Wednesday 7 August 2013

THE MEXICAN CONNECTION

The following academic paper was brought to my attention by a good friend of the campaign. At his request I will only identify him as our main man in Germany.

'Expertise side-lined: science, fraud and bogus molecular detectors in the Mexican ‘War on Drugs’
 
The paper presents a summarised chronology of the controversy surrounding the use of fraudulent handheld molecular detectors in Mexico, as well as the responses to the controversy from three critical sectors: the Mexican media, the different government branches and national scientific institutions. The paper also includes interview material with the most prominent critics and of the molecular detectors in Mexico and compares the voices of ‘scientific activists’ with the institutional responses. Finally, an analysis of all these different responses to the controversy is made, along with a short discussion of the relevance for expertise studies, as well as a critique of the application of existing expertise frameworks in developing country contexts such as Mexico’s.'
 
For the full paper please see HERE

Due to the academic constraints of a lack of primary sources, the paper does not cover the issue of bribery and corruption by the sellers and buyers of the fake 'detectors'. An issue which we will return to in the future.

We look forward to further work by Luis on this issue, and we hope that this paper, and other efforts by the likes of Andres Tonini, will finally bring an end to the use of the useless 'detectors' in Mexico and elsewhere.


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