Drug Trafficking and the Erosion of State Legitimacy in Paraguay: analysis of Perceptions in Peasant and Indigenous Communities

Abstract

This article analyzes the transformations in social dynamics linked to drug trafficking in Paraguay, based on two case studies: a cannabis-growing peasant community in San Pedro and an indigenous community in Alto Paraguay affected by cocaine trafficking. Through a qualitative approach based on interviews, the perceptions of these groups about the links between criminal, political, and state actors in their territories are explored. The results show the formation of hybrid social orders where the State is disputed by drug trafficking powers that impose their own norms, eroding the legitimacy of authorities, perceived as distant or complicit, while traffickers gain pragmatic legitimacy by providing goods and services. Conceptually, the cases question the State-crime dichotomy, revealing a gray zone of mutual imbrications. It is concluded that addressing drug trafficking requires transforming the structural conditions of exclusion that enable it, transcending merely repressive policies.