Border Control Paradox: The Political Economy of Smuggling Between Colombia and Venezuela

This dissertation examines how smuggling economies are governed in contexts of contested sovereignty, focusing on the Colombia–Venezuela border between 2015 and 2022. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Norte de Santander and adjacent Venezuelan territories, the study develops a theory of criminal governance in borderlands, analyzing how non-state actors—particularly the National Liberation Army (ELN)—exercise authority, regulate flows, and interact with state institutions. The research is guided by a central paradox: border control policies intended to suppress organized crime, such as militarization and border closures, often produce the opposite effect—empowering criminal actors, deepening violence, and institutionalizing hybrid forms of authority. This "border control paradox" is explored by tracing the evolution of the ELN from a rural insurgent group into a binational actor with territorial control over smuggling routes and informal crossings. Methodologically, the dissertation combines political ethnography with documentary analysis, relying on interviews with smugglers, migrants, law enforcement officials, and local residents. The analysis reveals the emergence of plural governance arrangements, where state and criminal actors coexist, negotiate, and sometimes collude. It also documents the moral economies, everyday roles, and relational infrastructures that sustain the illicit trade of gasoline, food, and migrants. Rather than treating smuggling as a residual or deviant economy, the study situates it within a broader political economy of crisis, survival, and informal rule. The findings contribute to debates on organized crime, state formation, and sovereignty by offering a grounded perspective on how borders are governed from below. They also hold policy relevance for designing security and humanitarian responses that avoid reinforcing criminal governance. Ultimately, the dissertation argues for a shift in how we conceptualize criminal power—not as external to the state, but as entangled with it, particularly in marginalized and strategic geographies like borderlands.