Business as Ideology

Boz has a very good post about the apparent “lack of ideology” when analysts describe drug trafficking organizations.

Occasionally some analyst will say that the drug cartels have no political ideology. However, maybe a better way to look at it is that their ideology is their business…Just because they’re not Marxists or anarchists or “freedom fighters” doesn’t mean their ideology can’t be defined.

Political beliefs can be a motivating factor for alliances and partnerships. But when it comes to business, legal or not, money is the motivation, and, as Boz rightly points out, is no less powerful. If, as the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows, so too does the promise of money.

LatAmThought recently wrote a commentary on this very topic. The commentary talks about how an alliance between two former ideological enemies, the FARC and former members of the AUC, has been facilitated by money.

The commentary can be read in its entirety here.