The "pre-Colombian" era of drug trafficking in the Americas: Cocaine, 1945-1965

Americas

Volumn 64, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 133-176

  Gootenberg, Paul ^a  

^a STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60949695949     PISSN: 00031615     EISSN: 15336247     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tam.2007.0148     Document Type: Review

References (82)

1. For a longer perspective, Paul Gootenberg, ed., Cocaine: Global Histories (London: Routledge UK, 1999)
2. Paul Gootenberg, "Between Coca and Cocaine: A Century of More of U.S.-Peruvian Drug Paradoxes," Hispanic American Historical Review 83:1 (Feb. 2003), pp. 137-50
3. for use of Group 170, DEA historical documents, Luis Astorga, Drogas sin fronteras: Los expedientes de una guerra permanente, México y Los Estados Unidos, 1916-1970 (Mexico: Grijalbo Ed., 2003)
4. a survey of historical inter-American drug issues (written prior to access to DEA-FBN papers) is William Walker III, Drug Control in the Americas (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press: 1981/89)
5. FBN's secret war also in Douglas Valentine, Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs (London: Verso Press, 2004)
6. Richard Cobb, The Police and the People: French Popular Protest, 1789-1920 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970)
7. Carlo Ginzburg, "The Inquisitor as Anthropologist" in Clues, Myths and Historical Methods (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)
8. On drugs discourse, see Marek Kohn, Narcomania: On Heroin (London: Faber & Faber, 1987)
9. Luis Astorga, Mitología del "Narcotraficante" en México (Mexico: Plaza y Valdés, 1995)
10. Paul Gootenberg, "Talking Like a State: Drugs, Borders and the Language of Control," in Itty, Abraham and Willem van Schendel, eds., Illicit Flows and Criminal Things (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), pp. 101-27
11. Drug traffickers are rare subjects of historical research (besides Astorga on Mexico): Kathryn Meyer and Terry Parssinen (Asian) Webs of Smoke: Smuggling, Warlords, Spies and the History of the International Drug Trade (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998)
12. Alan A. Block, "European Drug Traffic and Traffickers Between the Wars: The Policy of Suppression and its Consequences," Journal of Social History 23/2 (1989), pp. 315-38
13. or (in part), Eduardo Sáenz Rovner, La conexión cubana: narcotráfico, contrabando y juego en Cuba entre los años 20 y comienzos de la Revolución (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2005)
14. For transnational optics, Gilbert Joseph, Catherine LeGrand, Ricardo Salvatorre, eds. Close Encounters of Empire: Rewriting the Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998)
15. Peter Reuter, Disorganized Crime: The Economics of the Visible Hand (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983)
16. Mark H. Haller, "Illegal Enterprise: A Theoretical and Historical Interpretation," Criminology 28:2 (1990), pp. 207-36
17. Michael Kenney, From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007), chs. 1-2
18. In-depth analysis is Paul Gootenberg, "Reluctance or Resistance: Constructing Cocaine (Prohibitions) in Peru, 1910-50," ch. 3 in Gootenberg, Cocaine
19. for the politics of control, Paul Gootenberg, "Secret Ingredients: The Politics of Coca in US-Peruvian Relations, 1915-65," Journal of Latin American Studies 36:2 (2004), pp. 233-61
20. Joseph F. Spillane, Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), chs. 6-7 or Karch (Japan) or Kohn (London) in Cocaine
21. David F. Musto, "America's First Cocaine Epidemic," Wilson Quarterly (Summer 1989), pp. 59-64
22. Bertil Renborg, International Drug Control: A Study of International Administration by and through the League of Nations (Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1947), pp. 147-48
23. U.S. National Archives, Record Group 59 (Dept. of State, hence RG59) LOT Files (Office Files), 55D607 Far East, Subject Files, "Name File of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers, 1927-42"
24. U.S. Treasury, Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), Traffic in Narcotics and Other Dangerous Drugs (Washington D.C.), all 1930s, quote, 1938
25. Paul Gootenberg, "Cocaine in Chains: The Rise and Demise of a Global Commodity, 1860-1950," in Z. Frank, C. Marichal, and S. Topik, eds., From Silver to Cocaine: Latin America Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), ch. 12
26. or economic laments in C.E. Paz Soldán, La Coca Peruana: Memorandum sobre su situación actual (Lima: SNA, 1936)
27. For "bebop" and cocaine, see Miles Davis (with Quincy Troupe), Miles: An Autobiography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), pp. 86, 95
28. Glenn J. Dorn, 'The American Reputation for Fair Play': Victor Raúl Haya de la Tone and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics," The Historian 48 (2003), pp. 59-81
29. Mario Vargas Llosa, A Fish in the Water: A Memoir, transl. Helen Lane (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994), p. 147, for an account of same local cocaine scene
30. Vistazo 331, 20 Jan. 1959
31. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1959
32. UN EC.SOC, E/CN.7/420 add. 1, "The Question of the Coca Leaf: Report by the National Health Services of Chile," 2 March 1962, p. 3
33. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1964, pp. 18, 31
34. Committee on Foreign Affairs, Study Mission to Latin America., The World Narcotics Problem: The Latin American Perspective
35. cf. Senate Judiciary Committee, 14 Sept. 1972, "World Drug Traffic and its Impact on U.S. Security," for $10 million Miami cocaine find on Squella-Avendaño, former air-force officer "slated to receive an important post in Allende government." E-Com., Daniel Palma A. (Santiago), Feb. 2006
36. Rosalie Schwartz, Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1997) p. 24
37. Enrique Cirules, The Mafia in Havana: A Caribbean Mob Story (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2004)
38. Sáenz Rovner, Conexión cubana, chs. 2, 6, 8
39. Mary K. Crabb, "Critical Care: An Ethnographic Journey into Health, Health Politics and Revolution in 20th-century Cuba," ms., ch. 12
40. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1957, "Cuba" (also 1960, 1962 reports)
41. INTERPOL, UN CND E/CN.7 "Illicit Traffic," "Clandestine laboratories" reports, 1953-61
42. Hank Messick and Burt Goldlatt, The Mobs and the Mafia: The Illustrated History of Organized Crime (New York: T. Crowell Co., 1972), pp. 5, 202-4. RG170 Box 54, Inter-American Conferences," 1960-64, "Statement of the USA Delegation," Rio, Feb. 1960
43. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1961-64 reports
44. RG170 Box 30, Subject file, Traffickers, "Cocaine Traffic between South America, Central America and the United States," New York, 1961, enclosures, and 19 July 1960
45. RG170 0660 Box 8, Cuba, 1958-59; RG59 DecFile 837.53, Cuba, 1955-59, #1037, 19 March 1959. DecFile 837.53, 23 March 1962, "Rejection of Cuban Note on Narcotics," William Walker III, Drugs in the Western Hemisphere (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1996), pp. 170-72
46. Harry I. Anslinger Papers (Pennsylvania State University Library), Box 6, Scrapbooks, press clippings, June 1962; RG170 0660, Country file, Bolivia, Box 6, 1955-62, Confidential, "Report of U.S. Delegation," Rio Conference, 1961
47. INTERPOL, E/CN.7/388, 447 1959, 1962, and PCOB "Traffic in Narcotic Drugs"; INTERPOL, "Clandestine Laboratories," 1945-60 (Paris, 1961 - no UN class), pp. 72-73. RG170 Box 30, Subject: Trafficking, 12 Oct. 1960
48. Derek Agnew, Undercover Agent - Narcotics: The Dramatic Story of the World's Secret War against Drug Racketeers (London: Souvenir Press, 1959), ch. 10. 1960: UN CND E/CN.7/393, April 1960, Illicit Traffic, "Inter-American Conference on the Illicit Traffic in Cocaine and Coca-Leaf," Rio de Janeiro (various designations, delegation reports)
49. Colombia trailed in Alvaro Camacho-Guizado and Andrés López-Restrepo, "From Smugglers to Drug-Lords to Traquetos; Changes in the Colombian Illicit Drug Organizations," in C. Welna and G. Gallón, eds., Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights in Colombia (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), pp. 65-69
50. reliant on Eduardo Sáenz-Rovner, "La prehistoria del narcotráfico en Colombia," Innovar (8 July-Dec. 1996), pp. 65-90, U.S. documents that show little "pre-history." RG170 0660 Box 10, Ecuador, 1961; on Blades, RG170 Box 161, Panama etc., "Subject: South America," 31 July 1964
51. Luis Astorga, "Cocaine in Mexico: a prelude to 'los narcos'" in Gootenberg, Cocaine, p. 185
52. Astorga, Drogas sin fronteras, pp. 296-98, 300-4, similar incidents based on RG170 FBN-FBND
53. FBN-FBND, Traffic in Drugs reports, all 1958-65
54. RG170 Box 30, "Cocaine Trafficking"; RG170 0660 Box 10 Foreign Countries, Mexico, 1964-65; RG170 0660 Foreign Countries - Mexico, Box 161 "Case: George Asaf de Bala," Nov. 1959
55. Astorga, Drogas sin fronteras, pp. 300-3; Astorga (oral communication, Aug. 2004) links these pioneers and 1980s Sonorans, who learned cocaine trade from Cubans incarcerated in Mexico
56. James Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins; Political Struggles in Bolivia, 1952-1982 (London: Verso Press, 1984), and pp. 308-26 on post-1970 cocaine politics
57. for coca, see detailed consular "Coca Reports," for FBN, e.g., RG170 Box 8, "Drugs - Coca Chewing," 1937-1963
58. "Alleged Smuggling of Cocaine to Brazil," 16 May 1950
59. RG170 0660 Box 19, 23 July 1951; "Bolivian Police Uncover Narcotics Organization" 16 Oct. 1951
60. "Further Developments in ... Narcotics Trade," 28 Nov 1951; 5 March 1953. RG59 DecFile 824.53/4-450, Narcotics - Bolivia, 23 July 1951; RG 170 Box 1, Ecuador, April 30, 1953
61. Leo Spitzer, Hotel Bolivia: The Culture of Memory in a Refuge From Nazism (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998); Jews as drug traders in Block, "European Traffic," pp. 324-25
62. RG59 DecFile 824.53/22956, Narcotics-Bolivia, 23 March 1956; DecFile 824.53/5-2958, "Fábrica de Jabones y Champú se elaborada Cocaína en Gran Escala," La Nación, 29 May 1958
63. RG170 0660, Bolivia, "Investigation of cocaine smuggler BLANCA IBANEZ DE SANCHEZ of La Paz, Bolivia," 12 Nov. 1958 (and 4-16-58)
64. RG170 Box 54, Conferences, "The Bianca Ibáñez de Sánchez Gang of International Illicit Cocaine Traffickers," 26 Nov. 1962
65. FBN, Traffic in Drugs, 1960, "Bolivia," pp. 41-42
66. INTERPOL "Clandestine Laboratories," 1960, p. 73
67. Dunkerley, Rebellion in Veins, p. 108
68. "Report of Delegation to 2nd Meeting of Inter-American Consultative Group," Jan. 1962; Rio report, Nov. 27-Dec. 7 1961, p. 15
69. On Che, René Bascopé Aspiazu, La veta blanca: coca y cocaína en Bolivia (La Paz: Eds. Aqui, 1982), p. 60
70. "Illicit Traffic in Cocaine,"1 Sept 1964, Inter-American Consultative Group," pp. 4-5
71. On lowland migration, see Harry Sanabria, The Coca Boom and Rural Social Change in Bolivia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993)
72. RG170 0660 Bolivia, Box 6, Durkin to INTERPOL, 2 June 1967; "Bi-Annual Summary ... of Manufacture, Traffic, and Consumption of Narcotics in Bolivia," July-Dec. 1966
73. Block, "European Traffic"; Meyer and Parsinnen, Webs of Smoke; Kenney, Pablo to Osama
74. "International Aspects of the Narcotics Problem" (92nd Congress, Foreign Affairs Committee), 1972
75. "The World Narcotics Problem: The Latin American Perspective" (93rd Congress), 1973
76. "Cocaine: A Major Drug Issue of the Seventies" (96th Congress, Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control), 1979
77. I do trace out some of the connections to Colombia's later role in my forthcoming book, Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug, 1850-1975 (ms., 2007), ch. 8
78. Facts are scarce: Fabio Castillo, Los jinetes de la cocaína (Bogotá: Ed Documentos Periodisticas, 1987), ch. 2
79. Darío Bentacourt, M.L. García, Contrabandistas, marimberos y mafiosos: Historia social de la mafia colombiana (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo Eds., 1994)
80. Roberto Escobar, Mi hermano Pablo (Bogotá: Quintero Eds., 2000)
81. Los archivos privados de Pablo Escobar (documentary, Marc de Beaufort, Director, 2002)
82. Lester Grinspoon and James Bakalar, Cocaine: A Drug and its Social Evolution (New York: Basic Books, 1976/85), pp. 53-54