REVISITING THE “GEOPOLITICS OF DRUG TRAFFICKING IN THE AMAZON”

Abstract

Drug trafficking is a complex phenomenon of growing transnational relevance due to the porous nature of state borders in a contemporary period of diffusion of criminal networks that generate financial flows and logistical circuits for drugs. In this context, the Amazon region assumes a strategic role due to its extensive size and limited state presence in various areas, factors that favor the circulation of drugs. The Amazon thus becomes part of transnational trafficking corridors that connect production zones to consumer markets in North America, Europe, and Africa, highlighting how drug trafficking is embedded in broader geopolitical dynamics and impacts issues of security, sovereignty, and international cooperation between states. Based on this theme, this text presents a review of the prominent book "Geopolítica do narcotráfico na Amazônia”, which explores the expansion of drug trafficking networks in the Amazon region, highlighting the actions of criminal factions and the spatial reconfiguration of these networks in the face of the interaction between borders, global flows, and social vulnerabilities. It demonstrates that the Amazon has consolidated itself as a strategic corridor for cocaine trafficking, linked to processes of territorial occupation, urbanization, and regional integration. The central objective of this review is to understand the spatial organization of drug trafficking in the Amazon, identifying routes, circuits, and forms of territorial appropriation by criminal organizations, as well as their impacts on security, sovereignty, and local communities. It concludes that the book constitutes a relevant reference for understanding the geopolitics of drug trafficking in the Amazon, presenting an objective analysis of the complex socio-spatial dynamics of organized crime with analytical rigor and paving the way for broader investigations, given the existing gaps in this increasingly relevant empirical field.