Women and drug trafficking in Portuguese-speaking African countries

a bibliographic and content analysis

Abstract

We compiled a review of academic production in Portuguese, especially in the social sciences, on the participation of women in illicit drug trafficking networks between Latin America, Africa and Europe, with the aim of analyzing the situation of women from Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOPs). First, we situate the phenomenon amid the effects of globalization and the consequent weakening of states in the face of the lack of control over the illegal flow of goods and people, and the “colonization” of previous routes of emigration of Africans to Europe, the United States and Brazil by the new paths of international trafficking. Finally, we focus on the place of African women as migrants, prisoners and “mules” who are recruited to transport drugs.