Abstract
This chapter examines the political economy dynamics of Haiti and Panama after the 1994 and 1989 interventions, and the role of drug trafficking and money laundering in those dynamics. No other countries in the Caribbean Basin — with the exception of Mexico — have been more closely linked to the United States and have had more impact on US hemispheric policy than Panama and Haiti. The United States has intervened militarily in both countries several times during the twentieth century.’ Moreover, issues such as immigration, drug production and trafficking, and money laundering, so important to US domestic politics, have been at the forefront of US relations with both countries.
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Notes
Following the work of Max Weber, I define the state as follows: an organization, composed of various agencies led and coordinated by the state’s leadership (executive authority) that has the ability or authority to make and implement the binding rules for all the people as well as the parameters of rule making for other social organizations in a given territory, using force if necessary. A weak state is thus one that is unable to make and/or implement the binding rules for a society. See Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, edited by Talcott Parson ( New York: The Free Press, 1964 ), p. 156.
For an examination of the nature and impact of weak states, see Joel Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States: State-Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988 ).
Eduardo A. Gamarra, ‘Market-oriented Reforms and Democratization in Latin America: Challenges in the 1990s’, in William C. Smith, Carlos H. Acura, and Eduardo A. Gamarra (eds), Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 1994); and Aldo Vacs, ‘Convergence and Dissension: Democracy, Markets and Structural Reform in World Perspective’, in Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform op. cit.
See Ethan A. Nadelman, Cops Across Borders: The Internalization of US Criminal Law Enforcement. (University Park: Penn State University Press, 1993 ).
See Peter Andreas, ‘The Retreat and Resurgence of the State: Liberalizing and Criminalizing Cross-Border Flows in an Integrated World’, paper presented at the 1995 meeting of the American Political Science Association; P. Williams, ‘Transnational Criminal Organizations: Strategic Alliances’, Washington Quarterly, winter 1995, pp. 57–72.
D. Von Drehle, ‘Ohhhhh Miami’, American Bar Association Journal, 1 April 1988, pp. 62–66.
Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations ( New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1982 ).
Francisco F. Thoumi, Political Economy and Illegal Drugs in Colombia ( Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 1995 ) p. 175.
For a discussion of the meaning and effect of this prebendary state, see Alex Dupuy, Haiti in the New World Order: The Limits of the Democratic Revolution ( Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997 ).
Jean Jean-Pierre, The Tenth Department’, NACLA Report on the Americas, v. XXVII, no. 4 (January/February 1994 ).
James Ridgeway, ‘Haiti is Here’, The Village Voice, 3 May 1994.
For a detailed discussion of the Haitian revolution see, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution ( New York: New Vintage Books, 1963 ).
Patrick Elie, ‘Press Briefing on the Haitian Drug Trade’, The Haiti Files: Decoding the Crisis ( Washington, DC: Essential Books/Azul Editions, 1994 ), pp. 163–4.
See Amy Wilentz, The Rainy Season: Haiti since Duvalier ( New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989 ), pp. 172–3;
Creg Chamberlain, ‘An Interregnum: Haitian History from 1987 to 1990’, in Deidre McFadyen et al. (eds), Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads ( Boston, MA: South End Press, 1995 ).
Don Bohning, ‘Intervention in Haiti Slowly Restoring Peace’, Miami Herald, 16 September 1995.
See Tammerlin Drummond, ‘A Constabulary of Thugs’, Time Magazine, 17 February 1997. pp. 62–3.
Omar Jaén Suárez, La población del Istmo de Panamá del siglo XVI al siglo XX ( Panama City: Impresora de la Nación, 1978 ), pp. 305–7.
Julian Steward, ‘Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups’, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, Vol 120, 1979, p. 2.
Alfredo Castillero Calvo, ‘Transitismo y dependencia: El caso del Istmo de Panama’, Loteria, no. 210, July, 1973; pp. 17–40;
Alfredo Castillero Calvo, Economia Terciaria y Sociedad: Panama Siglos XVI y XVII. ( Panamá: Impresora de la Nación, 1980 );
Alfredo Castillero Calvo, America Hispana: Aproximaciones a la historia economica ( Panamá: Impresora de la Nación/INAC, 1983 ).
Ricardo Arias Calderón, ‘Panama: Disaster or Democracy?’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 66, Winter 1987/88, p.329.
Larry LaRae Pippin, The Remon Era (Stanford, CA: Institute of Hispanic American and Luso-Brazilian Studies, Stanford University, 1964 ).
Robin Theobald, Corruption, Development and Underdevelopment. (Durharm, NC: Duke University Press, 1990), pp. 86, 98, and 101.
US Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, 100th Cong. 2nd sess., 1988, pts 2 and 3.
From the various testimonies, it appears that total money laundering resulting from drug trade exceeded $10 billion a year after 1984. See US Congress, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy: Report, 100th Cong., 2nd sess. (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1989 ).
Frederick Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator (New York: Putnam, 1990). For other accounts of the Noriega years, see John, Dinges, Our Man in Panama. (New York: Random House);
Margaret Scranton, The Noriega Years: US-Panamanian Relations, 1981–1990 ( Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 1991 );
and see Kevin Buckley, Panama: The Whole Story ( New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991 ).
See Mark Sullivan, ‘Panama-US Relations: Continuing Policy Concerns’, CRS Issue Brief, 15 January 1993, p. 10.
See Jorge Conte-Porras, El crédito, la banca y la moneda panameña ( Panama City: Banco Nacional de Panamá, 1983 ).
See Luis Moreno, Panamá: centro bancario international. (Panama City: Asociación Bancaria de Panamá, 1988);
Comisión Bancaria Nacional, Banking Law of Panama. ( Panama City: Republic of Panama, 1986 ).
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Pérez, O.J. (2000). Drugs and Post-Intervention Political Economy in Haiti and Panama. In: Griffith, I.L. (eds) The Political Economy of Drugs in the Caribbean. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288966_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288966_8
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