Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America Issue #: 217  | Volume #: 44 |  Number #: 6 Date: November 2017 Interviewer: Alexander Scott Interviewees: Daniela Issa Short Description: Modern slavery and human trafficking affect an estimated 1.8 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean today yet remain significantly understudied given their devastating human consequences. This issue addresses this gap in the slavery and trafficking scholarship by taking a critical look at it across the region and situating it within the transnational capitalist economy. Articles include theoretical analyses of the phenomenon as well as recruitment practices, populations susceptible to being enslaved/trafficking, and the role of violence. Additionally, it seeks to provide regional balance in the literature on slavery and trafficking in Latin America, which has disproportionately centered on Brazil; it highlights three underresearched areas—slavery outside Brazil, nonsexual slavery, and smugglers/traffickers rather than victims exclusively. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES is a theoretical and scholarly journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas. For more than forty years, it has published timely, progressive analyses of the social forces shaping contemporary Latin America. http://latinamericanperspectives.com