Extortion and coercion in Medellín, Colombia
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Despite the drastic reduction in the number of homicides in Medellin (from 6500 in 1991 to 591 in 2019) which has been categorized as social urbanism and internationally highlighted as a model, the other forms of crime do not relent. Violence intended for extortion is one of the most significant challenges to the development of cities besieged by mafias, such as Medellin. Relying on the empirical findings and intermediate analytical categories of three recent field investigations on urban extortion, this article introduces a conceptual perspective to identify how illicit and legal activities are amalgamated with each other, and with local dynamics. Violent protection, inherited from the confrontation of the Medellin drug cartel with the Colombian State, is strengthened by coercion intended for extortion. This systematic and widespread form of violence has allowed the amalgamation of the legal with the illegal in a growing number of social dimensions.
Downloads
Article Details
Urvio, Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad, operates under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Work 3.0 unported (CC BY-ND 3.0).
The authors who publish in Urvio accept these terms:
You are free to share / copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, including commercial. Therefore, authors retain the copyright and cede to the journal the right of the first publication (CC by-ND 3.0), which allows third parties the redistribution, commercial or noncommercial, of what is published as long as the article circulates without changes.
The following conditions exist for the authors:
Recognition - you must recognize the authorship, provide a link to the license and indicate whether changes have been made. You can do this in any way reasonable, but not in a way that suggest that has the support of the licensor or receives it by the use he makes.
Without Derivative Work – If you remixed, transform or create a work from the original material, you cannot broadcast the modified material.
For more details, visit the page of Creative Commons (CC).
