University:
University of Wyoming
Course:
POLS4445 | Drug War Geopolitics in the Americas
Academic year:

2023
Views:

411

Pages:

1
Author:

Allison B.

McSweeny et al. focuses on Honduras’ Mosquitia region and the economic and environmental impacts of cartels and drug trafficking there. “Narco-brokers”, as learned in the lecture and reading have taken advantage of both the infrastructure there and individuals, creating a system in which cartels are able to use local populations as the workforce for their trafficking and use land, via “land-grabs”, to build the infrastructure (like runways) in remote areas and cause environmental degradation. On a similar note to the Bendtsen article, I found the explanation of why narcos invest in Honduran cattle to be interesting, it is one of the easiest ways to “hide” their money in a way with a reliable investment. The Bendtsen article from the Boomerang examines the case of Almanza's Restaurant being tied to money laundering with the Sinaloa Cartel and was found in the DEA’s database. I found the portion of this article that discussed how money came to the restaurant to be interesting, obviously the cartel couldn’t wire large sums of money because it would alert authorities so they sold the restaurant beef (from their narcos cattle herds nonetheless) at inflated rates, with $2.3 million in Aguilar’s primary bank account. I personally found this article interesting because it relates to our everyday lives, it can be easy at times to push off drug trafficking and laundering exclusively to Latin American countries and not acknowledge its existence in the US, and even in Laramie.