Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation: Drug Trafficking and the Law in Central America

Julie Marie Bunck · Michael Ross Fowler

Jun 2012 · Penn State Press

About this eBook

Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation is the first book to examine drug trafficking through Central America and the efforts of foreign and domestic law enforcement officials to counter it. Drawing on interviews, legal cases, and an array of Central American sources, Julie Bunck and Michael Fowler track the changing routes, methods, and networks involved, while comparing the evolution and consequences of the drug trade through Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama over a span of more than three decades. Bunck and Fowler argue that while certain similar factors have been present in each of the Central American states, the distinctions among these countries have been equally important in determining the speed with which extensive drug trafficking has taken hold, the manner in which it has evolved, the amounts of different drugs that have been transshipped, and the effectiveness of antidrug efforts.

About the author

Julie Marie Bunck is Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville and the author of Fidel Castro and the Quest for a Revolutionary Culture in Cuba (Penn State, 1994).

Michael Ross Fowler is Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville. Together with Julie Marie Bunck, he is also the author of Law, Power, and the Sovereign State: The Evolution and Application of the Concept of Sovereignty (Penn State, 1995).