Policing heritage crime in Latin America

Naomi Oosterman, Donna Yates

Resumo


Artefacts from Latin America are popular on international art markets, however their supply is closely linked to heritage crimes such as looting, illegal excavations, and theft. This results in a wide and ongoing circulation of artefacts with illicit origins, despite Latin American states claiming ownership. Regulation and policy responses are continuously developed to address the opaque market structures and criminal networks facilitating this illicit trade in Latin America, with policing as the first line of defence against heritage crimes. Despite increasing research into the illicit trafficking of cultural artefacts in the region, specific strategies and interregional cooperation within heritage crime policing in Latin America has rarely been discussed. Therefore, we examine the policing, prevention, and legislation tactics in twelve Latin American countries as a state-by-state survey, and provide an overview of the current regional and international collaborations concerning the policing of heritage crime. We conclude that there is significant collaboration between Latin American countries, but that improvements could be made regarding the number of dedicated specialists within police and government agencies. This lack of economic resources and specialists within relevant agencies has been recorded in locations beyond Latin America, and we assert that this is the primary weakness in regional and global efforts to police heritage crimes.

Palavras-chave


policing; heritage crime; Latin America; legislation; cultural objects.

Texto completo:

PDF (English)

Referências


Block, L. (2011). European police cooperation on art crime: Comparative overview. Journal of Art Crime, 5(1), 13-26.

Brodie, N., & Sabrine, I. (2018). The illegal excavation and trade of Syrian cultural objects: a view from the ground. Journal of Field Archaeology, 43(1), 74-84.

Brodie, N., Yates, D., Slot, B., Batura, O., van Wanrooij, N., & op ‘t Hoog, G. (2019) Illicit Trade in Cultural Goods in Europe: Characteristics, criminal justice responses and an analysis of the applicability of technologies in the combat against the trade. Report. Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission. Available at: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/d79a105a-a6aa-11e9-9d01-01aa75ed71a1.

Coggins, C. (1969). Illicit traffic of pre-Columbian antiquities. Art Journal, 29(Autumn), 94–114.

Coggins, C. (1976). New legislation to control the international traffic in antiquities. Archaeology, 29(1), 14–15.

Coggins, C. (1998). United states cultural property legislation: Observations of a combatant. International Journal of Cultural Property, 7(1), 52–68.

Gilgan, E. (2001). Looting and the market for Maya objects: A Belizean perspective. In N. Brodie, J. Doole, & C. Renfrew (Eds.), Trade in illicit antiquities: The destruction of the world’s archaeological heritage (pp. 425–442).

Cambridge: McDonald Institute.

Gutchen, M. A. (1983). The destruction of archaeological resources in Belize, Central America. Journal of Field Archaeology, 10, 217–227.Hardy, S. A. (2016). Illicit trafficking, provenance research and due diligence: The state of the art. Report for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Paris: France.

Kerr, J. (2016). The securitization and policing of art theft: The case of London. London: Routledge.

Mackenzie, S., Brodie, N., & Yates, D. (2020). Trafficking Culture: New Directions in Researching the Global Market in Illicit Antiquities. New York: Routledge.

Mackenzie, S., & Davis, T. (2014). Temple looting in Cambodia. Anatomy of a statue trafficking network. British Journal of Criminology, 54(5), 722-740.

Manacorda, S., & Chappell, D. (Eds.). (2011). Crime in the art and antiquities world: Illegal trafficking in cultural property. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.

Oosterman, N. (2019). Regional overviews of the policing of art crime in the European Union. In S. Hufnagel & D. Chappell (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook on Art Crime. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Paredes Maury, S. (1999). Surviving in the rain forest: The realities of looting in the rural villages of El Petén, Guatemala. FAMSI Reports. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from http://www.famsi.org/reports/95096/95096ParedesMaury01.pdf.

Polk, K., & Chappell, D. (2019). Policing and prosecution of heritage crime: revisiting the Cordata–just how organised is the international traffic in cultural heritage?. In V. Mitsilegas, S. Hufnagel, and A. Moiseienko (Eds.). Research Handbook on Transnational Crime. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Robertson, M. G. (1972). Monument thievery in Mesoamerica. American Antiquity, 37(2), 147–155.

Rodríguez Temiño, I., & Roma Valdes, A. (2015). Fighting against the archaeological looting and the illicit trade of antiquities in Spain. International Journal of Cultural Property, 22(1), 111 – 130.

Yates, D. (2014a). Displacement, Deforestation, and Drugs: Antiquities Trafficking and the Narcotics Support Economies of Guatemala. In J. Kila & M. Balcells (Eds.). Cultural Property Crime. An overview and analysis contemporary perspectives and trends. Leiden: Brill, 21- 36.

Yates, D. (2014b). Church theft, insecurity, and community justice: The reality of source-end regulation of the market for illicit Bolivian cultural objects. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 20(4), 445–457.

Yates, D. (2015a). Illicit cultural property from Latin America: Looting, trafficking, and sale. In F. Desmarais (Ed.). Countering illicit traffic in cultural goods: The global challenge of protecting the world’s heritage. Paris: ICOM, 33 – 46.

Yates, D. (2015b). Reality and practicality: Challenges to effective cultural property policy on the ground in Latin America. International Journal of Cultural Property, 22(2–3), 337–356.

Yates, D. (2016). The global traffic in looted cultural objects. In N. Rafter & E. Carribine (Eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media, and Popular Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yates, D. (2019). Cultural heritage offences in Latin America: Textile traffickers, mummy mailers, silver smugglers, and virgin vandals. In S. Hufnagel and D. Chappell (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook on Art Crime. London: Routledge, 483–501.

Yates, D., Mackenzie, S., & Smith, E. (2017). The cultural capitalists: Notes on the ongoing reconfiguration of trafficking culture in Asia. Crime, media, culture, 13(2), 245-254.

Yates, D., & Tremain, C.G. (Eds.). (2019). The Market for Mesoamerica: Reflections on the Sale of Pre-Columbian Antiquities. Gainsville: University Press of Florida




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5102/rdi.v17i3.7030

ISSN 2236-997X (impresso) - ISSN 2237-1036 (on-line)

Desenvolvido por:

Logomarca da Lepidus Tecnologia