UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE

INSTITUT UNIVERSITAIRE DE HAUTES ÉTUDES INTERNATIONALES

Border Spillover

Drug Trafficking and National Security in South America

Thèse
présentée à l´Université de Genève
pour l´obtention du grade de Docteur en Relations Internationales

(science politique)

par

Pablo Gabriel DREYFUS

(de Argentine)

Jury :
Pr Keith KRAUSE, IUHEI, Genève
Pr Victor-Yves GHEBALI, IUHEI, Genève
Pr Phil WILLIAMS, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Thèse N° 636

Genève, 2002

      To my grandfather Orlando Piazzetta
In memoriam

      Research for this dissertation was made possible by the 1996 Arditi Award in International Relations (Fondation Arditi, Geneva, Switzerland); a scholarship from The Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI, Geneva, granted for the academic years 1995-96,1996-97, and 1998-99); and a research fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, which that allowed me to stay as a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs / University Center for International Studies (GSPIA/UCIS), University of Pittsburgh during the academic year 1997-98, where I also received travel support and access to research facilities.

      I also want to thank:

      My family and my friends. They were always there.

      Professors Keith Krause (HEI), Victor Yves Ghébali (HEI) and Phil Williams (University of Pittsburgh), for doing their jobs so well.

      The staff of the library of The Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva), the United Nations library (Geneva), the library of the Institut Universitaire d´Études du Développement (IUED, Geneva), and the Hillman library of the University of Pittsburgh, for their help. I would like to extend special thanks to Mrs. Martine Basset from the inter-library loan section of HEI´s library and to the staff of the interlibrary loan department of the Hillman Library. I am also grateful to Mrs. Maung from the documentation section of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) office in Vienna, Mrs. Sofía Kosmas from the Documentation Center of the Interamerican Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD-Organization of American States), Mrs. María del Carmen Acero, librarian of the Ministerio de Justicia y del Derecho, Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes (Ministry of Justice and Law, National Drug Directorate) in Colombia (whom I never met personally but who mailed me invaluable statistical data), and to the personnel of the library of the Comisión Nacional Antidrogas (National Drug Control Commission CNA) of Venezuela.

      All the people I interviewed for this dissertation for their time, help advice and sincerity.

      Dr. Rosa del Olmo, Director of the Fundación Felix Ribas (Caracas, Venezuela), for her advice during my field research in Venezuela.

      The staff of the Latin America and Caribbean Section of UNDCP (Vienna and La Paz) and the members of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-UNDCP team in the Chapare, who answered all my questions, were never annoyed at all by my curiosity, and took me everywhere they could during my field research in Bolivia.

      The staff of OAS-CICAD for listening and answering.

      The staff of the Argentine drug abuse prevention and drug trafficking control secretariat (SEDRONAR), the Central Data Division of the Dangerous Drugs Superintendence of the Argentine Federal Police, the Drugs and Defense Commissions of the Argentine Congress and the Comisión Nacional Antidrogas (CNA, Venezuela) for their openness and trust.

      Jessica Galeria, from Viva Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) for careful editing of the English in the final version of this dissertation (including these acknowledgments).

      En partant du concept de sécurité nationale au sens large, cette thèse expose les raisons pour lesquelles le trafic de drogues représente une menace commune aux pays sud-américains, caractérisés par des éléments de vulnérabilité de nature comparable, et subissant la pression d'un même acteur hégémonique extérieur (les Etats-Unis). L'argument central de ce travail est que les politiques militarisées menées (de manière spontanée ou sous la pression des Etats-Unis) à fin de supprimer le trafic de drogues ne peuvent qu'aggraver les menaces sur la sécurité des pays producteurs (Colombie et Bolivie) et des pays voisins (Venezuela, Argentine). Cette thèse est fondée en grande partie sur des entretiens et des recherches realisées sur le terrain. Dans le cas de l´Argentine, les entretiens ont eté utilisés pour analyser systématiquement les croyances (beliefs) des hauts-fonctionnaires de la Sécurité et la Défense vis-à-vis de la militarisation de la répression du trafic de drogues en Bolivie.