Words: Josefina Salomón
Women play increasingly prominent roles in criminal organisations operating across Latin America. However, this remains an understudied phenomenon. This lack of information and analysis limits the debate over the most effective public policies to address it.
“It’s like looking at the tree and not the forest,” says Carolina Sampó, associate researcher at Conicet, founder and board member of Amassuru, who for years has been analysing the roles that women play within criminal organisations.
She explains that this is partly because societies, and governments, find it hard seeing women as violent or capable of stepping outside their traditional roles as caregivers.
We spoke to Sampó –who will lead the first panel of Amassuru’s international seminar “Organised crime in Latin America from a feminist approach” on 22 November— about the ways in which women engage in crime and the effectiveness of public policies in addressing these dynamics.
In.Visibles (IV): How does criminal leadership by women and men differ
Carolina Sampó (CS): Some time ago, with Valeska Troncoso and Antonella Paparini, we reviewed sentences in cases of women leading criminal organisations in Latin America. What we found is that women tend to be more discreet than men, and that is what allows them to go much more unnoticed, perpetuate themselves in power and continue running their businesses, in many cases without being identified by security agencies, and even when they are identified, it is often difficult to obtain evidence to prosecute them.
IV: How do you explain that?
CS: I think it is explained by stereotypes. There is a heteropatriarchal part of society that finds it difficult to think that a woman is capable of running a criminal organisation, laundering money, ordering murders.
On the other hand, when we move away from the middle and upper echelons to look at the lower echelons or the base of the pyramid, what we see is that women are in extremely vulnerable situations, who in many cases have no other option but to participate in some way in this type of business, economies of subsistence. In these cases, the state response is imprisonment.
IV: So, in all cases stereotypes come into play…
CS: Yes, probably for better and for worse, and at the same time men are subject to a less stereotypical vision, or at least different kinds of stereotypes. Men are seen as the ones who can easily exercise violence, develop business and think very creatively, when in reality in many cases it is women who are in charge, including when it comes to logistics and money.
In the majority of Latin American homes, it is the women who are in charge of organising, managing the family economy and so on. So, what makes us think that outside the private sphere, this is different?
IV: How do women use violence when they are part of crime organizations? CS: As far as we can see, it is very similar to the way men use violence. In other words, it is not that women behave differently, less violently, because they are women and because they are in positions of command. On the contrary, in many cases I would say that they are even more violent. This does not mean that they are the ones who exercise violence, but that they are the ones who give the orders.
IV: Are there countries where you see these dynamics more prominently than in others?
CS: There are countries that are at a more advanced stage in terms of organised crime. In the case of Mexico, for example, one clearly sees women involved in many criminal organisations, in different roles, but significantly in money laundering, for example. We made a comparison between Mexico’s Jalisco Cartel – New Generation and Brazil’s First Capital Command (PCC). What we discovered is that in the case of Brazil, there is more reluctance for women to get involved in organised crime, while in Jalisco New Generation the opposite is true. In fact, the wife of the most important leader, El Mencho, is actually the one who has the power, because she comes from a family of drug traffickers.
IV: Which of the women you looked into caught your attention?
CS: Many. One is Leticia Rodríguez, who was a federal police officer in Mexico. And she went from being a federal policeman and giving Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán information about safe routes to move drugs to the United States to setting up her own cartel and running a large part of Mexican territory, including a sector that belonged to the Zetas, who were an extremely bloodthirsty and powerful criminal organisation. She was eventually imprisoned. Another one is Griselda Blanco. In the series that was made about her it seems that she is nice, but in reality she was very bad. The third woman who caught my attention is that of Emma Coronel, the wife of el Chapo Guzmán, mainly because of how the justice system treats her. She was originally imprisoned for drug trafficking, but for a small amount, and for money laundering. But when she was sentenced, she was given a low sentence, with the message that she should raise her daughters far away from the world of drug trafficking.
IV: These are women who have carved out spaces of power in very traditional countries in untraditional ways.
CS: Yes, that’s right. In some cases, their roles as wives or mothers played an important role because they allowed them access to a world that would otherwise have been more difficult to access, but not in all cases. Griselda, for example, had no links with anyone, she simply found her own way in and entered little by little, first facilitating and then taking charge independently.
IV: Are there any policies that are working and that have a gender perspective?
CS: Well, apparently it is the case in Costa Rica (where women imprisoned for certain micro-trafficking offences are given alternative sentences to prison). In other words, we are going to see how it works, but the policy of decriminalising micro-trafficking has apparently been giving good results. It is quite recent, so what we know is that it has improved, for example, living conditions in prisons, improved the situation of women, especially those with children, and it remains to be seen over time, because these are things that are evaluated in the medium and long term.
IV: Finally, you have explained that not fully understanding the role of women in criminal organisations limits the way in which organisations function.
CS: Of course. It’s like looking at the tree and not the forest. To understand how a criminal organisation works, we have to understand all those who participate in it. And if we are ignoring one part, which is becoming more and more significant, we don’t know how much, but it is becoming more and more significant, we are making a mistake with the public policies that are being implemented.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The international seminar, organised by Amassuru: ‘Organised crime in Latin America from a feminist approach’ will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 22 November. Subscription details and access to the webcast of the event are available here.
