@article{2f7af81a1c454b4b88856ef2d9b7aef7,
title = "Grounding traffic: The cocaine commodity chain and land grabbing in eastern Honduras",
abstract = "This paper uses a global commodity chain (GCC) framework to explore the nexus of illicit economic activities and rural change. We unpack the micro-level economic processes by which a de facto land grab in eastern Honduras{\textquoteright} Moskitia region was catalyzed and accelerated by the region's ascendance as a global hub of cocaine transit (ca. 2008–2012). We show how {\textquoteleft}narco-brokers{\textquoteright} mobilized a long-standing economic infrastructure to harness land and labor in the service of moving drugs, and how these {\textquoteleft}mid-stream{\textquoteright} activities captured millions of dollars from the cocaine commodity chain. We detail the processes by which those dollars ultimately concentrated land among in situ and ex situ elites by profoundly distorting social relations around land governance, labor, food production, and—ultimately—land ownership. The result was widespread dispossession, land and resource privatization, increased food insecurity, community conflict, and increased social stratification. Lands transferred from resident smallholders to elites helped to (a) integrate the region horizontally into Honduras{\textquoteright} rentier-based cattle economy, and (b) improve the vertical integration of the pan-hemispheric cocaine trade through the speculation and profit- laundering services that the region's enclosure provided. This case highlights how economic coercions work synergistically with the more well-studied role of overt physical violence in frontier land grabs. We urge greater attention to the role of illicit capital in agrarian transformation globally. The study also points to the potential for transit spaces to shed much light on the workings of (illicit) global commodity chains and illicit economic geographies more broadly.",
keywords = "Agrarian change, Cocaine, Global commodity chain, Honduras, Illicit geographies, Land grabbing",
author = "Kendra McSweeney and Wrathall, {David J.} and Nielsen, {Erik A.} and Zoe Pearson",
note = "Funding Information: We salute our Honduran colleagues for their bravery, encouragement, and insights. Fieldwork in Honduras was supported by: the Rainforest Alliance [FO-HO-025-10] and a Northern Arizona University Faculty Grant (to EN); the National Geographic Society and Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Office of International Affairs, and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (to KM); a Social Science Research Council Drugs, Security and Democracy Fellowship (to ZP); and an Overseas Research Studentship, King's College London [#2007054033] (to DW). Subsequent work was supported by the Open Society Foundations [OR2015-22831], and by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation [DBI-1052875]. We are grateful for input from three reviewers and the expertise, support and camaraderie of the LIT-CA research group. Funding Information: We salute our Honduran colleagues for their bravery, encouragement, and insights. Fieldwork in Honduras was supported by: the Rainforest Alliance [FO-HO-025-10] and a Northern Arizona University Faculty Grant (to EN); the National Geographic Society and Ohio State University{\textquoteright}s Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Office of International Affairs, and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (to KM); a Social Science Research Council Drugs, Security and Democracy Fellowship (to ZP); and an Overseas Research Studentship, King's College London [#2007054033] (to DW). Subsequent work was supported by the Open Society Foundations [OR2015-22831], and by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation [ DBI-1052875 ]. We are grateful for input from three reviewers and the expertise, support and camaraderie of the LIT-CA research group. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2018",
month = oct,
doi = "10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.07.008",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "95",
pages = "122--132",
journal = "Geoforum",
issn = "0016-7185",
publisher = "Elsevier BV",
}