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Organized Crime and the State in Colombia

Garay gives a very strong analysis of the corrupted Colombian state...
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1211

Gustavo Gómez, Semana: What does cooptation of the state consist of?

Luis Jorge Garay: It is the exercise through which a person or group, legal or illegal, taking advantage of its power of influence, intermediates before the state to favor its own interests. Within the law, a business association for example is coopting when, through the exercise of its power of influence, it gets the state to adopt sectoral policies that favor it, even against the collective interest. On the other hand, the case of illegality takes place with organized criminal groups, on occasion in alliance with legal sectors, who seek to reconfigure state institutions for their advantage, through the state itself.

...

GG: What advance did the paramilitaries make with regard to infiltration, compared to these previous experiences?

LJG: The scenario of an intensification of the fight against the guerrillas, to the point at which, with the active participation of legal sectors and with the intervention of illegal groups, illegal armies were established. They understood that a mafia without territorial dominion would not reach power, and that a mafia without a state has no reason to exist. These armies, to their very central nucleus, were penetrated by narcotrafficking in their attempt to coopt the state. This even took them to the Congress, so that it is possible to talk about the narco-para-political phenomenon.

...

GG: Should we mistrust the successes of Democratic Security?

LJG: There are evident advances, like the weakening of the FARC, and effectiveness in the dismantling of the top narco-paramilitary leadership. But at the regional level, agreements with some sectors of the political class continue, and organized crime has regrouped as “emerging bands.” There are still armed groups that have created “a new social order” in some regions, to the advantage of some legal actors.

more... http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1211

By romy on Nov 19, 2009, 09:16 in Politics & the war.

romy says on Nov 19, 2009, 09:17:

Garay expresses what I feel very much in the following...

GG: Would you prefer to avoid optimism when you think of Colombia’s future?

LJG: I realistically view the deep problems we face in order to develop as a true democracy, but I’m optimistic that we, as a society, can react. Much is lacking, that is true, to arrive at true social justice and democracy.

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makopp5 says on Nov 19, 2009, 09:23:

romy
here is the real titel: A big difference make the word COULD or not?

The economist and researcher Luis Jorge Garay coordinated for the Fundación Método a study about what, in boldly simple terms, could be labeled organized crime’s infiltration of the state. …

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romy says on Nov 19, 2009, 09:52:

huh?

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BUSHWICK-BILL says on Nov 19, 2009, 10:44:

Thank Romy
This shows what kind of state is Colombia. A state ruled by thugs... Uribe was on a list of Medellin Narcos... He was one of the founders of CONVIVIR. The paramilitaries are responsible for 1000000000000 of massacres...

--

SEXY TIMEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEARkn-QtQ4

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ranaquajo says on Nov 19, 2009, 10:50:

... except for the specific history, this could be about the US or Italy or ....... the list of countries it doesn't affect is probably the shorter list ...

... or as Camilo Wilson says:

"All of this is quite good. The dynamic and the static characteristics of the cooptation are well described. Yet deeper forces seem to be at play, things vitally important that linger at the mind’s edge and beg to be addressed: Why this dynamic and these resulting characteristics? Why? What are their causes? I can imagine that those lurk somewhere deep in Colombia’s past (but alas, history itself is never a “cause”!).

It seems that any analysis that pretends to remedy this troubling situation must strive carefully to identify the causes, and that any resulting prescriptive remedies must link closely to those causes. I would like for Professor Garay to move to another level and to address those. (For all I know, maybe he has.)"

... nihil declaro .....

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medefockinllin says on Nov 19, 2009, 20:15:

Bushwick-Bill speaks the truth. Uribe is a fake.

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miamimike says on Nov 19, 2009, 23:22:

BB--Oh Oh Your comment is going to bring out the Right Wing Spooks like Bears to a Honeycomb...Preparate

"You can take the Banana Out of the Republic but you Cannot take the Republic Out Of The Banana"

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