Suchergebnisse

"Important study of the dynamics of smuggling and influence of illicit trade on the development of late colonial Venezuelan economy. Tied into the ebb and flow of both international war and the Caracas company, contraband trafficking in hides, mules, tobacco, and cacao, exchanged for products such as comestibles, textiles, and slaves, reflected regional commercial norms. Smuggling therefore developed its own infrastructure that paralleled and even overlapped legal networks of provincial exchange and influence"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58

From the 1990's the United States adopted a border enforcement strategy to discourage illegal immigrants from attempting to enter the country. However, tougher enforcement did not prevent migrant crossings. This paper, based on a qualitative methodology that includes in depth interviews with eighty migrant smugglers, examines the causes of corruption of U.S. immigration officials and concludes that corruption is a key element in migrant smuggling because it makes it easier to get the migrants across the borders. The complicity of border and immigration officials with smugglers and employers explains why today's probability of apprehension is lower than half a century ago. Adapted from the source document.

An investigation into the murder of 4 Salvadoran deputies, including 3 members of PARLACEN, whose bodies were found in Guatemala in 2007. The journalist-author links the crime to drug smuggling, narco-politico corruption, and a ring of hired assassins