puerto Rico is analysed from this perspective, with the caveat that present trends in Puerto Rico are by no means unique, though perhaps more pronounced than in other Caribbean societies. However, it should also be stressed that Puerto Rico is set apart from the rest of the Caribbean due to the character of its political relationship with the United States and the geostrategic position it has occupied and continues to occupy within the region.
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Notes
In the Caribbean the concept ‘narcodemocracy’ has been used by Ivelaw L. Griffith and Trevor Munroe in, ‘Drugs and Democracy in the Caribbean’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Vol. 33, No. 3 (November 1995), pp. 357–76.
See, for example, James L. Zackrison and Eileen Bradley, ‘Colombian Sovereignty Under Siege’, Strategic Forum, No. 112 (May 1997).
See, for example, Ivelaw L. Griffith, ‘Caribbean Manifestations of the Narcotics Phenomenon’, in Jorge Rodriguez Beruff and Humberto Garcia Muniz (eds), Security Problems and Policies in the Post-Cold War Caribbean ( London: Macmillan, 1996 ), pp. 181–200;
Anthony P. Maingot, The United States and the Caribbean (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), chs 8 and 9; Michel S. Laguerre, ‘National Security, Narcotics Control and the Haitian Military’, in Rodríquez Beruff and García Muñiz, Security Problems and Policies in the Post-Cold War Caribbean pp. 99–120.
Ivelaw L. Griffith, ‘Caribbean Regional Security’, Strategic Forum, No. 102 (February 1997).
The first robbery, which caused great commotion, was against the Nova Scotia bank in Santurce. On 26 February 1997, PonceBank, Banco Roig, Banco Popular branches in Río Piedras, Puerto Nuevo y Ponce were robbed. Amelia Estades Santaliz, ‘Asaltan en dia tres bancos’, El Nuevo Día, 27 February 1997.
For the position of a Catholic Bishop, see, S.E.R. Monseñor Enrique Hernández, Sobre las propuestas enmiendas a la Constitución de Puerto Rico (Caguas: Oficina de Medios de Comunicación Social, 1993), cited in Pedro Rosario Barbosa, ‘Consideraciones preliminares en torno al discurso de la marina y el gobierno sobre el sistema de radar relocalizable más allá del horizonte’, manuscript, December 1995, p. 4.
Gloribel Delgado, ‘En pie las audiencias del radar’, El Nuevo Día, 31 October 1995, p. 12.
Ismael Fernández, ‘Con el crimen no se juega’, El Nuevo Día, 13 May 1996, p. 50.
Pepo García, ‘Chocan de frente los argumentos’, El Nuevo Día, 18 December 1996, p. 5.
Andrea Martínez, ‘Tierra dentro el azote’, El Nuevo Día, 30 December 1996, p. 7.
Government Accounting Office, Drug Control, U.S. Interdiction Efforts in the Caribbean Decline ( Washington DC: GAO, April 1996 ), pp. 4–5.
Joseph Rogers, ‘Unwanted Fame’, Hemisphere, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1997), pp. 38–41.
Andrea Martínez, ‘Tierra adentro el azote’, El Nuevo Día, 30 December 1996, p. 7.
Daisy Sánchez, ‘Crece la economía criminal, en todas partes el dinero del narcotráfico’, Diálogo, November 1996, p. 11.
Leonor Mulero, ‘Sella el pacto el zar antidrogas’, El Nuevo Día, 19 January 1995, p. 6; and, ‘Refuerzo federal para la mano dura’, El Nuevo Día, 1 May 1996, p. 8.
Government of Puerto Rico, Budget Proposal 1997–1998, Vol. Il (San Juan, 1997).
Andrea Martínez, ‘Destacan los logros de la “Operación Gateway”’, El Nuevo Dia, 19 June 1996, p. 16; ‘Rudo golpe al narcotráfico’, El Nuevo Día, 2 October 1996, p. 20.
About the HIDTA, see, White House, National Drug Control Strategy: 1996 (GPO: Washington, DC, 1996), p. 15, and section IV.
Juanita Colombani, ‘Amplia la presencia de las unidades militares’, El Nuevo Día, 16 August 1997, p. 26.
Leonor Mulero, ‘Puerto Rico la base escogida’, El Nuevo Día, 1 August 1997, p. 4; and, ‘Desembarco millonario de beneficios’, p. 5
Hans Binnendjik and Erik Kjonnerod, ‘Pavana 2000’, Strategic Forum, No. 117, June 1997, pp. 3–4.
Juan R. Torruellas, ‘One Judge’s Attempt at a Rational Discussion of the SoCalled War on Drugs’, Revista Jurídica, Vol. 66, No. 1 (1996), pp. 34–5.
José Fernández Colon, ‘Promotora política pública’, El Nuevo Día, 8 March 1997, p. 4.
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Beruff, J.R. (2000). ‘Narcodemocracy’ or Anti-drug Leviathan: Political Consequences of the Drug War in the Puerto Rican High-intensity Drug-trafficking Area. In: Griffith, I.L. (eds) The Political Economy of Drugs in the Caribbean. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288966_9
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