The Evolution of Los Zetas in Mexico and Central America: Sadism as an Instrument of Cartel Warfare

View the Executive SummaryThe United States has diplomatic relations with 194 independent nations. Of these, none is more important to America than Mexico in terms of trade, investment, tourism, natural resources, migration, energy, and security. In recent years, narco-violence has afflicted Mexico with more than 50,000 drug-related murders since 2007 and some 26,000 men, women, and children missing. President Enrique Peña Nieto has tried to divert national attention from the bloodshed through reforms in energy, education, anti-hunger, health-care, and other areas. Even though the death rate has declined since the chief executive took office on December 1, 2012, other crimes continue to plague his nation. Members of the business community report continual extortion demands; the national oil company PEMEX suffers widespread theft of oil, gas, explosives, and solvents (with which to prepare methamphetamines); hundreds of Central American migrants have shown up in mass graves; and the public identifies the police with corruption and villainy. Washington policymakers, who overwhelmingly concentrate on Asia and the Mideast, would be well-advised to focus on the acute dangers that lie principally below the Rio Grande, but whose deadly avatars are spilling into our nation.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1501/thumbnail.jp

Fear and Trepidation: The Socio-Cultural Impact of Maritime Piracy and Illicit Smuggling in San Francisco De Campeche 1630 - 1705

Piracy has a long history globally, but one of the most extreme periods of pirate activity occurred in the Caribbean Sea during the 16th through the 18th centuries. This thesis analyzes the socio-cultural impact that piracy produced in the port town of San Francisco de Campeche, located in the coastal area of the province of Yucatan in the Kingdom of New Spain. In this port and settlement, Spaniards, the Indigenous population, peoples of African descent and people from throughout the Spanish Empire suffered together the atrocities of the violent sackings and plundering by various groups of robbers from the sea (variously French Corsairs, English and Dutch Privateers, and buccaneers and pirates from all three nations). The objective of this work is to examine and chronicle the various changes that piracy produced in the daily lives of these people in Campeche

The Face of the World: A Study on the Cosmological among the K’iche’ Maya of Momostenango

The relationship between cosmology and social life has been a long-standing theoretical problem in anthropology: why do people in many different societies often assert that their social actions proceed not from themselves, but from ancestors, gods and cosmological forces? Despite general calls for a holistic understanding of social life and native ideas, cosmology as a topic in social anthropology has been understood in a reductionist sense, as a system of representations that ‘justifies’ or guides the actions of people within a social system, a reflection of more ‘real’ or ‘rational’ underlying notions uncovered by the anthropologist. Inspired by non-reductionist models of causation which arose in the study of emergence in biological systems, this thesis proposes to understand cosmological action in social life as an instance of “downward causation”, a phenomenon where a high-level entity may influence and exert causation upon its own constituent parts. Inspired by my own ethnographic study of the cosmology of the K’iche’ Maya of Guatemala and its influence in concrete lives, I propose a twist to former sociological applications of this concept. In K’iche’ cosmology, sacred altars are actual containers of copies of cosmological entities and powers; by interacting with these places, people can act interact with ancestors and the gods, changing their own social fortunes and even acting in behalf of cosmological forces. Following the proposals of the ‘ontological turn’ to take people’s conceptions about their own social experiences seriously, I propose that, in anthropology, downward causation must be ‘flipped upside down’ to better grasp the point of view of the other: instead of conceiving cosmology as an emergent property of social systems which acts upon its own constituent parts, we should understand social agents as emergent properties of cosmological systems, defined by their capacity of exerting cosmological actions upon social life

The Local Dimension of Transnational Activity in Environmental Conflicts: Tambogrande, 1961-2004

Based on the in-depth analysis of the Tambogrande case, the most well known case of social mobilization in Peru, I argue that the success or failure of transnational activity is closely linked to actions performed on the grassroots level by local organizations before the arrival of outsiders. Between 1999 and 2004, Tambogrande was the site of intense transnational activity. The support given by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) like Oxfam Great Britain and Oxfam America was crucial to stop a Canadian mining company, Manhattan Minerals Corporation (MMC), interested in the extraction of the minerals lying underneath. The existing literature about this case of environmental conflict highlights the contributions of the INGOs neglecting a deeper account of the past trajectories of the local actors. I argue that this successful case of transnational activity was the direct result of a long series of protests that began in 1961 when hundreds of farmers from different regions of Peru arrived to colonize the desert to create what is now the San Lorenzo Valley. The reconstruction of four previous decades of protests shows that the key elements that facilitated the success of the transnational alliances established in the period 1999-2004 were domestically created long before the arrival of INGOs. Specifically, I maintain that these key elements were three. First, a social movement organization (SMO) composed of representatives of pre-existing grassroots organizations such as agricultural, labor, commercial and political guilds. Second, a porous state office (PSO) that remained at the service of social mobilization as a source of democratic and legal legitimacy for more than twenty years. Third, a domestic non-governmental bridging organization (DNGBO) that functioned as a broker between grassroots organizations, social leaders, national NGOs and international NGOs

Making Transparency Possible

"Each year local and national economies throughout the world lose billions of dollars through so-called illicit financial flows. Conservative estimates indicate that over a billion dollars are diverted illegitimately out of countries in the Southern Hemisphere every year. This diversion of revenue reinforces poverty while facilitating the concentration of authority in the hands a select few through corruption and abuse of power. The authors’ objective with this book is to increase transparency in finance and global financial transactions. Understanding the phenomenon of illicit financial flows requires input from several disciplines including law, finance and economics, and much of what is known about illicit financial flows is thanks to whistleblowers and investigative journalists. This anthology highlights journalism about illicit, global financial activity from an interdisciplinary perspective. In conveying the experiences of whistleblowers and investigative journalists who have been involved with the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Lux Leaks and Swiss Leaks, the contributing authors underscore the need for journalism students to also learn the basics of economics, finance and law if they are to be able to carry out investigative projects in an increasingly more globalized economy. In the first part of the book, investigative journalists describe their work to expose corruption and capital flight, and whistleblowers in some of the most significant cases tell their stories, while lawyers and accountants explain what needs to be done at the legislative level. In the second half of the book, analyses of revelations of corruption and illegitimate financial flows are presented. The authors explore themes including the value of investigative journalism, new journalistic methods, inadequate protections for whistleblowers and the education of investigative journalists. This book will be of interest to anyone concerned about illicit financial flows, but especially to journalists, journalism students and journalism instructors seeking an understanding of what it takes to reveal the mechanisms behind illicit, global flows of wealth."Hvert år tappes lokalsamfunn og stater over hele verden for milliarder av kroner på grunn av såkalt illegitim finansflyt. Forsiktige anslag indikerer at 10 milliarder kroner blir ført illegitimt ut av land i Sør hvert år. Skjulte finansstrømmer forsterker fattigdom samtidig som det legger til rette for at noen få holder seg ved makten gjennom korrupsjon og maktmisbruk. Forfatterne av denne boka ønsker å bidra til mer åpenhet om finans og globale finanstransaksjoner. For å forstå fenomenet illegetim finansflyt er det nødvendig med innspill fra flere fagfelt, som jus, finans og økonomi. Mye av det vi vet om skjulte finansstrømmer, vet vi takket være varslere og gravende journalister. Denne boka kaster lys over journalistikk om skjulte, globale finansstrømmer fra ulike fagdisiplinære perspektiv. Gjennom å lære av historiene til varslere og gravende journalister som har arbeidet med blant annet Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Lux Leaks og Swiss Leaks, viser forfatterne at journaliststudenter bør lære mer om både økonomi, finans og jus dersom de skal kunne gjennomføre graveprosjekter i en stadig mer global økonomi. I første del av boka forteller gravende journalister om arbeidet for å avsløre korrupsjon og finansflukt. Varslere i noen av de mest kjente sakene forteller sin historie, mens advokater og revisorer forklarer hva som må gjøres med lovverket. Den andre delen av boka består av analyser av korrupsjonsavsløringer og illegitim finansflyt. Forfatterne belyser tema som verdien av gravejournalistikk, nye journalistiske metoder, mangelfull beskyttelse av varslere og utdanning av gravejournalister. Denne boka passer for alle som er interesserte i illegitim finansflyt, men passer spesielt for journalister, journaliststudenter og journalistikklærere som ønsker å forstå hva som trengs for å avdekke mekanismene i skjulte, globale finansstrømmer

Claiming Space, Redefining Politics: Urban Protest and Grassroots Power in Bolivia

This dissertation analyzes the role of space-claiming protests by primarily left grassroots social movements in Bolivia\u27s current political transformation. Space claiming includes mass protests that physically control or symbolically claim urban space through occupations of plazas and roads, sit-ins, blockades, and other measures. As a theoretical construct, space claiming brings together tactics of collective action and meanings of public spaces, and looks at the consequences of their interaction. This dissertation is based on ethnographic engagement and oral interviews with protest participants and their state interlocutors during twelve months of fieldwork and archival research. By using detailed ethnographic evidence--of social life as experienced through the human body, the meanings attached to places, and social movement practices--it explains how grassroots movements exerted leverage upon the state through pivotal protest events. This study shows that the political import of these protests arises from their interruption of commercially important flows and appropriation of meaning-laden spaces in cities like Cochabamba and Sucre. Social movements used spatial meanings, protest symbols and rhetoric to build an imagined community of interest and sovereignty, which claims the right to direct the political course of the state. The presence of indigenous bodies, symbols, and politics in these spaces challenged and inverted their longstanding exclusion from power. The largest mobilizations exercised control over aspects of daily life that would otherwise be organized by the state. These interruptions of commerce and circulation, and the collective gatherings that directed them posed an alternate possibility of sovereignty. This put the existing order into question, forcing shifts in political life to resolve the temporary crises. At the same time, the practices of disruption were added to the routines of political practice, making future officeholders even less able to maneuver independently of the grassroots base. This dissertation explains why and how space-claiming protests work as political tools, and the ways that practices of cooperation, coordination, and decision making within protest have become models for Bolivia\u27s political culture. In doing so, it contributes to the study of social protest in Latin America, the theory of social movement practice, and the geographic study of political protest

Print, Powder, Compass: Technological Inter-animation and Early Modern Literature

This project foregrounds the pressures that three transformative technologies in the long sixteenth century—the printing press, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass—placed on long-held literary practices, as well as on cultural and social structures. Taking a circulatory-ecological approach to the study of literature and technology, it suggests new ways of reading (and of needing to read) the period’s written corpus. Specifically, the project disinters the “clash” (and concomitant “carnivalism”) between humanist drives and print culture (especially vis-à-vis print error); places the rise of gunpowder warfare beside the equivalent rise in literary romances and chivalric tournaments, thus forcing a re-evaluation of the impetuses for the latter; and illustrates fraught attempts by humanists to hold on to classicist traditions of expression (often to unintentionally humorous ends) in the face of seismic changes in navigation and the discovery of new worlds. Not only how literature responded to the radical technological changes of the period is thereby advanced, but also how literature was sometimes forced, through unanticipated destabilizations, to reimagine what it was, or could be—or even couldn’t be any longer.Doctor of Philosoph

Exploring Crónicas through their value positions : a narrative discourse analysis of contemporary literary journalism on the Mexican illicit drug trade

The heart of this dissertation consists of texts that represent crónicas, a contemporary form of Mexican literary journalism. The dissertation’s original contribution is its concentration on crónicas from a unique angle – through the value positions they reveal. The theme of the illicit drug trade is used as a methodological and contextual tool with which to filter out valid texts about controversies and representations of societal frictions. The aim of the study is to answer three main questions. Firstly, what value positions can be discerned in discourses in the contemporary Mexican crónicas that deal with the illicit drug trade? Secondly, how are these value positions composed? The third and final question consists of two parts, and its answers are valid only within the scope of the current textual corpus: taking into consideration the answers to the first two questions, what is the form of a crónica and what is its function in Mexico’s literary, journalistic, and social scene? To answer these questions, ten crónicas have been selected for analysis. The theoretical framing revolves around three main concepts: values, discourses, and the crónica as a genre. Values are theorized from axiological viewpoints of value theory, and ‘value’ is defined as something considered as either good or important (or negatively, not good or not important). For discourse, I apply the narrative approach (Todorov), the action-based approach (Potter & Wetherell), and the Foucauldian approach, which looks at discourse as a generator of social and collective meaning(s). With regard to the crónica, defining the genre is one of the secondary aims of this monograph. In the process of framing the crónica, both previous scholarly work and current research results are considered. To answer my research questions, I employ narrative discourse analysis. The model for the analysis is derived from the semiotic square and actantial model, developed by semiotician Algirdas Greimas. Based on Greimas, I have formed a compatible model that helps to systemize the accounts of values, and this model points to corresponding narrative structures in the texts. The Greimas-inspired axiological model for narrative analysis figuratively presents the relations between the actantial value positions in the narrative and makes it possible to reflect results in reference to the reality the actants depict. The results of this study demonstrate three main aspects of the value positions in contemporary Mexican crónicas dealing with the illicit drug trade: variety, inconsistency, and contradiction. In composing the value positions, mostly abstract and allusive modalities are employed. In order to heighten emotion in readers, authors of the crónicas mainly use four types of literary mood: irony, suspense, worry, and melodrama. In terms of form, the crónica, according to this study, could be defined as a genre that mediates the author’s value positions vis-à-vis circumstantial value positions. The function of the crónica can be described as giving a description, analysis, explanation, or criticism of different value positions. All in all, it could be said that the crónicas have powerful evaluative potential.Väitöskirjan aiheena on arvoihin liittyvä merkityksen luominen Meksikon huumekauppaa käsittelevissä cronika-nimisissä julkaisuissa. Huumekauppaa syvällisesti käsittelevien kymmenen artiklan (julkaistu 2000-2013) analysoinnin kautta on väitöskirjassa avattu nykyisen Meksikon polemiikkia aiheuttavia yhteiskunnallisia keskusteluja. Väitöskirjan tavoitteena on myös cronika-julkaisutyypin esittely, sillä eurooppalaisessa tutkimuksessa on tätä merkittävää Latinalaisen Amerikan narratiivisen journalismin tyylilajia vielä melko vähän käsitelty. Arvoihin liittyvien narratiivisen diskurssin analyysissä on käytetty Algirdas Greimasin kehittämiä semioottisia malleja. Väitöskirja esittää yhteenvetona seuraavat teesit: Meksikolaista huumekauppaa käsittelevien cronikojen luonteenomaisia arvoja ovat vaihtelevuus, epäsopu ja ristiriidat. Artikkeleiden kirjoittajat käyttävät huolestunutta, ironista, jännittynyttä tai melodramaattista narratiivista sävyä, tarkoituksena herättää lukijoissa tunnereaktioita arvoihin liittyvissä tekstinosuuksissa. Kronikan tehtävä näyttää olevan ensisijaisesti arvoihin liittyvä eli mm. arvojen kuvaaminen, analysoiminen, selvittäminen ja myöskin arvosteleminen

The Tapuia of Northeastern Brazil in Dutch sources (1628–1648)

This book presents the transcriptions and annotated translations of fifteen key historical documents concerning the Tapuia indigenous people written just before and during the Dutch occupation of northeastern Brazil. The selected documents vary widely in type, including letters, descriptions, reports, first-person declarations, diaries, and transcripts of interrogations, thereby showcasing different perspectives and audiences. Some of the documents were authored by European writers, while others register indigenous voices somewhat more directly in the form of interviews or declarations.These texts provide important first-hand information about the Tapuia and other indigenous peoples during the Dutch conquest, revealing their cultural practices and knowledge while also detailing their strategic engagements with each other and with different European colonizers.Horizon 2020(H2020)ERC Agreement No. 715423Heritage of Indigenous People