Spotlight 37: Feminicides and a never-ending war
How gender-based violence in Colombia can be linked to drug trafficking
Good morning and welcome back to the 37th issue of Spotlight, a fortnightly collection of news, articles, events and much more about organised crime and corruption around the world curated by Firm UK.
The 25th of November marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and this gives us yet another opportunity to think about how much work has to be done to prevent and educate all people towards this urgent matter, everywhere. Feminicide - a word, unfortunately, too familiar in every corner of the world - gets also a different meaning in Colombia, where women are being killed not just for being, in fact, women but also in a never-ending war. It is believed that the sad phenomenon has found dangerous grounds in Tibù, a Colombian town on the border with Venezuela, which has become a corridor for drug trafficking and illegal armed groups.
So, with the occasion on such an important day, we would like to start this issue by suggesting you a long read by Insight Crime: it is a six-part investigation supported by an explainer video.
We hope you enjoy Spotlight and, if you like it, please share it with your network and invite them to subscribe.
Thank you!
ARTICLES AND NEWS WORTH READING
Femicides in Tibú, Colombia: Cocaine, Gunmen, and a Never-Ending War
This investigation exposes gender-based violence in Tibú, a Colombian town located on the border with Venezuela that serves as a drug trafficking corridor for several illegal armed groups. In 2021, at least 13 women were killed and dozens more were forced to flee the municipality amid one of the worst waves of violence ever seen in the area
This long in-depth investigation runs as a series of stories and narratives and it has 6 different chapters -
1. A Wave of Murders
2. Women Join Forces
3. Trapped in the Middle
4. The People March, but Women Continue to Flee
5. Prosecutors Set Off Alarm Bells.
6. The Permanent Wave.
You can also watch an explainer video here.
Corruption: The Common Source of Environmental Crime in the Amazon
This is chapter 5 of an investigation on Stolen Amazon: The Roots of Environmental Crime in Five Countries. This chapter looks at how corruption facilitates environmental crime across Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, and Suriname. It investigates how entrepreneurial criminal networks are propped up by legal actors, including security forces, regulators, authorities, and legally registered enterprises that facilitate land grabbing, illegal logging, illegal mining, and wildlife trafficking. This often occurs on the ground at a lower level via the payment of bribes to corrupt authorities.
The dark web down under: what’s driving the rise and rise of NZ’s ‘Tor Market’ for illegal drugs?
New Zealand is generally proud of being a world leader, but there’s one claim that might not be universally admired: being home to the longest-running English-language market for illegal drugs on the so-called “darknet”.
Known as “Tor Market”, it has been active since March 2018 and has outlived several larger and better-known operations such as “Dream Market”, “Hydra Market” and “Empire”. The longevity of Tor Market is surprising, given so many darknet drug markets have only lasted relatively briefly. The article looks at some of the trends in the Tor Market. It notices:
“The rising of international listings on Tor Market may reflect wider problems in the darknet ecosystem, including the closure of previously dominant darknet markets and the unreliability of many sites due to denial-of-service attacks.”
World Cup 2022: why is Qatar a controversial location for the FIFA tournament?
The decision to award Qatar hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup has been marred by controversy, including allegations of corruption and human rights violations since it was first announced 12 years ago.
This article takes a look at the issues, in particular corruption allegations.
A Similar view is shared by this other article “A Beginner's Guide to Everything Wrong with the Qatar World Cup”.
Forced Migration and the Politics of Violence in El Salvador
This article looks at forced migration in El Salvador to explore what drives these displacements. It suggests that besides gang and criminal violence, affecting much of the mobilization from the Central American nation, economic precarity, the effects of climate change, and gender violence all contribute to forced migration in and from northern Central America.
On top of this, it delves into El Salvador’s responses to gang violence and presence in the country, a combination of punitive and suppressive measures under the mano dura (iron fist) strategy, and shows how these approaches have spurred the transformation of the nation’s gangs and acted as an accelerant to their destructive behaviour.
The Kingpin Strategy: More Violence, No Peace
By focusing especially on the case of Mexico, the article explores the effects of the kingpin strategy developed by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to “weaken, dismantle and destroy” drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) by targeting the management and leadership structures that enabled key activities including production, transportation, distribution and financial management.
Mainly, the article suggests that whilst the kingpin strategy can remove key figures from DTOs, it does very little to stem drug trafficking itself as there are always others willing to step into highly profitable leadership roles.
Its failures, it suggests, are particularly evident in Mexico, where the targeting of key figures from the country’s myriad cartels has repeatedly led to fragmentation and violence.
Cristopher Kinahn, a convicted heroin dealer
Christopher Kinahn is an Irish-British drug trafficker. A convicted heroin dealer, fraudster and money launderer speaking English, Dutch, Spanish, and French, he is involved with companies in Dubai, Singapore and Malawi, and seamlessly operates across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
This article, based on leaked materials, reconstructs his fascinating story from when he was a petty smuggler in Ireland to how he almost bought a fleet of military transport planes for his international business.
The Sinaloa Cartel and the DEA strategy
While the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warns about a new strategy to sell fentanyl to children and teenagers, implying pushing rainbow-coloured pills, operatives in the Sinaloa Cartel, the infamous Mexican drug trafficking organisation, say it is the opposite. A cartel cook – responsible for producing the drug – explained that the colouring only serves the purpose to distinguish fentanyl from cocaine or white heroin in order to prevent the dangerous practice of mixing these substances. He denied that his organisation is targeting kids or young adults.
BEYOND THE NEWS
Corruption in the Labor Movement: Labor Rackets & Corruption in the Labor Movement: A New Cast of Thieves
Corruption by labour union officials, whether in service to themselves, political allies, or organised crime syndicates, has been a fixture of American labour history since the labour movement first began to organise in the late 19th century.
While the extent of criminal influence in organised labour has declined thanks to extensive federal law enforcement activity and judicial oversight, major corruption scandals continue to dog the union movement.
From the recent kickback scheme at the United Auto Workers to the downfall of Philadelphia union boss and political fixer Johnny Doc Dougherty to the confession of former Teamsters boss John Coli, who was well connected to Chicago politicos, systemic corruption persists.
These two articles look at the structure of labour rackets, through a historical perspective, and at examples of labour racketeering through what is likely the largest federal union corruption investigation since the 1990s centred on a kickback scheme run through a joint union-management training centre. Fiat Chrysler executives and agents would approve the use of training centre funds to benefit United Auto Workers officials. In its corporate guilty plea, Fiat Chrysler admitted to paying over $3.5 million in total bribes to UAW brass.
EVENTS
[Monday, 21st November 2022, h 12:30 -14:00 GMT - Dockrill Room, Department of War Studies, K6.07 King's College London Strand London WC2R 2LS]
Drawing on the specific cases of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, the event seeks to discuss how politics and (in)security are shaping and being shaped by the global war on drugs and organised crime.
[Monday, 28th November 2022, h 17:00 - 18:30 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm GMT]
This event will honour the lives and the work of Dom Phillips, a British journalist who was writing a book about sustainable ways to protect the Amazon, and Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian advocate for Indigenous peoples. Phillips and Pereira joined forces to tackle the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the threats posed to its inhabitants. They disappeared on 5 June 2022, in the Javari Valley, in the far western part of the state of Amazonas, close to Brazil's border with Peru. Ten days later, their remains were found close to where they had gone missing. Their killing is a reflection of the systemic violence that has been amplified, supported and, indeed, encouraged by Brazil's current federal government.
In collaboration with the Human Rights Consortium (HRC), the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS), part of the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (ILCS), will host an online conversation with Alessandra Sampaio, Dom Phillips' wife; anthropologist Beatriz Matos, Bruno Pereira's wife; musician Sian Phillips, Dom Phillips' sister; and doctoral researcher Domonique Davies, Dom Phillips' niece.
Co-Chairs: Jamille Pinheiro Dias (ILCS) and Enaiê Mairê Azambuja (ILCS).
PODCASTS
Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime [The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime]
How to Respond to Environmental Crime
What does the term 'Environmental Crime' mean to you? Probably something like an elephant or rhino poaching. Perhaps the plight of the pangolin, the adorable little armoured mammal, often sighted as the "most trafficked animal in the world". But it is so much more than that - from the illegal wildlife trade to illicit plastic waste, and from unlawful mining to timber trafficking.
The Index [The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime]
Venezuela, Cocaine and State-Embedded Actors
Over the past three years, Insight Crime has investigated the relationship between the cocaine trade and Venezuela. Part of this investigation focuses on the state's role – some state actors who are actively involved, and other senior state actors who allow and enable the cocaine to flow.
Operation Soteria: a new approach to investigating rape [Today in Focus - The Guardian]
This episode by the weekday podcast Today in Focus (The Guardian) explores a new way of investigating rape bringing to light the need to cooperate among police forces, psychologists, experts and people at all levels involved with the topic: from anti-violence centres to activists to sociologist, a new approach is needed and is taking place between England and Wales to focus more on the perpetrator rather than on the victim. This an important episode to reflect on why it is so important to stop victim-blaming and start believing more in the stories that are being told.