Resumo

J. BENITEZ, Galia et al. Current voices in the phenomenon of illicit drug couriers in Colombia. Rev. Crim. [online]. 2017, vol.59, n.3, pp.125-139. ISSN 1794-3108.

This document derives from the analysis carried out on the accounts and narratives of illegal drug carriers popularly known as “pasantes”, more generally as mules, and in a special way, it stresses the view focused on the phenomenon of illicit drug trafficking in Colombia. The article’s objectives are: firstly to characterize the multiplicity of concepts used to describe this phenomenon and offer a definition capable of encompassing different meanings, and secondly to show conceptual categories stemming from the illicit drug accounts.

The methodology used content analysis to describe, systematize and analyze the voluntary testimonies of 42 individuals accused and convicted in Colombia as illegal drug carriers. In this research it is argued that one of the various elements helping understand the mule phenomenon and their experience is their vulnerability conditions. On the one hand, they have a peripheral place in drug trafficker’s organizations. On the other hand, their vulnerability to the social-technical system established by the State to prevent illicit-drug transportation is very high. . This study shows that the mule’s narratives can be categorized into four dichotomies serving as rhetoric elements for the breaking of the legality/illegality binary.

Palavras-chave : Criminalization; criminality factors; social factors in criminality; economic factors in criminality; conditioning factors.

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