Regímenes de cooperación internacional, paradigmas globales y redes de inteligencia en América Latina

Abstract

This study explores several networks of international intelligence cooperation in Latin America, stressing the lessons that can be taken from these experiences for the the global academic debate on security cooperation regimes. Special attention is given to the intelligence cooperation existing in the so-called Triple Frontera or Triple Border region between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina where the author conducted fieldwork. The Triple Border case has an influence that goes beyond the territories and states that are directly affected. It involves, among many other countries and actors, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Mexico. In fact, its influence extends as far as remote African and European routes for products both licit and illicit to the most complex money laundering systems in the Middle East, China or the United States. This study aims to break with the dominant paradigms that understand intelligence cooperation as dependent on security cooperation and with the idea that intelligence as an exclusive activity of the states.