Question 1
The origins of paramilitary organizations in Colombia reflects the reaction of right-wing groups that emerged during the Cold War as the result of leftist revolutionary movements that threatened to topple the social, economic, and political elites, notably FARC. In Children of the Drug Trade: A Case Study of Children in Armed Violence in Rio de Janeiro, Luke Dowdney documents the emergence of paramilitaries around the world as reactionary forces against leftist revolutionary forces. In many cases, the paramilitaries emerge due to financing and provision of personnel from the military. The paramilitary support the government efforts to fight the leftist revolutionary force. Moreover, the paramilitaries were indirectly financed through …show more content…
For example, as Dudley documents, a well-organized ambush by the Zetas against a Sinaloa group in Guatemala left 60 dead. The Zetas rely on their paramilitary structure and the violence it presents rather than their roots in the community for their efficacy. By contrast, drug-trafficking groups such as the Sinaloa, La Familia, and Tijuana cartels attempt to integrate themselves socially, politically, and economically into a community, winning the hearts and minds, not imposing fear, of residents. Dudley attributes the vertical structure and strong-arm tactics of the Zetas as emanating from the military background of the organization, thus designating it as a paramilitary force even though it lacks any right-wing ideological …show more content…
The authors of Organized Crime in Central America note the benefits packages that members of the Zetas receive upon recruitment. These contend with those provided by the Mexican, Honduran, and Guatemalan military and law enforcement to lure members away from these institutions. Interestingly, there is some spillover from these institutions into the Zetas that reflects the origins and ideologies of paramilitaries in Colombia. Dudley asserts that many of the Guatemalan military that have defected to the Zetas did so after being retired from service after the end of the Cold War, when the leftist revolutionaries in Guatemala were no longer a fighting force but integrated into the political system. As a result of the end of the Cold War, many former military personnel in Guatemala were out of work and thus gravitated toward working for the Zetas, not to fight revolutionaries and work in the drug trade to finance this underlying motivation but rather to work in the drug trade
The origins of paramilitary organizations in Colombia reflects the reaction of right-wing groups that emerged during the Cold War as the result of leftist revolutionary movements that threatened to topple the social, economic, and political elites, notably FARC. In Children of the Drug Trade: A Case Study of Children in Armed Violence in Rio de Janeiro, Luke Dowdney documents the emergence of paramilitaries around the world as reactionary forces against leftist revolutionary forces. In many cases, the paramilitaries emerge due to financing and provision of personnel from the military. The paramilitary support the government efforts to fight the leftist revolutionary force. Moreover, the paramilitaries were indirectly financed through …show more content…
For example, as Dudley documents, a well-organized ambush by the Zetas against a Sinaloa group in Guatemala left 60 dead. The Zetas rely on their paramilitary structure and the violence it presents rather than their roots in the community for their efficacy. By contrast, drug-trafficking groups such as the Sinaloa, La Familia, and Tijuana cartels attempt to integrate themselves socially, politically, and economically into a community, winning the hearts and minds, not imposing fear, of residents. Dudley attributes the vertical structure and strong-arm tactics of the Zetas as emanating from the military background of the organization, thus designating it as a paramilitary force even though it lacks any right-wing ideological …show more content…
The authors of Organized Crime in Central America note the benefits packages that members of the Zetas receive upon recruitment. These contend with those provided by the Mexican, Honduran, and Guatemalan military and law enforcement to lure members away from these institutions. Interestingly, there is some spillover from these institutions into the Zetas that reflects the origins and ideologies of paramilitaries in Colombia. Dudley asserts that many of the Guatemalan military that have defected to the Zetas did so after being retired from service after the end of the Cold War, when the leftist revolutionaries in Guatemala were no longer a fighting force but integrated into the political system. As a result of the end of the Cold War, many former military personnel in Guatemala were out of work and thus gravitated toward working for the Zetas, not to fight revolutionaries and work in the drug trade to finance this underlying motivation but rather to work in the drug trade