Speakers: Lina Britto, Assistant Professor Department of History, Northwestern University

Froylan Enciso, CIDE; Senior Analyst, Crisis Group Mexico

For the last half a century, Mexico and Colombia have been ground zeros of the problematic drug trade that connects North and South America in a murderous circuit of profits and politics. This talk addresses the local, regional, national, and transnational origins of the illegal business in both countries in a comparative manner that highlights similarities, differences, and connections in a historical perspective. Historians Froylán Enciso and Lina Britto analyze how efforts at agrarian reform and modernization, inter-state relations with the United States, and social values of the popular culture contributed to prepare the soil for the flourishing of the drug industry in Sinaloa and the Guajira, the two regions where the drug trade originated in Mexico and Colombia, respectively. By comparing the two cases in a counterpoint, the talk reveals a broader picture about how this hemispheric industry thrives in the porous boundaries between legality and social legitimacy.