Organized Crimes and Politics - Research Paper Example

Organized Crimes and Politics Organized crime emerges from the vacuum of power that is caused by the absence of enforcement. Weak state enforcement can be attributed to many reasons such as geography, ethnic polarization, social divide, or the failure of state institutions. Gangs and mafias have their own hierarchy and apparently provide primary state functions. However, their economic costs are way higher than the cost of modern government. Organized crimes are similar to corruption in the sense that they cannot be completely eliminated however with better governance they can be managed. Organized crimes are among the major threats to security and development. This is the dark side of globalization. Criminal chains and mafias have transnational operations. They capitalize through international trade and are constantly expanding (UNICRI, n.d.). They act like multinational corporations (UNICRI, n.d.). They analyze countries just like a financial analyst valuing an asset. They rate each country based on its risk, benefits and business policies. They also rate each country according to the politicians they can put in their pockets easily. Without political support organized crimes cannot function with the speed and influence they operate with. They need political leverage to run their operations. The lack of judicial and enforcement tools helps promote criminal syndicates (UNICRI, n.d.). Drug trafficking, ammunitions, counterfeiting, money laundering are some of the direct benefits organized criminals enjoy due to this privilege. Organized criminals seek every way to infiltrate politics and economics of a country. Government institutions are supposed to be immune to corruption. On the other hand, weak governance or corrupt politicians create the bridge between organized criminals and national wealth and power (UNICRI, n.d.). Politicians give them access to the resources they need and in return they get financial and other benefits. As a consequence, the money which is supposed to strengthen education, development and health, goes into the pockets of these criminal. The poor class of the society suffers the most when politicians and criminals join hands. They are deprived of economic and developmental opportunities. The price of public service rises and gets out of the reach of common people. Poverty and inequality rises as a result. Almost all developing or underdeveloped countries in the world are textbook examples of the situation. The nexus between organized criminals and politicians is not hidden from the publics eye. But the effect of this knowledge is even more destructive than being oblivious. When economic inequality starts rising it causes the public to question the credibility of public institutions. This causes unrest in the society by becoming vulnerable and unstable. The social divide and inequality triggers violence and causes increased poverty. People start to lose confidence in ordinary politicians and even in political leaders. Organized crimes need an unstable society. They feed on the underdevelopment of a country. They need political agents to keep the situation on status quo. For instance there are certain behaviors that the organized criminals desire in a society because it is good for their business. The majority victims of smuggling or human trafficking are the poor class of the society. Similarly farmers of a developing country love producing illicit crops because they do not have a sustainable alternative that their government is supposed to provide. Organized criminals need bad governance that almost forces farmers to produce illicit crops. Eventually these crops end up in the warehouses and storage areas of drug cartels. When politics and organized crimes operate in unison there are is a class of politicians and public servants that do not want to be a part of this joint operation. However, when the corruption sucks the finances and the resources out of the society they are left with no choice but to cooperate in the corrupt system. Which leads the public vulnerable for exploitation. Organized criminals need chaos in the society so they can sell their weapons to fuel a conflict. They raise and fund politicians who can play the power brokers for their businesses. For instance they will fund a politician who will play ethnicity card to polarize the society. Which is necessary to ignite the fire of hatred. They need to create fear in the society so people can feel exposed and vulnerable. As a result they pay money to buy weapons for their protection. They create the demand for their products. An in-depth look into the relationship between politicians and organized crime revealed that both parties are dependent on each other for benefits. Money is the main reason that determines whose opinion bears more weightage in the political process. Corruption is the main link between criminal groups and political elites (Schulte-Bockholt, 2006). It is money that dictates the terms of how politicians operate. An obvious relationship exists between politics and business but when the agreements and cooperation are done through the backdoor channels it distorts the language of political behavior. When businesses start influencing politicians it poses a threat to the integrity of electoral system. It also undermines the mechanisms for political accountability. Hence dirty money finds its way into politics and is a very useful tool for organized crime units to influence government policies. Developing countries are full of such cases. Latin America is well known for being a magnet for drug money. During 1970s Costa Rican politicians were accused of accepting money and other benefits from the US financier Robert Vesco when he was hiding from law enforcement back at home (Casas-Casas-Zamora, 2010). Vesco had allegedly earned his money from heroin smuggling and was a strong supporter of the winning party during the 1974 election (Casas-Zamora, 2010). His support has been verified by the former Costa Rican president of Jose Figueres. During that period the campaign financing activities were not regulated by Costa Rican law. And it remained unregulated for a long time that triggered a new scandal 10 years later (Casas-Zamora, 2010). The main competing parties in the election were found guilty of accepting contributions from donors that had allegedly earned their huge piles of cash through drug trade. An important donor in the list was General Manuel A. Noriega (Casas-Zamora, 2010). He was the leader of Panama during that time. His involvement in drug trafficking caused a US military intervention in 1989 that kicked him out of power. Local law enforcement and other public servant bodies do intervene in criminal activities. They constrain the illegal activities but organized crime units see it as nothing but damage control, just like business tax (Casas-Zamora, 2013). The former Bolivian President Jaime Paz Casas-Zamora also faced his share of similar accusations. During the 1980s his election campaigns were tainted by accusations that connected him to drug traffickers (Burcher, 2013). In 1994 Panama’s President Ernesto Perez Balladares also faced such accusations (Burcher, 2013). Ecuador, Colombia and Peru also show similar organized crime patterns and their relationships with political actors. The Andean region is the best example of this backdoor business relationship. For instance in Ecuador, Manabi is considered an important center for transporting drugs to Central America (Burcher, 2013). Foreign drug mafias have built and maintained relationships with politicians. The business community is also not immune to the influence of drug cartels. The former governor of this area Cesar Fernandez is a well-known case when he was convicted of taking favors from other parties like criminal organizations (Burcher, 2013). Puno, Peru is similar in this regards. When goods were smuggled from Bolivia and illegal mining was underway along with the production of coca paste, all of such economic activities word the basis for the countrys financial backbone. All of these illegal activities were happening under the nose of the government (Burcher, 2013). The business community and drug mafias had contributed immense amounts of money towards electoral campaigns so they could get their desired politicians elected. Antioquia, Columbia is the highlight of this example. The municipality of Bello saw local criminal groups maintaining semi-open relationships with local politicians for several years (Burcher, 2013). They provided them with financial and logistic support to run their electoral campaigns. There are several commonalities between these regions where politicians and drug mafias collaborate for joint ventures. Such collaboration occurs where regional and local politics is reserved for only the elite class. This class controls the political and economic factors in their specific districts. Such local group heads usually run organized crime for their own benefits. They want to control the region to maintain political control and to fund their personal and political agendas. Therefore they forge strategic alliances with several other networks. Organized crime uses a specific structure suitable for that area. They operate as a network. The operations might be centralized or operating under a system where different center are spread out acting independently. Organized crime does not mean that there is a central governing body that controls each and every operation in the city. In such activities it is not necessary that all of them must be connected to each other. Usually they coordinate with each other through temporary arrangements. This usually happens through non-hierarchy of pattern. This flexibility allows politicians to participate in illegal businesses. It is useful for them because they do not serve a permanent boss and do not become subordinated to only one group. Where ever there is organized crime there is the violence and bloodshed. However this can be a side effect or a direct consequence of an operation. Whichever the case it might be it is undesirable, it draws too much attention to the cartel activities. Many crime units prefer creating strategic alliances with politicians to get the state support. This can be achieved through omission or action. Criminal organizations may or may not get immediate benefits for their involvement in the politics. It can be in the form of quid pro quo arrangements but usually it is offered through a series of favors. Omission to take action against the criminal organization is probably the most sought after favor. Similarly politicians can facilitate illegal business activities for these criminal organizations. Regardless of how evil an organize crime unit maybe they still need some sort of support from public. Many foundations and institutes also play the role of powerbrokers between political leaders and drug lords. These institutes sometimes have contracts with local establishment. The way it works is that criminals carry out some form of charity work to fund those communities as well as to gain popular support. Crime units have a cushion to fall back on to. It also creates a sort of protective shield against government’s pressure. The history of organized crime reveals that despite pressures of seeing practical actions against criminal organizations they usually fail because governments fails to tackle the real problem of criminal activity - money. Some countries have started moving towards identifying and prosecuting financial structures of crime networks. Usually such actions reveal the links between these organizations and political leaders. Organized crime has impunity when politicians are unable to perform their duties. To manage organized crime a government needs strong institutional capacities to curb the activities of crime syndicates. The problems created by transnational organized crime units permeate national borders. It requires an international cooperative action to minimize their activities. As discussed in the paper, corruption and organized crime go hand in hand and are similar to each other. They cannot be eliminated but minimized through good governance. References Burcher, C. (2013) The link between politics and organized crime in the Andean region. IDEA. Retrieved http://www.idea.int/americas/the-link-between-politics-and-organized-crime-in-the-andean-region.cfm Casas-Zamora, K. (2010) Dirty money: How to break the link between organized crime and politics. Americas Quarterly. Retrieved http://www.americasquarterly.org/casas-Casas-Zamora Casas-Zamora, K. (2013) Dangerous liaisons: Organized crime and political finances in Latin America and beyond. Brookings Institution Press. Schulte-Bockholt, A. (2006) The politics of organized crime and the organized crime of politics: A study in criminal power. Lexington Books. UNICRI (n.d.) Organized crime and corruption. United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute. Retrieved http://www.unicri.it/topics/organized_crime_corruption/ Read More