Narco-Territoriality and Shadow Powers in a Peruvian Cocaine Frontier

ABSTRACT

Whereas cocaine kingpins are often portrayed as key protagonists and perpetrators of violence in Latin America, in Peru’s Upper Huallaga they are also important powerholders who have formed dynamic systems of governance by dominating socio-economic resources and legitimating their narco-territoriality through arrangements with a variety of “shadow powers.” Although potentially violent armed actors, whether insurgents or the police and military, often abound in these “dangerous places,” in the post-conflict Upper Huallaga most of these groups aimed to gain more power and control by forming coalitions with the local powerholders. Drawing upon the narratives of drug barons, traffickers and producers, insurgents, and state officers, this article seeks to focus on an aspect that is largely overlooked in other analyses: the intricate relationship between contested narco-territoriality, weakening local governance networks, and “new” outbreaks of violence.