Drug trafficking has undoubtedly become a reality that has deeply permeated the global economy. According to Global Financial Integrity, this illicit business moves the staggering sum of USD 320 billion, which is embedded in various global banking systems in countries around the world, but especially in those that favor money laundering, such as so-called “tax havens”.

It is commonly believed that drug trafficking operates mainly in countries with high rates of violence and increased social conflict. However, this prejudice overlooks the fact that it is precisely the most “developed” countries that are the main destination for drug production and, in many cases, where the profits from this business are sent.

However, it is undeniable that in Latin America, for example, drug trafficking has caused real social upheaval. The number of deaths and crimes resulting from the increase in drug trafficking and production has risen steadily across most of the region. Although Latin America accounts for only 8% of the world’s population, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) states that one-third of all homicides globally occur in that region, which is completely disproportionate considering that there is no war between countries at this time.

In addition, drug trafficking has penetrated various spheres of society, including politics, which is often plagued by scandals involving politicians and the illegal trade.

This is because, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), drug production has increased exponentially over the last 20 years, and Latin America is one of the regions where most drugs are produced. These problems also bring others, such as arms trafficking, human trafficking, organ sales, etc., which, added to drug trafficking, form part of a complex network of illicit businesses controlled by transnational organized crime (cartels and mafias from various countries), allied with groups or gangs from each country that wage bloody battles and carry out killings for control of the production, trade, and sale of drugs in Latin America, but also throughout the world.

Clearly, those who suffer most from a business focused on drug consumption in the global North are the inhabitants of the South. The dramatic growth of drug trafficking has led to a widespread increase in insecurity and violence, which has triggered significant migration processes within countries and even to other nations.

If there are countries where there has not been a significant increase in deaths, it is because local criminal groups have not engaged in major bloody battles, as in Bolivia, Peru, or Paraguay. In other countries, such as Ecuador, Mexico, and several Central American countries, these disputes have led to a brutal increase in the homicide rate, which often also includes those caught in the crossfire who have nothing to do with the disputes between mafias.

Read More: Colombian president Gustavo Petro calls for an end to the War on Drugs in historic UN address

The masterstroke of neoliberalism

This has inevitably caused enormous anxiety among the populations of several countries in the region, which, for the first time in their history, are facing such an aberrant situation of violence. As a result, Latin Americans’ greatest concern at present is the high levels of insecurity. And if there is one political tendency that has taken advantage of this reality, it has been the region’s right-wing politicians.

In her famous book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”, Naomi Klein explains that neoliberalism has managed to take root and develop precisely where it has been able to capitalize on serious internal crises that cause disorientation among people and, consequently, vulnerability. She explains this in the cases of the Chilean dictatorship that began in 1973, the Iraq War, and the policies implemented after Hurricane Katrina.

Crises, Klein explains, are key moments for implementing the dismantling and reduction of the state, the privatization of all possible dimensions of social life, and the destruction of social organizations that oppose neoliberalism (through peaceful or violent means).

Uruguayan writer Raúl Zibechi goes beyond Klein’s thesis when he asserts that drug trafficking is precisely a business that has grown exponentially during the implementation of neoliberal capitalism, and that it is precisely this growth that allows and promotes its application.

But, in addition, it does something even more profound, says Zibechi: it controls the popular sectors that have historically fought against the neoliberal measures of the economic elites and disciplines them to the point of neutralizing them.

Thus, contrary to what one might think, international and regional elites are not simply taking advantage of the turmoil created by drug trafficking, but are indirectly and consciously using it to implement a neoliberal economic model by nullifying any possible response from those social and political sectors that have historically resisted the process of material dispossession.

How has this masterstroke worked?

In several countries in the region, right-wing politicians such as Calderón and Peña Nieto in Mexico, Uribe and Santos in Colombia, Lasso and Noboa in Ecuador, Bukele in El Salvador, etc., have articulated their political discourse around the fight against criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking. To this end, they have declared themselves loyal allies of Washington, which, they claim, provides military, logistical, and intelligence support to wage the “war on drugs.”

In this regard, sociologist William Robinson has empirically shown how Washington and the elites of each country have used the so-called “war on drugs” as a discursive and material tool to ensure political stability and implement neoliberal reforms.

The results are clear: the “war on drugs” projects have not led to the elimination of these illicit businesses; on the contrary, violence has increased. Despite the praise of the country’s radical right wing, Colombia remains one of the two largest producers of cocaine in the world.

After almost a decade of war on drugs in Mexico, more than 350,000 people have been killed, yet Mexican cartels remain one of the most powerful mafias in the production and sale of drugs worldwide.

After almost two years in office and a series of military-style measures, the administration of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has been unable to reduce the death toll. What’s more, 2025 has been the most violent year in the country’s history (almost 7,000 deaths as of September)…and the year is not over yet.

Thus, several experts have viewed the implementation of neoliberal governments’ security policies as a complete failure, with the notable exception of El Salvador, where crime rates have fallen dramatically, although it should be noted that this country has seen significant public investment, unlike orthodox neoliberal governments. In any case, the vast majority of administrations that follow an ultraliberal economic policy have been extremely successful in implementing and developing neoliberalism in the region.

During these administrations in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, and several other Latin American countries, economic elites have seen their economic situation and political influence improve significantly. Likewise, the United States has greatly enhanced its influence in the region thanks to security cooperation with these governments, including the establishment of military bases in several strategic areas of Latin America, as has been the case in Colombia.

Read More: Authoritarianism, austerity, repression, and false narratives: the crisis in Ecuador

This week, Ecuador will decide at the polls whether to approve Noboa’s desire to establish foreign bases on national territory, which is currently prohibited by the constitution. In addition, Noboa seeks to abolish the current constitution and create a new neoliberal one under the justification that it is a constitution “that defends criminals,” as the president stated.

A new justification for political violence

Similarly, Washington has initiated a new geopolitical move by deploying military troops in the Caribbean Sea to, they claim, fight against the “narcoterrorist” gangs that allegedly control the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro, who has insisted that these accusations are a ploy to overthrow his government and justify a military invasion of the South American and Caribbean country.

This political attempt to associate leftist and progressive forces with narcoterrorism, as seen in the Venezuelan case, is not new and has already served to justify political assassinations in Latin America.

In recent years in Colombia, hundreds of peasant social leaders have been assassinated, often unjustifiably associated with drug trafficking groups.

In Mexico, there was the notorious case of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa who disappeared in 2014 in the context of the “war on drugs”; several politicians and media outlets initially claimed that they were “drug traffickers” or “guerrillas,” which has never been proven.

During recent protests against Daniel Noboa’s government in Ecuador (in which several people were killed), some high-level officials claimed that the Indigenous protesters were being financed by organized crime groups, and a huge media campaign was launched calling the protesters “terrorists”, without any evidence ever being presented to support this claim. The same claim was made by Noboa’s predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, who never proved his assertions.

It is true that it is not new for Latin American leftist leaders to be accused of crimes that are never proven or that are manipulated to imprison them and, in many cases, torture and extrajudicially kill them (Latin American history is rife with these regrettable events). However, never before has the crime of drug trafficking been used to justify excessive action against the opposition.

Read More: US deploys aircraft carrier and threatens invasion of Venezuela

Associating the left with narco-terrorism: the tactic of the Latin American right

In this way, the neoliberal right wing has been attempting for several years, quite successfully, to associate drug trafficking with any project that opposes its economic and political logic.

For example, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (who governed the country between 2007 and 2017 with a social democratic program) “did not like [the United States] because he was supported by drug traffickers.”

Along the same lines, the current Argentine president, the ultra-liberal Javier Milei, said in an interview: “The whole drug issue is linked to the international left that enters your country to blow it up and push it towards left-wing solutions.”

https://www.tiktok.com/@laizquierdadiario/video/7208652368991227141

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump’s administration sanctioned Colombia’s progressive president, Gustavo Petro, for alleged links to drug trafficking. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production has exploded to its highest level in decades, flooding the US and poisoning Americans.”

In this way, the right wing seeks to ensure that any process that originates from the left is immediately viewed by the people as something that deserves a moment of suspicion and mistrust. Thus, it seeks to develop the notion that the only morally acceptable political process is one that comes from the right. In this sense, a struggle for moral legitimacy in Latin American politics has been undertaken.

The increase in the power of law enforcement (thanks to an unprecedented growth in military and police spending), along with an attempt to reshape the popular view of the Latin American left as an ally of drug trafficking, has created the perfect climate for neutralizing sectors that have historically opposed neoliberal economic elites. Even a large part of the Latin American left has not understood how to counter this double tactic of its staunchest opponents.

Added to this is the major lawfare offensive launched by right-wing governments across the region to destroy the reputation of former Latin American progressive leaders and bar them from running for public office again. As a result, former presidents such as Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Cristina Fernández (Argentina), and Pedro Castillo (Peru) have been handed down court sentences that prevent them from re-entering the electoral arena.

Even the current president of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, was imprisoned as a result of a court decision, despite being one of the few examples of ex presidents who managed to overturn a court decision and return to the presidential seat. And while these former presidents were not directly associated with drug trafficking, they have been convicted of alleged acts of corruption.

Evidently, the Latin American right defends these decisions, although for many there remains a strong suspicion that this is not just a matter of accusing an individual, but also of tarnishing the name of an entire political process (which in the case of Latin American progressivism has a clear component of leader worship) so that neoliberalism has a clear path to undertake the reforms it so desires.

The post What else is behind the “fight” against drug trafficking in Latin America? appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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