martes, 28 de agosto de 2012
Octavio Perez-Garcia . POSTER Braking boundaries between biology and informatics.
jueves, 12 de julio de 2012
La Mente de Gaia
Por Adrian Villaseñor Galarza
Gaia o Ge, la diosa Griega de la Tierra, ha atraído una gran
atención en las ultimas décadas. Desde la ciencia al Wicca, desde el
mito a la espiritualidad, Gaia ha hecho firme presencia en la
imaginación colectiva de nuestra especie, manifestándose con particular
fuerza en el renacimiento del sagrado femenino, en el movimiento
ecofeminista y hasta se ha infiltrado a la ciencia tradicional con el
disfraz de “ciencia sistémica terrestre.” En la teogonía de Hesíodo,
Gaia es el primer ser que emergió del vacío del Caos y de ahí en delante
serviría de matriz para la creación de mortales y dioses. Después de
dar a luz al Tártaro (el nivel mas bajo del inframundo) y Eros (el dios
del amor y la belleza), Gaia dio origen a Urano (el cielo) y Ponto (los
mares y océanos). Al copular con Urano, Gaia fue madre de dioses,
titanes, cíclopes y gigantes armados, eventualmente creando un sinnúmero
de creaturas terrestres, incluyendo los humanos.
El Olvido
En la gran mayoría de sociedades pre-industriales, Gaia y otras expresiones del sagrado femenino conformaban la matriz de la cual todo emergía y constituían la fuerza primordial de vida. Sin embargo, después de una serie de eventos que incluyen el uso controlado del fuego, el nacimiento de la agricultura y asentamientos centralizados (Ej. ciudades), el advenimiento de una rígida jerarquía social, el uso del alfabeto, y el énfasis marcado en la objetividad, avance tecnológico y materialismo característico de la Revolución Científica, Gaia fue forzada a habitar los recesos de la represión humana. Este monumental olvido ha contribuido a una degradación ambiental paralela solo a antiguas catástrofes geológicas en la evolución de la Tierra como el impacto de un meteorito hace 65 millones de años que extinguió la mayoría de formas de vida. Al paso del tiempo, la terrible explosión abrió paso para la evolución de los mamíferos al extinguir a los antes dominantes dinosaurios.
Pensadores y visionarios mantienen que quizá el único camino para la evolución de las sociedades actuales es por medio de un reconocimiento y celebración de la presencia de Gaia. En palabras de Terence McKenna, “tomar el siguiente paso evolutivo, el Resurgimiento Arcaico, el renacimiento de la Diosa, y el final de la historia profana son agendas que implícitamente contienen dentro de sí mismas la noción de nuestra participación con la emergencia de la mente vegetal.”1 Nuestra complicidad con la “mente vegetal” se puede entender como el profundo reconocimiento de la red sintiente, pulsante e interconectada de la Tierra, la mente de Gaia. Pienso firmemente que no existe un solo enfoque o solución panacea para despertarnos de nuestro estupor y distanciamiento de la mente de Gaia, sin embargo, aquellas propuestas que nos invitan a experimentar de manera directa la inteligencia de la Tierra guardan gran potencial.
El Recuerdo
De especial relevancia en la tarea de reconectar con la mente de Gaia son las tecnologías provenientes de la diversidad de etnias indígenas de la Tierra. Habiendo sido creadas y refinadas a través de generaciones y miles de años de contacto directo con la naturaleza, las avenidas de comunión con la Tierra practicadas por los ancestros de la humanidad industrial proveen significado y dirección a través de visiones que sirven de guía para recrearnos en vías a una existencia sustentable. Lejos de ser arcaicas u obsoletas, las lecciones por aprender de comunidades indígenas son variadas e incluso críticas para nuestros tiempos.
Visiones mas comprehensivas de la Tierra también han surgido del ámbito de la ciencia y la cultura occidental. El trabajo sistémico de Gregory Bateson postula la existencia de un patrón guía encargado de la conexión, organización y comportamiento no sólo de nuestra especie sino de los diferentes ecosistemas de la Tierra. “Que patrón,” pregunta Bateson, “conecta al cangrejo con la langosta y la orquídea con el narciso y a los cuatro conmigo? Y a mi contigo?”2 El patrón es la mente misma: una inteligencia colectiva y conectiva que dinamiza los ciclos energéticos y materiales del planeta. La Tierra en su totalidad es un ecosistema eco-mental.
Recientes estudios dan confirmación a la existencia de una especie de inteligencia planetaria a la que me he referido como la mente de Gaia. Haciendo alusión a la antigua diosa Griega, la teoría Gaia dio a conocer que la Tierra ha sido capaz de auto-regularse y auto-mantenerse a pesar de constantes cambios externos. La habilidad de mantener condiciones internas constantes a pesar de un medio externo cambiante es una de las principales características de la vida y es también expresada por la matriz planetaria, la Tierra. Esta habilidad implica la existencia de una inteligencia innata que quizá sea tan solo una dimensión de la mente de Gaia.
Se ha propuesto una quinta capa de naturaleza mental a las cuatro ya conocidas que conforman la estructura o cuerpo de la Tierra (litosfera, hidrosfera, atmosfera, biosfera). Esta capa o envoltorio mental conocida como la noósfera emergió en el periodo Terciario debido al incremento y diversificación de los primates antropoides y su capacidad de auto-reflexión, de acuerdo al paleontólogo y jesuita Teilhard de Chardin. Sin embargo, si consideramos que la capacidad de auto-regulación antes mencionada es la firma de la vida es necesario proponer que la mente de Gaia se remonta millones de años atrás a finales del Eón Arcaico cuando los clanes bacterianos llegaron a un nivel de diversificación y abundancia máximo el cual les permitió entrelazarse metabólicamente con la Tierra entera. El mismo Teilhard nos recuerda, “Reconozcamos francamente, de una vez por todas, que en cualquier imagen realista de la historia mundial, el advenimiento del poder del pensamiento es tan real, especifico y grandioso como la primera condensación de la materia o la aparición de la vida.”3
El psicólogo suizo Carl Jung propuso la existencia de una especie de mente colectiva o “inconsciente colectivo” populado por símbolos y fuerzas organizantes pertenecientes a toda la humanidad. El inconsciente colectivo provee de vida y dinamismo a la mente de tal manera que en su ausencia la psique humana estaría desprovista del trasfondo necesario para llevar acabo una vida plena y en posibilidad de satisfacer nuestros impulsos más íntimos. De forma similar, se ha propuesto la existencia de regiones invisibles de influencia responsables por la organización de la materia en todos sus niveles. La hipótesis de la resonancia mórfica del biólogo Rupert Sheldrake indica que regiones de influencia conocidas como “campos mórficos” sirven como factores organizantes en la evolución física, química y biológica de nuestra especie, la Tierra y el universo. Al ser capaces de registrar información y cambiar su estructura en base a ello, pareciera que los campos mórficos constituyeran una especie de memoria natural.
La ecopsicología se basa en la existencia del vínculo psicológico y evolutivo que existe entre el Homo sapiens, especies no-humanas y Gaia. La mente humana ha evolucionado por miles de años en contacto cercano con la vida más-que-humana y su devenir, de tal manera que aún en sus niveles más recónditos, la mente es nutrida y sostenida por la Tierra. Si la raíz de la psique humana es hallada en la profundidad de la Tierra, como la ecopsicología propone, el inconsciente colectivo, fuente de inspiración y salud, no esta confinado a nuestra especie sino que es un una expresión de la mente de Gaia. Es quizá la participación de todas las especies que hacen de la capa mental planetaria el enorme e invaluable tesoro de misterio que alimenta nuestros sueños y anhelos. El Ser esencial de nuestra humanidad, el centro de bienestar y auto-realización de nuestra psique, se encuentra en perenne comunión con la mente de Gaia.
El Desafío
Sin duda, Gaia seguirá teniendo una gran influencia en nuestras vidas, ya que su presencia y mente es antiquísima. La transición vivida en nuestros tiempos a una mayor coherencia e intercomunicación global es entendible como una mutación a un nivel más profundo de auto-reflexión planetaria. Son tiempos en verdad extraordinarios. La pregunta es: ¿Dejaremos que la magnánima presencia de Gaia siga existiendo en constante represión? La aparente separación de la matriz que parió la humanidad ha acarreado grandes triunfos evolutivos evidentes en los logros de las sociedades industriales, los cuales han también causando enorme sufrimiento y destrucción en el resto del planeta. La paradoja es que, gracias a ello, el humano se ha vuelto planeta. La tarea es reconocer la mente de Gaia en nuestra humanidad—visitar una y otra vez ese hermoso paraje y contribuir a su reverdecimiento.
____________________________________________________________________
El Olvido
En la gran mayoría de sociedades pre-industriales, Gaia y otras expresiones del sagrado femenino conformaban la matriz de la cual todo emergía y constituían la fuerza primordial de vida. Sin embargo, después de una serie de eventos que incluyen el uso controlado del fuego, el nacimiento de la agricultura y asentamientos centralizados (Ej. ciudades), el advenimiento de una rígida jerarquía social, el uso del alfabeto, y el énfasis marcado en la objetividad, avance tecnológico y materialismo característico de la Revolución Científica, Gaia fue forzada a habitar los recesos de la represión humana. Este monumental olvido ha contribuido a una degradación ambiental paralela solo a antiguas catástrofes geológicas en la evolución de la Tierra como el impacto de un meteorito hace 65 millones de años que extinguió la mayoría de formas de vida. Al paso del tiempo, la terrible explosión abrió paso para la evolución de los mamíferos al extinguir a los antes dominantes dinosaurios.
Pensadores y visionarios mantienen que quizá el único camino para la evolución de las sociedades actuales es por medio de un reconocimiento y celebración de la presencia de Gaia. En palabras de Terence McKenna, “tomar el siguiente paso evolutivo, el Resurgimiento Arcaico, el renacimiento de la Diosa, y el final de la historia profana son agendas que implícitamente contienen dentro de sí mismas la noción de nuestra participación con la emergencia de la mente vegetal.”1 Nuestra complicidad con la “mente vegetal” se puede entender como el profundo reconocimiento de la red sintiente, pulsante e interconectada de la Tierra, la mente de Gaia. Pienso firmemente que no existe un solo enfoque o solución panacea para despertarnos de nuestro estupor y distanciamiento de la mente de Gaia, sin embargo, aquellas propuestas que nos invitan a experimentar de manera directa la inteligencia de la Tierra guardan gran potencial.
El Recuerdo
De especial relevancia en la tarea de reconectar con la mente de Gaia son las tecnologías provenientes de la diversidad de etnias indígenas de la Tierra. Habiendo sido creadas y refinadas a través de generaciones y miles de años de contacto directo con la naturaleza, las avenidas de comunión con la Tierra practicadas por los ancestros de la humanidad industrial proveen significado y dirección a través de visiones que sirven de guía para recrearnos en vías a una existencia sustentable. Lejos de ser arcaicas u obsoletas, las lecciones por aprender de comunidades indígenas son variadas e incluso críticas para nuestros tiempos.
Visiones mas comprehensivas de la Tierra también han surgido del ámbito de la ciencia y la cultura occidental. El trabajo sistémico de Gregory Bateson postula la existencia de un patrón guía encargado de la conexión, organización y comportamiento no sólo de nuestra especie sino de los diferentes ecosistemas de la Tierra. “Que patrón,” pregunta Bateson, “conecta al cangrejo con la langosta y la orquídea con el narciso y a los cuatro conmigo? Y a mi contigo?”2 El patrón es la mente misma: una inteligencia colectiva y conectiva que dinamiza los ciclos energéticos y materiales del planeta. La Tierra en su totalidad es un ecosistema eco-mental.
Recientes estudios dan confirmación a la existencia de una especie de inteligencia planetaria a la que me he referido como la mente de Gaia. Haciendo alusión a la antigua diosa Griega, la teoría Gaia dio a conocer que la Tierra ha sido capaz de auto-regularse y auto-mantenerse a pesar de constantes cambios externos. La habilidad de mantener condiciones internas constantes a pesar de un medio externo cambiante es una de las principales características de la vida y es también expresada por la matriz planetaria, la Tierra. Esta habilidad implica la existencia de una inteligencia innata que quizá sea tan solo una dimensión de la mente de Gaia.
Se ha propuesto una quinta capa de naturaleza mental a las cuatro ya conocidas que conforman la estructura o cuerpo de la Tierra (litosfera, hidrosfera, atmosfera, biosfera). Esta capa o envoltorio mental conocida como la noósfera emergió en el periodo Terciario debido al incremento y diversificación de los primates antropoides y su capacidad de auto-reflexión, de acuerdo al paleontólogo y jesuita Teilhard de Chardin. Sin embargo, si consideramos que la capacidad de auto-regulación antes mencionada es la firma de la vida es necesario proponer que la mente de Gaia se remonta millones de años atrás a finales del Eón Arcaico cuando los clanes bacterianos llegaron a un nivel de diversificación y abundancia máximo el cual les permitió entrelazarse metabólicamente con la Tierra entera. El mismo Teilhard nos recuerda, “Reconozcamos francamente, de una vez por todas, que en cualquier imagen realista de la historia mundial, el advenimiento del poder del pensamiento es tan real, especifico y grandioso como la primera condensación de la materia o la aparición de la vida.”3
El psicólogo suizo Carl Jung propuso la existencia de una especie de mente colectiva o “inconsciente colectivo” populado por símbolos y fuerzas organizantes pertenecientes a toda la humanidad. El inconsciente colectivo provee de vida y dinamismo a la mente de tal manera que en su ausencia la psique humana estaría desprovista del trasfondo necesario para llevar acabo una vida plena y en posibilidad de satisfacer nuestros impulsos más íntimos. De forma similar, se ha propuesto la existencia de regiones invisibles de influencia responsables por la organización de la materia en todos sus niveles. La hipótesis de la resonancia mórfica del biólogo Rupert Sheldrake indica que regiones de influencia conocidas como “campos mórficos” sirven como factores organizantes en la evolución física, química y biológica de nuestra especie, la Tierra y el universo. Al ser capaces de registrar información y cambiar su estructura en base a ello, pareciera que los campos mórficos constituyeran una especie de memoria natural.
La ecopsicología se basa en la existencia del vínculo psicológico y evolutivo que existe entre el Homo sapiens, especies no-humanas y Gaia. La mente humana ha evolucionado por miles de años en contacto cercano con la vida más-que-humana y su devenir, de tal manera que aún en sus niveles más recónditos, la mente es nutrida y sostenida por la Tierra. Si la raíz de la psique humana es hallada en la profundidad de la Tierra, como la ecopsicología propone, el inconsciente colectivo, fuente de inspiración y salud, no esta confinado a nuestra especie sino que es un una expresión de la mente de Gaia. Es quizá la participación de todas las especies que hacen de la capa mental planetaria el enorme e invaluable tesoro de misterio que alimenta nuestros sueños y anhelos. El Ser esencial de nuestra humanidad, el centro de bienestar y auto-realización de nuestra psique, se encuentra en perenne comunión con la mente de Gaia.
El Desafío
Sin duda, Gaia seguirá teniendo una gran influencia en nuestras vidas, ya que su presencia y mente es antiquísima. La transición vivida en nuestros tiempos a una mayor coherencia e intercomunicación global es entendible como una mutación a un nivel más profundo de auto-reflexión planetaria. Son tiempos en verdad extraordinarios. La pregunta es: ¿Dejaremos que la magnánima presencia de Gaia siga existiendo en constante represión? La aparente separación de la matriz que parió la humanidad ha acarreado grandes triunfos evolutivos evidentes en los logros de las sociedades industriales, los cuales han también causando enorme sufrimiento y destrucción en el resto del planeta. La paradoja es que, gracias a ello, el humano se ha vuelto planeta. La tarea es reconocer la mente de Gaia en nuestra humanidad—visitar una y otra vez ese hermoso paraje y contribuir a su reverdecimiento.
____________________________________________________________________
1 Terrence McKenna, The Archaic Revival. (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 219.
2 En: Nancy Todd, A safe and sustainable world: The promise of ecological design. (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005), 77.
3 Teilhard de Chardin, The vision of the past. (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), 167
miércoles, 1 de febrero de 2012
Paradigma Holístico: Una Percepción Ecolólogica de la Vida
Por Adrián Villaseñor Galarza
Vivimos en una época de transición reflejada en la serie de cambios
que estamos viviendo en los ámbitos políticos, religiosos,
socio-económicos, ambientales y científicos. Los viejos supuestos,
pautas y valores que conforman el paradigma científico1
del siglo XVI que informan el funcionamiento de las sociedades
occidentales se muestran—en distintas instancias—insuficientes,
inadecuados e incluso dañinos para la especie humana y el planeta.
Este paradigma se basa en una visión mecanicista en la que el funcionamiento de la naturaleza es dictado por leyes inmutables entendidas en términos de causa-efecto. De esta manera, es posible predecir y controlar nuestro entorno ya que el universo entero semeja una gran maquina. A pesar del enorme éxito y beneficio que este enfoque ha brindado a nuestras sociedades, novedosos avances científicos nos informan que el conocimiento derivado del antiguo paradigma es aplicable solo a algunos aspectos de la realidad.
Mas y más se ha descubierto que la naturaleza actúa de manera impredecible y creativa. En base a esto se han desarrollado alternativas—teorías y modelos del funcionar natural—que concuerdan con los nuevos descubrimientos. De estos admirables esfuerzos podemos contar los siguientes:
- La mecánica cuantica reveló que las partículas que conforman la realidad no solo se expresan como entidades independientes, sino como ondas. Esto reveló que la estructura atómica del universo mismo es mas parecida a una gran red regida por principios de interconexión, coordinación y flujo.
- La teoría del caos demostró que, gracias a las dinámicas intrínsecas de los procesos naturales, es imposible predecir con exactitud el comportamiento de nuestro entorno. Diminutas variantes en los cálculos de fenómenos naturales tienden a resultar en escenarios completamente diferentes, insinuando la incapacidad de controlar por completo los resultados de nuestra influencia en el mundo natural.
- Las ciencias de la complejidad demostraron que la naturaleza está caracterizada por propiedades emergentes o fenómenos impredecibles a partir del estudio de sus componentes. En otras palabras, el método reduccionista, base del paradigma mecanicista de la ciencia moderna, no da cabida al comportamiento sistémico y creatividad inherente a la naturaleza.
- La teoría Gaia contribuyó a un mejor entendimiento de la danza entre la vida y su ambiente a nivel planetario. En lugar de concebir a la biota como meros pasajeros del planeta, esta teoría postuló que vida y ambiente conforman un sistema evolutivo auto-regulante. Esto implica que los organismos no solo se adaptan a su ambiente, sino que también lo influencian y más aun, conforman un solo proceso.
Estos son algunos ejemplos de los grandes avances que el conocimiento humano ha alcanzado en las ultimas décadas. A diferencia del paradigma reduccionista-mecanicista antes mencionado que extirpa todo significado y valor del mundo natural, rompiendo la continuidad entre lo humano y lo natural, el nuevo paradigma permite una profunda revalorización del significado y funcionamiento de la realidad y nos invita a recrear nuestra existencia al celebrar nuestra intima conexión con la naturaleza. Así, es posible anunciar la llegada de un paradigma holístico/ecológico basado en la participación, interconexión y creatividad del mundo que nos rodea, dejándonos con el reto de traer a la superficie las partes previamente reprimidas de nuestra humanidad. Bajo ésta óptica, es imperativo dejar de lado nuestras añejas creencias y prácticas de superioridad y control que tanto han contribuido a la destrucción de nuestro planeta.
Este paradigma se basa en una visión mecanicista en la que el funcionamiento de la naturaleza es dictado por leyes inmutables entendidas en términos de causa-efecto. De esta manera, es posible predecir y controlar nuestro entorno ya que el universo entero semeja una gran maquina. A pesar del enorme éxito y beneficio que este enfoque ha brindado a nuestras sociedades, novedosos avances científicos nos informan que el conocimiento derivado del antiguo paradigma es aplicable solo a algunos aspectos de la realidad.
Mas y más se ha descubierto que la naturaleza actúa de manera impredecible y creativa. En base a esto se han desarrollado alternativas—teorías y modelos del funcionar natural—que concuerdan con los nuevos descubrimientos. De estos admirables esfuerzos podemos contar los siguientes:
- La mecánica cuantica reveló que las partículas que conforman la realidad no solo se expresan como entidades independientes, sino como ondas. Esto reveló que la estructura atómica del universo mismo es mas parecida a una gran red regida por principios de interconexión, coordinación y flujo.
- La teoría del caos demostró que, gracias a las dinámicas intrínsecas de los procesos naturales, es imposible predecir con exactitud el comportamiento de nuestro entorno. Diminutas variantes en los cálculos de fenómenos naturales tienden a resultar en escenarios completamente diferentes, insinuando la incapacidad de controlar por completo los resultados de nuestra influencia en el mundo natural.
- Las ciencias de la complejidad demostraron que la naturaleza está caracterizada por propiedades emergentes o fenómenos impredecibles a partir del estudio de sus componentes. En otras palabras, el método reduccionista, base del paradigma mecanicista de la ciencia moderna, no da cabida al comportamiento sistémico y creatividad inherente a la naturaleza.
- La teoría Gaia contribuyó a un mejor entendimiento de la danza entre la vida y su ambiente a nivel planetario. En lugar de concebir a la biota como meros pasajeros del planeta, esta teoría postuló que vida y ambiente conforman un sistema evolutivo auto-regulante. Esto implica que los organismos no solo se adaptan a su ambiente, sino que también lo influencian y más aun, conforman un solo proceso.
Estos son algunos ejemplos de los grandes avances que el conocimiento humano ha alcanzado en las ultimas décadas. A diferencia del paradigma reduccionista-mecanicista antes mencionado que extirpa todo significado y valor del mundo natural, rompiendo la continuidad entre lo humano y lo natural, el nuevo paradigma permite una profunda revalorización del significado y funcionamiento de la realidad y nos invita a recrear nuestra existencia al celebrar nuestra intima conexión con la naturaleza. Así, es posible anunciar la llegada de un paradigma holístico/ecológico basado en la participación, interconexión y creatividad del mundo que nos rodea, dejándonos con el reto de traer a la superficie las partes previamente reprimidas de nuestra humanidad. Bajo ésta óptica, es imperativo dejar de lado nuestras añejas creencias y prácticas de superioridad y control que tanto han contribuido a la destrucción de nuestro planeta.
1
Los paradigmas son “logros científicos universalmente aceptados que
durante algún tiempo suministran modelos de problemas y soluciones a una
comunidad de profesionales.” (Thomas Kuhn, La Estructura de las
Revoluciones Científicas (México D.F., México: Fondo de Cultura
Económica), 14-15.
martes, 31 de enero de 2012
Perdidos en el tiempo
Por Candia Garibay
Nunca sé que día es por que ilógicamente los días de la semana cada mes tienen un número diferente. El año solar puede dividirse en 13 periodos (meses) de 28 días (13x20=364 + un día), sincrónicamente con los ciclos lunares; sólo con ver la fase de la luna podríamos saber en que día del mes estamos. Atrás de esta situación se esconden varios conflictos sociales.
El calendario irregular de 12 meses lo impuso el papa Gregorio XV caprichosamente en una bula papal y por lo visto no sabía nada de astronomía, tenemos meses de 31, 30, 28 y a veces 29 días, cada cumpleaños cae en un día diferente, o acaso recuerdas en qué día cayo el 6 de febrero de hace 10 años, o cuántos días han pasado desde las elecciones sin mirar el calendario, esta asimetría causa confusión y mala administración de los recursos. Si todos los días primeros del mes fueran lunes y asÌ sucesivamente, sería más práctico organizar nuestros ciclos y hacer conciencia de en que fase de nuestro proceso espacio-temporal estamos, además de recibir 13 salarios con una administración por días más simétrica.
Todos los seres del planeta responden a la relación con la luna, la marea fluctúa, los árboles transportan más savia a sus copas cuando el agua es atraída por la luna, las mujeres menstruamos cada 28 días y todo eso los antiguos lo sabían: Druidas, indios Lakota, Polinesios, Pachacuti de los Andes, Mayas y Aztecas; y sus calendarios estaban basados en los ciclos naturales, reflejando en sus sistemas de organización social esta armonía con la Tierra.
Recordando a Confucio, el error no es cometerlo, sino seguir en él. Cambiar el calendario implica dejar la adicción de perdernos en el tiempo esto es corregir nuestra cosmovisión en un esfuerzo de conciencia y de integración con lo que nos rodea.
*Biól. Candia Raquel Garibay Camarena es bailarina y bióloga, como faculty enseña el Entrenamiento para Instructor de Pilates en su estudio Inspirah Pilates el cual es un Licenced Training Host Site de Balanced Body. inspirahpilates@gmail.com www.inspirahpilates.com
lunes, 30 de enero de 2012
Automóvil
Si juntaramos los muertos en la carretera a Chapala desde 1935 a la fecha, podríamos tener una carretera de huesos en lugar de asfalto.
Los 48.5 kilómetros que separan la ciudad de Guadalajara a Chapala que se recorren en menos de una hora en automóvil, a diferencia de los dos días a caballo, representan una inmensa facilidad tecnológica que nos multiplica el accceso a la distancia que se cobra un costo en vidas humanas y daños materiales sumando $7, 610 000 000 de pesos del 2002 al 2004.
La tecnología facilita nuestra existencia, sin embargo, en el caso de los automóviles parece ser al revés, por la contaminación que producen y por el peligro que representa su uso irresponsable. Prueba de esto es que en la ciudad de Los Ángeles el promedio es de tres vehículos por persona y que para el 2020 se estima que los accidentes de tráfico pueden llegar a situarse en el tercer lugar entre todas las causas de muerte e incapacidad en el mundo.
Visto desde esta pespectiva el uso de los automóviles es un mecanismo eficaz para eliminar accidentalmente humanos y contaminar el resto del planeta.
Tanto la reproducción humana como la emisión de contaminantes deben ser controlados racionalmente. La tecnología sin responsabilidad es un sinsentido y como hemos visto, una amenaza fatal para la vida en toda su extensión.
*Biól. Candia Raquel Garibay Camarena es bailarina y bióloga, como faculty enseña el Entrenamiento para Instructor de Pilates en su estudio Inspirah Pilates el cual es un Licenced Training Host Site de Balanced Body. inspirahpilates@gmail.com www.inspirahpilates.com
domingo, 29 de enero de 2012
El desarrollo de México y la ciencia
Por Candia Garibay
Durante el sexenio de Fox se retiro más de medio millón de pesos de presupuesto a la Comisión Nacional para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (CONACYT) quien se encarga de apoyar la investigación científica y los programas de posgrado en las universidades públicas. La ciencia es el principal motor de producción del capital desde la revolución industrial. ¿Cómo esperar que progrese un pais al que se le ha reducido el potencial tecnológico desde sus cimientos?
Esta situación presenta un panorama desastroso, los investigadores se ven obligados a buscar recursos monetarios extranjeros para solventar sus proyectos los cuales generan compromisos con sus patrocinadores más que con el pais. Sólo el 5% de la ciencia es tecnológicamente aplicable y el 95% restante constituye la base de la que se sustenta. Los principales apoyos de CONACYT se otorgan con un sezgo hacia la ciencia aplicada supongo que para producir resultados tecnológicos a corto plazo, sin embargo no se estan generando bases científicas sólidas para construir estructuras tecnológicas que nos remonten a mejores niveles de producción capital mundial. Ante esto lo único que le queda a las lumbreras científicas desamparadas es fugar sus cerebros al extranjero o limitar sus investigaciones a los protocolos en boga.
En México se construyen muchas escuelas para generar mano de obra barata y de calidad de exportación esto es desarrollo sinsentido y aberración administrativa. Es necesario reorientar los medios por los que se quiere hacer crecer a México con un carácter objetivo por medio de procesos educativos que tengan como finalidad el desarrollo científico y tecnológico para mejorar nuestra competitividad internacional.
*Biól. Candia Raquel Garibay Camarena es bailarina y bióloga, como faculty enseña el Entrenamiento para Instructor de Pilates en su estudio Inspirah Pilates el cual es un Licenced Training Host Site de Balanced Body. inspirahpilates@gmail.com www.inspirahpilates.com
viernes, 27 de enero de 2012
Qué es la biodiversidad
Por Candia Garibay
La biodiversidad es la variedad de organismos considerada a todos los niveles, incluye el número y la frecuencia de genes, especies y ecosistemas.
La biodiversidad es la variedad de organismos considerada a todos los niveles, incluye el número y la frecuencia de genes, especies y ecosistemas.
La biodiversidad genética se refiere a la variedad de información química hereditaria en una especie; y la biodiversidad de especies se refiere a la variedad total de organismos existentes en la Tierra, la cual se estima ser de cinco a treinta millones de especies, de las cuales solamente se han descrito un millón y medio; y, por último, la diversidad de ecosistemas se refiere a la variedad y salud de los complejos ecológicos que reciclan los nutrientes y articulan las redes de codependencia entre los organismos.
Las actividades humanas, en particular la agricultura industrializada y la ganadería extensiva, tienden a reducir la biodiversidad; desafortunadamente el mayor impacto humano se da a lo largo de los trópicos que poseen los índices más altos de biodiversidad de ecosistemas, especies y genes.
La biodiversidad nos sirve como parámetro para definir los objetivos óptimos del desarrollo humano de acuerdo con una racionalidad que integre lo humano con el resto de la vida armónicamente, puesto que nuestra permanencia como especie depende de una red finamente articulada por la totalidad de los procesos biológicos.
Margulis L., Schwartz K.V y Dolan M. Diversity of Life. 1999. The illustrated guide to the five kingdoms. Jones and Bartlett. EUA.
*Biól. Candia Raquel Garibay Camarena es bailarina y bióloga, como faculty enseña el Entrenamiento para Instructor de Pilates en su estudio Inspirah Pilates el cual es un Licenced Training Host Site de Balanced Body. inspirahpilates@gmail.comwww.inspirahpilates.com
viernes, 25 de noviembre de 2011
Del Eco-ser y otras Expansiones
Por Adrián Villaseñor Galarza
Caminando por la ciudad me doy cuenta de los habituales limites de mi percepción; rara vez viajan mas allá del reino de lo humano. Con esfuerzos doy cabida y gracias a los incontables seres que sacrifican sus cuerpos para alimentarme y darme la oportunidad de escribir estas palabras. Mi mente y sus parloteos tienen principalmente un punto básico de necesidad y referencia: “el yo.” Por naturaleza este “yo” quiere y desea su perpetuación y subsistencia con frecuencia a costa del bienestar del “otro.” Desde este punto de vista antropocentrista (el yo es razón y medida de todo), inconscientemente me atrapo a mi mismo por que la sociedad así me invita a hacerlo. Al fin y al cabo, así lo hace mi vecino. El aislamiento, sin embargo, no es sano ni sustentable. Esto es, no me lleva ni a mi prosperidad, ni a la de futuras generaciones, ni mucho menos a la subsistencia de otras especies. Hago un esfuerzo. Me desplazo y reúno el coraje para lanzarme mas allá de mis limites. ¿Qué es lo que descubro? Seres, totalidades, descanso, bienestar.
Al identificarnos con totalidades mas allá de nuestra habitual y estrecha visión, experimentamos un estado que el filósofo noruego Arne Naess llamó el “ser-ecológico.” Experimentar y ejercitar el derecho de “ser-ecológico” nos ayuda a relacionarnos de una manera más armoniosa con el entorno ya que “nuestro sentido de compasión e incumbencia incluye al reino humano, pero se expande mas allá, englobando todo el ámbito del mundo mas-que-humano.”[1] La belleza de este gran salto es que rápidamente e irónicamente nos muestra la naturaleza loable del ser humano—su capacidad de ir mas allá del yo y el gozo inherente que ahí habita. En un solo movimiento, el crónico aislamiento en el que vivo cae por los suelos. Como bien dijo la microbióloga Lynn Margulis, “…[la] independencia es un termino político, no científico.”[2]
El concepto del “ser-ecológico” nos extiende la mano y nos ayuda en la búsqueda de maneras de ser menos neuróticas, mas abarcantes y tolerantes. Nos invita a honrar el principio de interdependencia y encontrar maneras menos dañinas de relacionarnos con nuestro entorno. Esta visión se adscribe a una filosofía conocida como ecología profunda.
La diferencia entre ecología “profunda” y la ecología con la que la mayoría de nosotros estamos familiarizados o ecología “superficial” es que ésta ultima se centra únicamente en los intereses humanos. Percibe al humano separado de la naturaleza y por encima de ella y designa solo un valor utilitario al mundo natural. Por el contrario, la ecología profunda no separa al humano de la naturaleza sino que lo concibe como un componente más de la red de la vida.
La ecología profunda reconoce que toda expresión de vida tiene un valor intrínseco que es independiente al valor que pudiera suponer al humano. Toda expresión de vida, por el simple hecho de ser, es valiosa mas allá de lo que pudiéramos imaginar. Una bacteria flotando en los aires, un elefante tomándose un baño, un sapo y su rítmico croar y un humano, gozan de la capacidad de estar consciente de ser. Este conocimiento dista de ser algo común ya que se contrapone con ideas fuertemente arraigadas en nuestra cultura. Sin embargo, tiene el potencial de reforzar nuestro ético caminar por la Tierra y de regresarnos un sentido de asombro y reverencia, aun mientras caminamos cuadra abajo en la ciudad.
Caminando por la ciudad me doy cuenta de los habituales limites de mi percepción; rara vez viajan mas allá del reino de lo humano. Con esfuerzos doy cabida y gracias a los incontables seres que sacrifican sus cuerpos para alimentarme y darme la oportunidad de escribir estas palabras. Mi mente y sus parloteos tienen principalmente un punto básico de necesidad y referencia: “el yo.” Por naturaleza este “yo” quiere y desea su perpetuación y subsistencia con frecuencia a costa del bienestar del “otro.” Desde este punto de vista antropocentrista (el yo es razón y medida de todo), inconscientemente me atrapo a mi mismo por que la sociedad así me invita a hacerlo. Al fin y al cabo, así lo hace mi vecino. El aislamiento, sin embargo, no es sano ni sustentable. Esto es, no me lleva ni a mi prosperidad, ni a la de futuras generaciones, ni mucho menos a la subsistencia de otras especies. Hago un esfuerzo. Me desplazo y reúno el coraje para lanzarme mas allá de mis limites. ¿Qué es lo que descubro? Seres, totalidades, descanso, bienestar.
****
El concepto del “ser-ecológico” nos extiende la mano y nos ayuda en la búsqueda de maneras de ser menos neuróticas, mas abarcantes y tolerantes. Nos invita a honrar el principio de interdependencia y encontrar maneras menos dañinas de relacionarnos con nuestro entorno. Esta visión se adscribe a una filosofía conocida como ecología profunda.
La diferencia entre ecología “profunda” y la ecología con la que la mayoría de nosotros estamos familiarizados o ecología “superficial” es que ésta ultima se centra únicamente en los intereses humanos. Percibe al humano separado de la naturaleza y por encima de ella y designa solo un valor utilitario al mundo natural. Por el contrario, la ecología profunda no separa al humano de la naturaleza sino que lo concibe como un componente más de la red de la vida.
La ecología profunda reconoce que toda expresión de vida tiene un valor intrínseco que es independiente al valor que pudiera suponer al humano. Toda expresión de vida, por el simple hecho de ser, es valiosa mas allá de lo que pudiéramos imaginar. Una bacteria flotando en los aires, un elefante tomándose un baño, un sapo y su rítmico croar y un humano, gozan de la capacidad de estar consciente de ser. Este conocimiento dista de ser algo común ya que se contrapone con ideas fuertemente arraigadas en nuestra cultura. Sin embargo, tiene el potencial de reforzar nuestro ético caminar por la Tierra y de regresarnos un sentido de asombro y reverencia, aun mientras caminamos cuadra abajo en la ciudad.
***
Ahora invito al límite de mi percepción que se muestre y que me muestre los seres que allí habitan. Conscientemente, me expando en múltiples direcciones y platico con los que allí me encuentro, humanos y mas que humanos. Algo extraño sucede. Al escaparme de mí mismo me encuentro y me siento mas pleno y con mayor facilidad de movimiento. Encuentro consejo y pertenencia. Lo que en otrora para mi y mi sociedad era el borde de la locura, ahora es el comienzo de la sanidad. Cuando el yo afloja el otro expande y sonríe.lunes, 14 de noviembre de 2011
lunes, 24 de octubre de 2011
400 Trillion Miles Away, a Comet Storm Waters a World
by Michael D. Lemonick
posted by Octavio Perez-Garcia
One of the great mysteries of planetary science is how Earth got so wet. By the time our planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago, the sun's heat had driven most of the solar system's complement of water out toward the edges. Most of it is still there, frozen solid in, among other things, the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's moon Europa, the bodies of Neptune and Uranus and billions upon billions of comets.
But the Earth has plenty of water as well, and scientists have wondered for years how it got here. One leading theory: it came from a fusillade of comets that came screaming back in toward the sun a half-billion years or so after our planet formed. That idea got a big boost last week with the discovery that some comets, at least, have the same chemical signature as the water found on Earth.
Before the ink could even dry on that study, astronomers have come in with another key piece of evidence to support the theory — and it comes from nearly 400 trillion miles away. To be precise, it comes from Eta Corvi, a bright star in the northern hemisphere, where, says lead researcher Carey Lisse, of the Johns Hopkins University, "we're seeing a storm of primordial comets smashing into something relatively close to the star."
What Lisse and his colleagues actually spotted, as they'll describe in an upcoming issue of the Astronomical Journal, is the infrared signature of dust grains at about three astronomical units — three times the Earth-sun distance — from the central star. A detailed examination of those grains with the infrared-sensitive Spitzer Space Telescope shows that they come from forceful collisions with some massive rocky body.
"We're seeing nanodiamonds and amorphous silica," says Lisse, "which suggests that the comets collided with an object at least as big as [the asteroid] Ceres, and up to several times the size of Earth." If the comets had just run into each other, says Lisse, "it would have been more like colliding powder puffs."
The observations are by no means conclusive, and Lisse concedes that instead of a storm of smallish comets, he could be seeing the debris from a single big one. "We're not sure," he says. "All we know is that a lot of material got sprayed around."
It's not just any material that caught the eye of Lisse and his colleagues. It's the particular type of material, which also included grains of ice and organic chemicals — just what you'd expect from a pulverized comet. Beyond that, the chemical signature of those faraway dust grains are a good match for the Almahata Sitta meteorite, which struck Sudan in 2008 — and which probably originated in the Kuiper Belt just beyond Neptune, where billions of comets lurk (as do the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris, which are essentially gigantic comets themselves).
Put it all together and you have what appears to be a real-world echo of the process that hydrated Earth and maybe even brought us the building blocks of life, a billion years after our solar system was born. Since the Eta Corvi system is about a billion years old itself, this raises the obvious question of whether life could be in the cards there as well. On first blush, you might think not: the planet where the comet or comets came to grief is farther out than Mars, in an orbit where water would be permanently frozen.
It would in our solar system, anyway. But Eta Corvi is significantly brighter than the sun, so its habitable zone, where life-sustaining liquid water can exist, is correspondingly farther out. "There's a hotter lightbulb at the center of the system," says Lisse, "so you have to back off." Another obvious question is whether there's any evidence of comparable comet storms — and therefore conditions favorable to life — in other young solar systems. The short answer: not yet.
"We've looked at about a thousand," says Lisse, "and this is the only one that looked anything like this." That doesn't mean the evidence doesn't exist elsewhere, he hastens to add. "Right now, it looks as though it's rare." The James Webb Space Telescope, which could launch as early as 2018 if Congress permits it, will be much more sensitive and could turn up still more tantalizing clues. It's too early, in other words, to conclude that life on Earth was an unlikely accident.
posted by Octavio Perez-Garcia
One of the great mysteries of planetary science is how Earth got so wet. By the time our planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago, the sun's heat had driven most of the solar system's complement of water out toward the edges. Most of it is still there, frozen solid in, among other things, the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's moon Europa, the bodies of Neptune and Uranus and billions upon billions of comets. But the Earth has plenty of water as well, and scientists have wondered for years how it got here. One leading theory: it came from a fusillade of comets that came screaming back in toward the sun a half-billion years or so after our planet formed. That idea got a big boost last week with the discovery that some comets, at least, have the same chemical signature as the water found on Earth.
Before the ink could even dry on that study, astronomers have come in with another key piece of evidence to support the theory — and it comes from nearly 400 trillion miles away. To be precise, it comes from Eta Corvi, a bright star in the northern hemisphere, where, says lead researcher Carey Lisse, of the Johns Hopkins University, "we're seeing a storm of primordial comets smashing into something relatively close to the star."
What Lisse and his colleagues actually spotted, as they'll describe in an upcoming issue of the Astronomical Journal, is the infrared signature of dust grains at about three astronomical units — three times the Earth-sun distance — from the central star. A detailed examination of those grains with the infrared-sensitive Spitzer Space Telescope shows that they come from forceful collisions with some massive rocky body.
"We're seeing nanodiamonds and amorphous silica," says Lisse, "which suggests that the comets collided with an object at least as big as [the asteroid] Ceres, and up to several times the size of Earth." If the comets had just run into each other, says Lisse, "it would have been more like colliding powder puffs."
The observations are by no means conclusive, and Lisse concedes that instead of a storm of smallish comets, he could be seeing the debris from a single big one. "We're not sure," he says. "All we know is that a lot of material got sprayed around."
It's not just any material that caught the eye of Lisse and his colleagues. It's the particular type of material, which also included grains of ice and organic chemicals — just what you'd expect from a pulverized comet. Beyond that, the chemical signature of those faraway dust grains are a good match for the Almahata Sitta meteorite, which struck Sudan in 2008 — and which probably originated in the Kuiper Belt just beyond Neptune, where billions of comets lurk (as do the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris, which are essentially gigantic comets themselves).
Put it all together and you have what appears to be a real-world echo of the process that hydrated Earth and maybe even brought us the building blocks of life, a billion years after our solar system was born. Since the Eta Corvi system is about a billion years old itself, this raises the obvious question of whether life could be in the cards there as well. On first blush, you might think not: the planet where the comet or comets came to grief is farther out than Mars, in an orbit where water would be permanently frozen.
It would in our solar system, anyway. But Eta Corvi is significantly brighter than the sun, so its habitable zone, where life-sustaining liquid water can exist, is correspondingly farther out. "There's a hotter lightbulb at the center of the system," says Lisse, "so you have to back off." Another obvious question is whether there's any evidence of comparable comet storms — and therefore conditions favorable to life — in other young solar systems. The short answer: not yet.
"We've looked at about a thousand," says Lisse, "and this is the only one that looked anything like this." That doesn't mean the evidence doesn't exist elsewhere, he hastens to add. "Right now, it looks as though it's rare." The James Webb Space Telescope, which could launch as early as 2018 if Congress permits it, will be much more sensitive and could turn up still more tantalizing clues. It's too early, in other words, to conclude that life on Earth was an unlikely accident.
lunes, 10 de octubre de 2011
jueves, 29 de septiembre de 2011
domingo, 11 de septiembre de 2011
jueves, 25 de agosto de 2011
How Narco States Work
by Josh Clark.
Posted by Octavio Perez-Garcia
Introduction
For a variety of reasons, people around the world have developed a love affair with illicit substances. The United States has a particularly ravenous appetite for cocaine, consuming some 40 percent of the global supply each year [source: Glenny]. While it contributes only 11 percent of the world population, Europe is home to almost one-third of the globe's heroin addicts [source: Chamie, Norton-Taylor].
The West's continual fondness for drugs has helped to drive their costs down. In the U.S., a kilogram of uncut cocaine sells for around $22,000, while that same kilo fetches almost $120,000 on the streets of Moscow [source: Kirschke, Walt]. There are other costs associated with illicit drugs, including health care and welfare expenditures for addicts and their children. Disability payouts for addicts in the UK, for example, cost the nation almost $80 million in 2008 [source: Daily Mail]. These enormous numbers are piddling compared to the tolls exacted in places where illegal drugs are produced. Rather than dollar amounts, or pounds or euros, the prices paid for illicit drugs at their points of origin or along their supply chains are often calculated in human blood and misery.
The marijuana and hash smoked in Detroit and El Paso. The cocaine sniffed in clubs in Ibiza, Frankfurt and Atlanta. The heroin injected in basement flats in New York, London and Los Angeles. The methamphetamine snorted, smoked and shot up by people in Bangkok and Nashville. All of it comes from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually somewhere else.
There's a likelihood that the pot and meth consumed by American users were grown in suburban grow houses or produced in mobile meth labs within U.S. borders, but it's much likelier that both came through Mexico. There's zero chance the heroin and cocaine were produced locally -- both come from plants cultivated in East Asia and Latin America.
To get from their areas of origin to the towns and cities where consumers purchase them in little baggies, illicit drugs have likely passed through way stations called narco states. These are regions and countries where governmental action is directly influenced -- either through corruption or violence -- by drug traffickers, drug producers or the drug trade itself [source: Hartelius]. It's big business: The drug trade generates as much as $300 billion a year. Basically, narco states are the capitals on the drug trade map, and this map touches every corner of the globe.
Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images
Colombian police capture 3.5 tons of cocaine in December 2008, about one-half of a percent of the county's annual production.Ideally, a government exists to protect its citizens. In return for this protection, the public is expected to give up some of its rights to government control. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes called this tradeoff a social contract. One of these controls is the ability to kill others: In civilized society, the government is the only entity that can execute or incarcerate a citizen. Only the government, not vigilante citizens, may punish criminals. This state monopoly on violence, as it's called, is carefully regulated because the nation's legal system should protect citizens from unwarranted imprisonment or executions. Taken as a whole, the social contract is meant to prevent chaos.
The government often keeps up the pretense of this social contract in a narco state, but ultimately the government serves the interests of drug traffickers rather than those of its citizens. The public may remain protected as long as this protection doesn't interfere with state-fueled drug trafficking.
Why would a government engage in such corruption? There's the threat of violence, as we saw in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. Competing drug cartels with armed paramilitary groups launched attacks on federal and judicial buildings there. They also kidnapped and murdered officials and judges who sought to bring them to justice. By using the military to challenge the government, these groups established legitimate political parties that served their interests in policy-making decisions.
A narco state may also emerge once a nation's military hierarchy has been corrupted, especially that nation's intelligence officers. Military officials can turn to drug trafficking themselves, as we've seen in places like Guatemala, or they may be bribed into corruption -- a dilemma the African nation of Guinea Bissau currently finds itself in. A corrupted intelligence service backed with armed military might, knowledge of smuggling lines and access to airfields, planes and boats, can create a domino effect that forces other layers of government to abide by a narco state's creation. The military maintains the state's threat of violence, and it can be very persuasive once that threat's trained on the public -- or even the rest of the government -- at the behest of drug traffickers.
Nations that have seen lots of government turnover, especially due to war or coups, also easily can devolve into narco states. Between 2000 and 2002, Guatemala, an undisputed narco state, saw the chief drug enforcement director position change hands nine times [source: UNODC]. Prolonged conflicts may lead to damaged infrastructure, which limits the government's ability to provide basic services to its citizens. This, in turn, reduces that government's public legitimacy and leaves it open to armed challenges.
Conflict also means a glut of guns and war veterans that can use them effectively. This can lead to rebellion and even civil war, especially when an armed group opts to engage in drug trafficking en masse and the central government moves to thwart those activities. For examples of this type of rebellion, let's look at Central America, which is rife with narco states due to its location between South American producer countries and North American consumers. The area has a long history of conflict: In the 20th century alone, Guatemala endured a 36-year-long civil war, El Salvador's engaged in a 12-year-long one and Nicaragua had one that lasted 19 years [source: UNODC]. These conflicts left Central America with such a weapons surplus that unregistered guns outnumber those held by legitimate police and military forces 5-to-1 [source: UNODC].
Certainly, heavily armed groups bent on maintaining drug trafficking in areas with weakened central governments can lead to the birth of a narco state. However, one should never underestimate the most important factor in the foundation of a narco state -- money.
Jaime Razurij/AFP/Getty Images
Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (left) and his intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, during Fujimori's 2008 corruption trial.Narco states are often born out of financial corruption. "Drug money is used as a lubricant for corruption," wrote the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in its 2008 World Drug Report [source: UNDOC]. Since the global drug market generates more than $300 billion in annual revenue, there's a lot of lubricant to go around.
Let's see how money greases a narco state's wheels. In Guatemala, a federal judge was accused of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to dismiss a drug trafficking case. The judge not only dismissed the case, she was seen later driving the defendant from court [source: UNODC]. While military force remains a distinct threat, a corrupt judicial or legislative system may contribute more to a narco state's continuation. Bribery and kickbacks are subtler than armed resistance and attract less attention, which may allow a narco state to thrive unchecked.
Congressional and judicial protection of drug traffickers can also extend beyond a narco state's borders. In Guatemala, corrupt government officials drafted legislation that prevents citizens from being extradited to face criminal charges in another country. Extradition has been a powerful policy tool used by the United States to fight the war on drugs. By protecting its nation's drug traffickers from extradition and prosecution, the Guatemalan narco state has allowed its cocaine trade to explode.
Not all narco states are alike, though. In some states the government may give implicit approval of drug production and trafficking, but remains inactive in the drug trade. The amount of money generated by drug production and trafficking can be enough to make up a substantial percentage of the nation's economy. Afghanistan's opium production produces $3 billion annually for the nation. That staggering number represents one-half of the country's gross domestic product -- the sum total of all goods and services a country produces in a year [source: Norton-Taylor]. With income like this, a government (and the public) often hesitates to take any real steps towards curbing the drug trade within its borders.
Other governments have taken a more direct approach to drug trafficking. Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's administration is a prime example. Throughout the 1990s, Fujimori, who ascended to power via campaign contributions by Colombian drug cartels, ruled Peru as a dictator who employed death squads to quiet dissent. Fujimori had plans for the cartels as well; namely, Vladimiro Montesinos, Fujimori's second-in-command and head of intelligence. Montesinos, a former defense attorney for various South American drug lords, maintained his old contacts and extorted $700 for every kilogram of cocaine exported from Peru during Fujimori's 10-year tenure, amassing as much as $1 billion in personal wealth [source: Chauvin, Vann]. Those who didn't pay up were eliminated by government death squads.
Converging political, public and revolutionary pressures ended both Fujimori and Montesinos' rule over Peru. Both were also extradited and tried on corruption charges in Peruvian court. If you examine the creation and support of some narco states, however, you might be surprised to find the presence of the United States. Find out how and why on the next page.
Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
A mass grave containing 13 skeletons unearthed in Guatemala in 2005.The United States has a history of using its military and intelligence services to destabilize nations whose political philosophies and interests diverge from its own. There are several examples of this interference. During World War II, the Office of Special Services -- the predecessor to the CIA -- inserted operatives within the borders of hostile nations like Burma to assemble, train and convert anti-government factions into guerilla armies. The value of using Americans to create armed insurgencies within foreign nations hasn't waned: As recently as 2001, the CIA helped amass the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, which successfully overthrew the Taliban government [source: Sims and Gerber]. While the United States has found plenty of reasons to meddle in South and East Asia, perhaps no other region of the world has experienced more covert U.S. involvement than Central America.
Central America proved a key battleground for the proxy wars between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union (USSR) during the Cold War. With nuclear destruction assured through the amassed arsenals of each nation, neither the U.S. nor the USSR could afford to engage in outright war with one another. Instead, the two foes used other nations' governments and rebel factions to fight their ideological war for them. Because of their proximity to Communist Cuba and the United States, as well as the presence of both Marxist and anti-Communist military groups, Central and South America played vital roles in the Cold War.
Stephen Ferry/Liaison/Getty Images
FARC guerillas along the border between Colombia and Panama in July 1999.The Soviets and the Americans propped up governments and insurgencies, and both sides supported equally brutal regimes. Guatemala's U.S.-supported right-wing paramilitary group, la cofrida (the brotherhood), helped kill as many as 200,000 of its own people during that nation's civil war [source: Smyth]. Since 1964, the Soviet-supported FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a well-known Communist guerrilla army, has declared responsibility for countless kidnappings, bombings, executions and the use of child soldiers [source: Global Security].
Dictators like Panama's Manuel Noriega also served as CIA assets. Several key players who served as U.S. allies and covert aid recipients in the Latin American proxy wars received military and intelligence training in the U.S. Army's secretive and controversial School of the Americas. This program, based at Fort Benning, Ga., trains Latin American soldiers in tactics like assassination, counterinsurgency and the assembly of guerrilla armies [source: CNN].
These organizations and leaders, and numerous others operating in Latin America's present or recent past, share more than brutality in common. They are also among the most prolific and established drug traffickers in the world.
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Hacienda Napoles, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's 3,700 acre estate, in a photo taken in 1988.Following the fall of the Soviet Union, which caused the abrupt end of the Cold War, funding for rival Latin American factions largely dried up. Russia and its former Soviet satellites no longer had the wealth or the inclination to continue funding its proxy armies. Though the U.S. remained entrenched in Central American geopolitics, its involvement throughout the 1980s dwarfed what it had been during the Cold War. All of the training, airstrips, planes and weapons provided by the United States and the USSR remained, however.
Moving sensitive materials like arms and people without detection is a vital aspect of intelligence. Thanks to U.S. and Soviet training, Latin American intelligence officers were now well-versed in the art of smuggling. It's simple to substitute cocaine for arms or people. Without funding from the superpowers, Central American groups now had the motive and the means to produce and distribute drugs to fund their own continuing conflicts despite decreased interest from the Soviets and Americans. The U.S. continued to fund both sides of these conflicts, inadvertently, through the income made from selling drugs to American consumers.
During the 1970s and '80s, Colombian cocaine syndicates like Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel hired FARC guerrillas to protect their coca crops and processing laboratories. Eventually, the cartels and FARC became rivals in the cocaine trade. FARC developed its own cocaine distribution network and the cartels assembled anti-Communist paramilitary organizations. Both also protected their drug trafficking operations by entrenching themselves in the federal government. The 1980s and '90s saw tremendous violence in Colombia; both the cartels and FARC staged bombings and raids on government buildings and kidnapped federal officials. FARC also used its drug profits to outsource its terrorism, offering a $1,000 reward to any person who killed a government official [source: ABC]. Rural areas that served as vital points along cocaine distribution lines were taken over by one side or the other, leading to microcosmic narco states within Colombia.
Because of its proximity to Mexico and its emerging cartels, Colombian drug traffickers turned their sights on Guatemala in the 1990s after the Unites States began to patrol their overseas trade routes in the Caribbean. In Guatemala, la cofrida conducts drug trafficking, led by two intelligence officers trained at the School of the Americas. The pair have been amazingly successful; as much as 75 percent of the cocaine that enters the U.S. passes through Guatemala's borders en route to Mexico, which has made Guatemala an effective narco state [source: Smyth].
Once in Mexico, cocaine is routed up to border towns like Juarez, where mules carry it and other drugs across the border. As a result of the rise of Mexican cartels, Juarez has devolved into a regional narco state. After the local government purged the police force of corrupt cops, few remain on the job. Juarez municipal officials are powerless to prevent the violence and corruption spread by rival drug cartels warring for control of supply routes into the U.S., despite the increased presence of federal authorities in the city. This violence reached a fever pitch in 2008 as it spilled over into the civilian population -- murders in Juarez rose from 300 in 2007 to more than 1,500 in 2008 [source: Beaubien].
Much of this violence was due to tactics exported from South and Central America to Mexico. The Mexican Gulf cartel established the paramilitary unit los Zetas with guerilla leadership consisting mostly of former Mexican Army Special Forces commandos trained by the United States [source: Roig-Franzia].
After it exits the war zones along the Mexican border and enters the United States, the rate of violence attached to cocaine, heroin, marijuana and meth decreases dramatically. The highest prices are paid inside the narco states.
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In 2006, a U.S. Army soldier wades through a poppy field in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the world capital of opium cultivation.Narco states aren't exclusively a result of the end of the Cold War -- some, like Burma, existed long before the USSR crumbled. Cocaine, which originated in South and Central America, became popular in the United States during the late 1970s as the Cold War still burned hot. It's also inaccurate to say the U.S. was unaware of its allies' drug trafficking activities. U.S. foreign policy has long valued what an ally can offer tactically or geopolitically over that nation's commitment to eradicating drugs [source: Schweich]. In the 1980s, as the administration of President Ronald Reagan ramped up the United States' war on drugs, it was also providing funding and weapons for the same anti-Communist paramilitary groups and governments that were producing and distributing cocaine on a global scale.
The Contra rebels in Nicaragua, which the United States covertly supported during the group's civil war with the leftist ruling Sandinista party, ran cocaine distribution operations while receiving training, funding and arms from the CIA [source: Zirnite]. Gen. Manuel Noriega, a CIA asset since he rose to power in 1981, operated a narco state with the CIA's knowledge during his tenure as president of Panama [source: National Security Archive]. Once news leaked of Noriega's involvement with the U.S. and drug trafficking, he was captured during an American military invasion of Panama in 1989 and indicted on drug charges in the United States. Noriega received a 30-year federal prison sentence.
The United States continues to fight the war on drugs while turning a blind eye to drug trafficking among its allies, most notably in Afghanistan. After the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, America and its allies toppled the Taliban militia that had ruled the nation under strict Islamic law. In 1999, despite the Taliban's fundamentalist views, Afghanistan overtook Burma as the world's leading producer of opium poppies, the plant from which heroin is derived [source: Traynor]. Under the Taliban, Afghanistan functioned as a narco state, with the government using profits from its state-run heroin processing labs to fund its military and keep its economy afloat.
Afghanistan saw the largest poppy harvest in recorded history in 2006. The crop yield was a 50 percent increase over the previous year, and the harvest made Afghanistan the producer of 93 percent of the global heroin supply [source: Norton-Taylor]. The U.S. made efforts to eradicate poppy crops early in its occupation, but could offer no replacement crop that approaches its profitability for Afghani farmers. President Hamid Karzai, a key U.S. ally, allowed some crop removal by soldiers on the ground, but refused to allow the U.S. to eradicate crops with pesticides sprayed from airplanes, a method that's proven effective in fighting Colombian cocaine production.
President Karzai isn't accused of personally engaging in drug trafficking, and he has stated poppy eradication as a goal of his administration. In addition to allowing hand eradication of poppy crops, he's accepted $780 million from the United States for counternarcotics operations like removing corrupt judges and training drug officers [source: Transnational Institute]. His nation, however, remains the world's leading exporter of heroin, generating more than $3 billion annually for the country's economy.
Amid reports that convicted Afghani drug traffickers pay bribes for release from prison, fear has mounted that the country may devolve into a full-fledged narco state [source: Schweich]. With remote areas still ruled by drug trafficking tribal leaders, the nation certainly contains narco states within its borders.
If questions remain about Afghanistan's status as a narco state, any surrounding several West African nations have been put to rest. In 2008, drug officials around the world watched as West Africa became the new narco state capital of the world.
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Senegal bears the memories of French colonization. The French remain involved in the nation's law enforcement.The first signs of drug trade's presence in Africa appeared in 1985. In Zambia, a southern central African nation, 25 prominent citizens were indicted on drug trafficking charges. A panel was established to investigate this home-grown cartel, which dealt largely in marijuana. The investigation revealed a startling fact about the Zambian economy; drugs had become so entrenched there that they were used as goods that everyday citizens traded and bartered to purchase things like groceries [source: Mulenga].
The inquiry revealed an invisible narco state beneath the functioning one, replete with a money laundering network that helped support it financially. Zambia was among the first African nations to see a narco state rise out of its poor economy, but it was far from the last.
The 1990s saw an explosion in post-colonial Africa's drug trade. While marijuana and hashish had long been favored by many African nations, cocaine made a big entrance into the continent as drug traffickers from Latin America began to gain traction in Africa. This foothold led to the establishment of narco states, especially along the west coast, a major transit point for Latin American cocaine en route to Europe. With poor economic outlooks among many of the nations along the west coast and inland, combating the drug trade has taken a back seat in many cases to the economic stimulus trafficking provides. Like many in Latin America, African narco states often exist largely under the radar within a functioning state that maintains the pretense of eradicating drug trafficking.
Take Senegal, for example. In the 1990s, cocaine and heroin use among the upper classes began to take off as a major influx of drugs penetrated the nation's borders. This led to the development of a Senegalese narco state; in 2008, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported the average cost of a bribe to persuade an official at the country's Dakar airport to look the other way was about $9,000 per kilo of cocaine -- around a third of its wholesale value in Europe [source: Blair]. In Ghana, a combined 2 tons (1814 kilograms) of cocaine were seized during 2006; this was in addition to another 7 tons (6350 kg) of cocaine captured off the nation's coast that same year [source: Mail and Guardian].
As we saw in Central America, conflict also played a major role in the emergence of narco states along the African coast. Nations that have endured prolonged civil war and lack stable central governments, like Liberia and Sierra Leone, have also developed regional narco states.
Combined, these nations have come to form the backbone of a bustling narco economy that links Latin America with Europe. "The former Gold Coast is turning into the Coke Coast," a U.N. report stated [source: Kirschke]. There is no other nation in Africa, however, that fits the classic definition of a narco state than the continent's newest addition to the international drug trade, Guinea Bissau.
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A week following Guinea Bissau's 2008 elections, members of the nation's army launched a siege on the residence of the reelected president, João Bernardo Vieira.Guinea Bissau, West Africa's most prominent narco state, became the major hub between Latin American cocaine traffickers and European consumers quite by accident. In 2005, a group of Guinea-Bissauan fishermen snagged what they later realized was a significant amount of cocaine in their nets. When the Colombian traffickers traveled to the country to purchase back their lost cocaine for $1 million, the Guinea Bissauans -- who live in the fifth-poorest nation in the world and make an average salary of $528 a year for a civil service job -- happily sold it back [source: Kirschke]. Just like that, the cocaine trade in Guinea Bissau was born.
The nation has become the purest -- and most important -- West African narco state. The Latin American drug traffickers have set up shop, building mansions in the capital and overseeing drug operations. The military protects the traffickers and is basically at war with the federal government. Many residents actively participate in the drug trade as traffickers and mules. Like just about every other narco state, Guinea Bissau emerged due to money. In 2007, about $150 million (wholesale) worth of cocaine was passing through its borders each month -- an amount equal to about half of the country's entire annual gross domestic product [source: Hanson]. It's little wonder that the nation became a narco state as a result.
Cocaine use in Europe has skyrocketed due to the development of these West African drug havens. In Spain, the main smuggling port for illicit goods and illegal immigrants from Africa, the percentage of cocaine users now exceeds that of the U.S. [source: Walt]. A 2006 study found that, as a result of this sudden cocaine infusion, 94 percent of all euro notes in circulation in Spain contain trace amounts of the drug [source: BBC]. These bank notes may have been handled by drug dealers or users, or may have served as impromptu straws for sniffing cocaine.
Portugal, another major port of entry for drug smugglers, is of particular use to Guinea-Bissauan traffickers. Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony and citizens aren't required to apply for visas to enter Europe. This former colonization has helped make Guinea Bissau a drug trafficking paradise.
Infrastructure built during the Portuguese occupation fell out of order after they left the African state. Airstrips located on uninhabited islands, for example, went unused for decades because the nation of Guinea Bissau owns no airplanes. These airstrips have made perfect smuggling sites for the South American traffickers. The virtually unfunded police in the capital city of Bissau have been unable to make any headway in fighting the Colombians. Many Colombians have moved to the city to direct drug operations as police officers rarely have fuel for their five police cars [source: Walt].
Those arrests that are made tend not to stick. The nation's military routinely protects the Colombians. In September 2006, police arrested two Colombian men in a house with nearly 700 kilograms (1543 pounds) of cocaine. Soldiers arrived at the police station and surrounded it until the police released the men and the cocaine. The soldiers loaded both onto their vehicles and drove off [source: Walt].
Guinea Bissau has become a case study in the emergence of narco states. Its president is at war with the military, which has allied itself with drug traffickers. On March, 2, 2009, the turmoil between the Guinea-Bissau military and President João Bernardo Vieira ended when the president was shot to death by soldiers as he attempted to escape his presidential palace, which had been under siege for several hours; it was assumed the assassination was retribution for the killing of the head of the Guinea-Bissau military the previous night [source: AP]. The deaths left a "power vacuum" in the already unstable nation and the world continues to watch tensely to see what would come of the deaths [source: AP]. Its economy depends solely on drug trafficking. Like other narco states around the world, Guinea Bissau proves that when poverty collides with the will of drug traffickers, a narco state is likely to emerge. When narco states emerge, the drug economy thrives.
Posted by Octavio Perez-Garcia
Introduction
For a variety of reasons, people around the world have developed a love affair with illicit substances. The United States has a particularly ravenous appetite for cocaine, consuming some 40 percent of the global supply each year [source: Glenny]. While it contributes only 11 percent of the world population, Europe is home to almost one-third of the globe's heroin addicts [source: Chamie, Norton-Taylor].
The West's continual fondness for drugs has helped to drive their costs down. In the U.S., a kilogram of uncut cocaine sells for around $22,000, while that same kilo fetches almost $120,000 on the streets of Moscow [source: Kirschke, Walt]. There are other costs associated with illicit drugs, including health care and welfare expenditures for addicts and their children. Disability payouts for addicts in the UK, for example, cost the nation almost $80 million in 2008 [source: Daily Mail]. These enormous numbers are piddling compared to the tolls exacted in places where illegal drugs are produced. Rather than dollar amounts, or pounds or euros, the prices paid for illicit drugs at their points of origin or along their supply chains are often calculated in human blood and misery.
The marijuana and hash smoked in Detroit and El Paso. The cocaine sniffed in clubs in Ibiza, Frankfurt and Atlanta. The heroin injected in basement flats in New York, London and Los Angeles. The methamphetamine snorted, smoked and shot up by people in Bangkok and Nashville. All of it comes from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually somewhere else.
To get from their areas of origin to the towns and cities where consumers purchase them in little baggies, illicit drugs have likely passed through way stations called narco states. These are regions and countries where governmental action is directly influenced -- either through corruption or violence -- by drug traffickers, drug producers or the drug trade itself [source: Hartelius]. It's big business: The drug trade generates as much as $300 billion a year. Basically, narco states are the capitals on the drug trade map, and this map touches every corner of the globe.
What Makes a Narco State?
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Colombian police capture 3.5 tons of cocaine in December 2008, about one-half of a percent of the county's annual production.
The government often keeps up the pretense of this social contract in a narco state, but ultimately the government serves the interests of drug traffickers rather than those of its citizens. The public may remain protected as long as this protection doesn't interfere with state-fueled drug trafficking.
Why would a government engage in such corruption? There's the threat of violence, as we saw in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. Competing drug cartels with armed paramilitary groups launched attacks on federal and judicial buildings there. They also kidnapped and murdered officials and judges who sought to bring them to justice. By using the military to challenge the government, these groups established legitimate political parties that served their interests in policy-making decisions.
A narco state may also emerge once a nation's military hierarchy has been corrupted, especially that nation's intelligence officers. Military officials can turn to drug trafficking themselves, as we've seen in places like Guatemala, or they may be bribed into corruption -- a dilemma the African nation of Guinea Bissau currently finds itself in. A corrupted intelligence service backed with armed military might, knowledge of smuggling lines and access to airfields, planes and boats, can create a domino effect that forces other layers of government to abide by a narco state's creation. The military maintains the state's threat of violence, and it can be very persuasive once that threat's trained on the public -- or even the rest of the government -- at the behest of drug traffickers.
Nations that have seen lots of government turnover, especially due to war or coups, also easily can devolve into narco states. Between 2000 and 2002, Guatemala, an undisputed narco state, saw the chief drug enforcement director position change hands nine times [source: UNODC]. Prolonged conflicts may lead to damaged infrastructure, which limits the government's ability to provide basic services to its citizens. This, in turn, reduces that government's public legitimacy and leaves it open to armed challenges.
Conflict also means a glut of guns and war veterans that can use them effectively. This can lead to rebellion and even civil war, especially when an armed group opts to engage in drug trafficking en masse and the central government moves to thwart those activities. For examples of this type of rebellion, let's look at Central America, which is rife with narco states due to its location between South American producer countries and North American consumers. The area has a long history of conflict: In the 20th century alone, Guatemala endured a 36-year-long civil war, El Salvador's engaged in a 12-year-long one and Nicaragua had one that lasted 19 years [source: UNODC]. These conflicts left Central America with such a weapons surplus that unregistered guns outnumber those held by legitimate police and military forces 5-to-1 [source: UNODC].
Certainly, heavily armed groups bent on maintaining drug trafficking in areas with weakened central governments can lead to the birth of a narco state. However, one should never underestimate the most important factor in the foundation of a narco state -- money.
The Root of all Narco States
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Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (left) and his intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, during Fujimori's 2008 corruption trial.
Let's see how money greases a narco state's wheels. In Guatemala, a federal judge was accused of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to dismiss a drug trafficking case. The judge not only dismissed the case, she was seen later driving the defendant from court [source: UNODC]. While military force remains a distinct threat, a corrupt judicial or legislative system may contribute more to a narco state's continuation. Bribery and kickbacks are subtler than armed resistance and attract less attention, which may allow a narco state to thrive unchecked.
Congressional and judicial protection of drug traffickers can also extend beyond a narco state's borders. In Guatemala, corrupt government officials drafted legislation that prevents citizens from being extradited to face criminal charges in another country. Extradition has been a powerful policy tool used by the United States to fight the war on drugs. By protecting its nation's drug traffickers from extradition and prosecution, the Guatemalan narco state has allowed its cocaine trade to explode.
Not all narco states are alike, though. In some states the government may give implicit approval of drug production and trafficking, but remains inactive in the drug trade. The amount of money generated by drug production and trafficking can be enough to make up a substantial percentage of the nation's economy. Afghanistan's opium production produces $3 billion annually for the nation. That staggering number represents one-half of the country's gross domestic product -- the sum total of all goods and services a country produces in a year [source: Norton-Taylor]. With income like this, a government (and the public) often hesitates to take any real steps towards curbing the drug trade within its borders.
Other governments have taken a more direct approach to drug trafficking. Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's administration is a prime example. Throughout the 1990s, Fujimori, who ascended to power via campaign contributions by Colombian drug cartels, ruled Peru as a dictator who employed death squads to quiet dissent. Fujimori had plans for the cartels as well; namely, Vladimiro Montesinos, Fujimori's second-in-command and head of intelligence. Montesinos, a former defense attorney for various South American drug lords, maintained his old contacts and extorted $700 for every kilogram of cocaine exported from Peru during Fujimori's 10-year tenure, amassing as much as $1 billion in personal wealth [source: Chauvin, Vann]. Those who didn't pay up were eliminated by government death squads.
Converging political, public and revolutionary pressures ended both Fujimori and Montesinos' rule over Peru. Both were also extradited and tried on corruption charges in Peruvian court. If you examine the creation and support of some narco states, however, you might be surprised to find the presence of the United States. Find out how and why on the next page.
The Cold War
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A mass grave containing 13 skeletons unearthed in Guatemala in 2005.
Central America proved a key battleground for the proxy wars between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union (USSR) during the Cold War. With nuclear destruction assured through the amassed arsenals of each nation, neither the U.S. nor the USSR could afford to engage in outright war with one another. Instead, the two foes used other nations' governments and rebel factions to fight their ideological war for them. Because of their proximity to Communist Cuba and the United States, as well as the presence of both Marxist and anti-Communist military groups, Central and South America played vital roles in the Cold War.
Stephen Ferry/Liaison/Getty Images
FARC guerillas along the border between Colombia and Panama in July 1999.
Dictators like Panama's Manuel Noriega also served as CIA assets. Several key players who served as U.S. allies and covert aid recipients in the Latin American proxy wars received military and intelligence training in the U.S. Army's secretive and controversial School of the Americas. This program, based at Fort Benning, Ga., trains Latin American soldiers in tactics like assassination, counterinsurgency and the assembly of guerrilla armies [source: CNN].
These organizations and leaders, and numerous others operating in Latin America's present or recent past, share more than brutality in common. They are also among the most prolific and established drug traffickers in the world.
Unated States Role in Latin American Narco States
Timothy Ross/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hacienda Napoles, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's 3,700 acre estate, in a photo taken in 1988.
Moving sensitive materials like arms and people without detection is a vital aspect of intelligence. Thanks to U.S. and Soviet training, Latin American intelligence officers were now well-versed in the art of smuggling. It's simple to substitute cocaine for arms or people. Without funding from the superpowers, Central American groups now had the motive and the means to produce and distribute drugs to fund their own continuing conflicts despite decreased interest from the Soviets and Americans. The U.S. continued to fund both sides of these conflicts, inadvertently, through the income made from selling drugs to American consumers.
During the 1970s and '80s, Colombian cocaine syndicates like Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel hired FARC guerrillas to protect their coca crops and processing laboratories. Eventually, the cartels and FARC became rivals in the cocaine trade. FARC developed its own cocaine distribution network and the cartels assembled anti-Communist paramilitary organizations. Both also protected their drug trafficking operations by entrenching themselves in the federal government. The 1980s and '90s saw tremendous violence in Colombia; both the cartels and FARC staged bombings and raids on government buildings and kidnapped federal officials. FARC also used its drug profits to outsource its terrorism, offering a $1,000 reward to any person who killed a government official [source: ABC]. Rural areas that served as vital points along cocaine distribution lines were taken over by one side or the other, leading to microcosmic narco states within Colombia.
Because of its proximity to Mexico and its emerging cartels, Colombian drug traffickers turned their sights on Guatemala in the 1990s after the Unites States began to patrol their overseas trade routes in the Caribbean. In Guatemala, la cofrida conducts drug trafficking, led by two intelligence officers trained at the School of the Americas. The pair have been amazingly successful; as much as 75 percent of the cocaine that enters the U.S. passes through Guatemala's borders en route to Mexico, which has made Guatemala an effective narco state [source: Smyth].
Once in Mexico, cocaine is routed up to border towns like Juarez, where mules carry it and other drugs across the border. As a result of the rise of Mexican cartels, Juarez has devolved into a regional narco state. After the local government purged the police force of corrupt cops, few remain on the job. Juarez municipal officials are powerless to prevent the violence and corruption spread by rival drug cartels warring for control of supply routes into the U.S., despite the increased presence of federal authorities in the city. This violence reached a fever pitch in 2008 as it spilled over into the civilian population -- murders in Juarez rose from 300 in 2007 to more than 1,500 in 2008 [source: Beaubien].
Much of this violence was due to tactics exported from South and Central America to Mexico. The Mexican Gulf cartel established the paramilitary unit los Zetas with guerilla leadership consisting mostly of former Mexican Army Special Forces commandos trained by the United States [source: Roig-Franzia].
After it exits the war zones along the Mexican border and enters the United States, the rate of violence attached to cocaine, heroin, marijuana and meth decreases dramatically. The highest prices are paid inside the narco states.
Making Allies out of Drug Dealers
John Moore/Getty Images
In 2006, a U.S. Army soldier wades through a poppy field in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the world capital of opium cultivation.
The Contra rebels in Nicaragua, which the United States covertly supported during the group's civil war with the leftist ruling Sandinista party, ran cocaine distribution operations while receiving training, funding and arms from the CIA [source: Zirnite]. Gen. Manuel Noriega, a CIA asset since he rose to power in 1981, operated a narco state with the CIA's knowledge during his tenure as president of Panama [source: National Security Archive]. Once news leaked of Noriega's involvement with the U.S. and drug trafficking, he was captured during an American military invasion of Panama in 1989 and indicted on drug charges in the United States. Noriega received a 30-year federal prison sentence.
The United States continues to fight the war on drugs while turning a blind eye to drug trafficking among its allies, most notably in Afghanistan. After the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, America and its allies toppled the Taliban militia that had ruled the nation under strict Islamic law. In 1999, despite the Taliban's fundamentalist views, Afghanistan overtook Burma as the world's leading producer of opium poppies, the plant from which heroin is derived [source: Traynor]. Under the Taliban, Afghanistan functioned as a narco state, with the government using profits from its state-run heroin processing labs to fund its military and keep its economy afloat.
Afghanistan saw the largest poppy harvest in recorded history in 2006. The crop yield was a 50 percent increase over the previous year, and the harvest made Afghanistan the producer of 93 percent of the global heroin supply [source: Norton-Taylor]. The U.S. made efforts to eradicate poppy crops early in its occupation, but could offer no replacement crop that approaches its profitability for Afghani farmers. President Hamid Karzai, a key U.S. ally, allowed some crop removal by soldiers on the ground, but refused to allow the U.S. to eradicate crops with pesticides sprayed from airplanes, a method that's proven effective in fighting Colombian cocaine production.
President Karzai isn't accused of personally engaging in drug trafficking, and he has stated poppy eradication as a goal of his administration. In addition to allowing hand eradication of poppy crops, he's accepted $780 million from the United States for counternarcotics operations like removing corrupt judges and training drug officers [source: Transnational Institute]. His nation, however, remains the world's leading exporter of heroin, generating more than $3 billion annually for the country's economy.
Amid reports that convicted Afghani drug traffickers pay bribes for release from prison, fear has mounted that the country may devolve into a full-fledged narco state [source: Schweich]. With remote areas still ruled by drug trafficking tribal leaders, the nation certainly contains narco states within its borders.
If questions remain about Afghanistan's status as a narco state, any surrounding several West African nations have been put to rest. In 2008, drug officials around the world watched as West Africa became the new narco state capital of the world.
African Narco States
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Senegal bears the memories of French colonization. The French remain involved in the nation's law enforcement.
The inquiry revealed an invisible narco state beneath the functioning one, replete with a money laundering network that helped support it financially. Zambia was among the first African nations to see a narco state rise out of its poor economy, but it was far from the last.
The 1990s saw an explosion in post-colonial Africa's drug trade. While marijuana and hashish had long been favored by many African nations, cocaine made a big entrance into the continent as drug traffickers from Latin America began to gain traction in Africa. This foothold led to the establishment of narco states, especially along the west coast, a major transit point for Latin American cocaine en route to Europe. With poor economic outlooks among many of the nations along the west coast and inland, combating the drug trade has taken a back seat in many cases to the economic stimulus trafficking provides. Like many in Latin America, African narco states often exist largely under the radar within a functioning state that maintains the pretense of eradicating drug trafficking.
Take Senegal, for example. In the 1990s, cocaine and heroin use among the upper classes began to take off as a major influx of drugs penetrated the nation's borders. This led to the development of a Senegalese narco state; in 2008, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported the average cost of a bribe to persuade an official at the country's Dakar airport to look the other way was about $9,000 per kilo of cocaine -- around a third of its wholesale value in Europe [source: Blair]. In Ghana, a combined 2 tons (1814 kilograms) of cocaine were seized during 2006; this was in addition to another 7 tons (6350 kg) of cocaine captured off the nation's coast that same year [source: Mail and Guardian].
As we saw in Central America, conflict also played a major role in the emergence of narco states along the African coast. Nations that have endured prolonged civil war and lack stable central governments, like Liberia and Sierra Leone, have also developed regional narco states.
Combined, these nations have come to form the backbone of a bustling narco economy that links Latin America with Europe. "The former Gold Coast is turning into the Coke Coast," a U.N. report stated [source: Kirschke]. There is no other nation in Africa, however, that fits the classic definition of a narco state than the continent's newest addition to the international drug trade, Guinea Bissau.
Guinea Bissau
Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images
A week following Guinea Bissau's 2008 elections, members of the nation's army launched a siege on the residence of the reelected president, João Bernardo Vieira.
The nation has become the purest -- and most important -- West African narco state. The Latin American drug traffickers have set up shop, building mansions in the capital and overseeing drug operations. The military protects the traffickers and is basically at war with the federal government. Many residents actively participate in the drug trade as traffickers and mules. Like just about every other narco state, Guinea Bissau emerged due to money. In 2007, about $150 million (wholesale) worth of cocaine was passing through its borders each month -- an amount equal to about half of the country's entire annual gross domestic product [source: Hanson]. It's little wonder that the nation became a narco state as a result.
Cocaine use in Europe has skyrocketed due to the development of these West African drug havens. In Spain, the main smuggling port for illicit goods and illegal immigrants from Africa, the percentage of cocaine users now exceeds that of the U.S. [source: Walt]. A 2006 study found that, as a result of this sudden cocaine infusion, 94 percent of all euro notes in circulation in Spain contain trace amounts of the drug [source: BBC]. These bank notes may have been handled by drug dealers or users, or may have served as impromptu straws for sniffing cocaine.
Portugal, another major port of entry for drug smugglers, is of particular use to Guinea-Bissauan traffickers. Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony and citizens aren't required to apply for visas to enter Europe. This former colonization has helped make Guinea Bissau a drug trafficking paradise.
Infrastructure built during the Portuguese occupation fell out of order after they left the African state. Airstrips located on uninhabited islands, for example, went unused for decades because the nation of Guinea Bissau owns no airplanes. These airstrips have made perfect smuggling sites for the South American traffickers. The virtually unfunded police in the capital city of Bissau have been unable to make any headway in fighting the Colombians. Many Colombians have moved to the city to direct drug operations as police officers rarely have fuel for their five police cars [source: Walt].
Those arrests that are made tend not to stick. The nation's military routinely protects the Colombians. In September 2006, police arrested two Colombian men in a house with nearly 700 kilograms (1543 pounds) of cocaine. Soldiers arrived at the police station and surrounded it until the police released the men and the cocaine. The soldiers loaded both onto their vehicles and drove off [source: Walt].
Guinea Bissau has become a case study in the emergence of narco states. Its president is at war with the military, which has allied itself with drug traffickers. On March, 2, 2009, the turmoil between the Guinea-Bissau military and President João Bernardo Vieira ended when the president was shot to death by soldiers as he attempted to escape his presidential palace, which had been under siege for several hours; it was assumed the assassination was retribution for the killing of the head of the Guinea-Bissau military the previous night [source: AP]. The deaths left a "power vacuum" in the already unstable nation and the world continues to watch tensely to see what would come of the deaths [source: AP]. Its economy depends solely on drug trafficking. Like other narco states around the world, Guinea Bissau proves that when poverty collides with the will of drug traffickers, a narco state is likely to emerge. When narco states emerge, the drug economy thrives.
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viernes, 29 de julio de 2011
lunes, 13 de junio de 2011
10 libros para cambiar tu cerebro !!!
Octavio Perez-Garcia
La autora Rebecca Gladding hace una revisión de 10 libros (en ingles) que a su parecer te pueden ayudar a turbo cargar tu cerebro de conciencia e inteligencia !!!
Suena bien no???
Aqui esta link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-gladding/brain-books_b_875703.html#s290794&title=Train_Your_Mind
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