Conference Program

The levels of violence in many Latin American drug-producing, transit, and consuming countries escalated so fast and to levels so high that civil society and policymakers have desperately grasped at ‘common sense’ straws – whether implementing a ‘mano dura’ strategy, blaming systemic corruption in the polity or police, or hoping that legalization of drugs will bring peace(Centeno 2009; Fair 2010; Rivera 2011; Pion-Berlin & Trikunas 2011; Garzón-Vergara 2016; Roque 2017). This high level of violence generates erroneous claims of causality, declarations of ‘war against drugs” and analogies to civil war by politicians, media, and the police and acceptance of such views by the public. By misunderstanding the phenomenon, public discourse and policy make little progress in controlling the violence that has devastated communities and, indeed, entire countries.

“The Crisis of Democracy” is by no means unprecedented, however, we consider that in a moment of stress in the contemporary political process, mainly in Western liberal democracies, the theme returns with centrality. In contrast to other regions in the world where populist contestations and erosion of democracy have been taking place since the early 2010s, societal violence was already high in Latin America.