The underground and criminal economy in Latin America

Julia Buxton

Chapter 10 in The Elgar Companion to the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025, pp 240-256 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores the resilience of informal and illicit economies in Latin America. It explains the ‘underground’ as a symptom rather than a cause of long-standing social challenges. These include land poverty, exclusion, corruption, and racism. Structural inequalities are a consequence of weak states captured by enduring systems of elite patronage and power. Starting in the 1980s, externally sponsored rule of law and anti-crime initiatives aimed to strengthen the credibility and presence of state institutions. Overly focused on drug control and boosting the state's monopoly of violence, external interventions exacerbated existing frailties. Repressive strategies failed to acknowledge the centrality of the ‘underground’ in local political economies or the role of the state as a mediator of criminal opportunity. Militarized assistance responded to Global North experiences, priorities, and concerns, with counterproductive outcomes for justice, security, and development in Latin America.

Keywords: Underground; Illicit; Crime; Cocaine; Repression; Informal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035317196
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