Drug trafficking and drug-related violence have increased dramatically in Latin America's Southern Cone during the last decade. Illicit activities have increased and diversified in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay in a way that threatens political and social inclusion. The talk will discuss the evolution of drug-related crime and how these dynamics affect social and political stability in the long term. It will also address how governments have reacted, the nature of their strategies, and the extent to which these countries have learned from Central and North American experiences.

About the Speakers

Juan Bogliaccini is a Professor of Political Science at the Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Católica del Uruguay (UCU). He is also Chair of the Methods Center at UCU, and editor of the Latin American Political Economy Series at Palgrave Macmillan. He obtained a PhD in Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012. His work focuses on the political economy of redistribution and inequality, in the areas of comparative capitalism, skills formation, security and welfare states. His recent work has appeared, among other places, in Economics & Politics, Studies in Comparative International Development, Third World Quarterly, Development Policy Review, Journal of Latin American Studies, LARR, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan.  

Emiliano Tealde is an Associate Professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics at the Università Degli Studi di Siena, Italy. His research is focused on studying the causes and consequences of criminal activity.