Crime in Uniform

Corruption and Impunity in Latin America

Adriana Rossi

Martin Jelsma

Ricardo Soberon

Theo Roncken, Frank Smyth, Carlos Fazio, Thelma Mejía, Samuel Blixen, Jayme Brener

April 1997

Crime in Uniform presents detailed case studies examining the involvement of Latin American security forces in the illicit drug industry.

The case studies in Crime in Uniform shed light on the specific "modus operandi" of corruption of national security and law enforcement institutions. The authors challenge the traditional image of criminals corrupting state apparatus to obtain protection for their ugly deeds. Instead, the case studies suggest a far more complex, dynamic, and intimate commingling of criminal and state structures, with uniformed officials fully integrated at the operational level of the illegal economy. Beyond the lowest category of corruption -widespread bribery, Crime in Uniform presents evidence of high-level uniformed involvement- from protection of drug trafficking to direct logistical participation.

Introduction
Martin Jelsma

Corruption, Drug Trafficking and the Armed Forces
An approximation for Latin America
Ricardo Soberón Garrido

Argentina: Internal Insecurity
Adriana Rossi

Narco Jets and Police Protection in Bolivia
Theo Roncken

Colombia's Blowback
Formerly CIA-backed Paramilitaries are Major Drug Traffickers Now
Frank Smyth

Mexico: The Narco General Case
Carlos Fazio

Unfinished Business
The Military and Drugs in Honduras
Thelma Mejía

Uruguay: Berríos the Bothersome Biochemist
Samuel Blixen

Paraguay: An Unpunished Crime
Jayme Brener

Adriana Rossi

Adriana Rossi coordinates Centro del Sur, the Center for Study and Research on Drugs and Drugs Trafficking of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR) in Argentina. She is a contributing member of the Drugs & Democracy team. Rossi also accompanied a bigger TNI team on a mission to Venezuela and has done research for the No Bases network.

Martin Jelsma

TNI Drugs and Democracy Programme Coordinator

Martin Jelsma is a political scientist who has specialised in Latin America and international drugs policy. In 2005, he received the Alfred R. Lindesmith Award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship, which stated that Jelsma "is increasingly recognized as one of, if not the, outstanding strategists in terms of how international institutions deal with drugs and drug policy."

In 1995 he initiated and has since co-oordinated TNI's Drugs & Democracy Programme which focuses on drugs and conflict studies with a focus on the Andean/Amazon region, Burma/Myanmar and Afghanistan, and on the analysis and dialogues around international drug policy making processes (with a special focus on the UN drug control system). Martin is a regular speaker at international policy conferences and advises various NGOs and government officials on developments in the drugs field. He is co-editor of the TNI Drugs & Conflict debate papers and the Drug Policy Briefing series.

Ricardo Soberon

Ricardo Soberón Garrido, member of TNI's Drugs & Democracy team, is a Peruvian lawyer and analyst on drug trafficking and counter-narcotics policies in the Andean region.