Social contracts and contraband: A study in the Colombian Venezuelan Border

Abstract

Present-day social contracts and border contraband on the Northern Santander Department (Colombia) and Táchira State (Venezuela) are promoted by various actors. A dynamic economy that responds to a problem encouraged by the difference between the economies of both countries, generating asymmetry in the differential exchange, cost of goods and services, and forming part of the social, cultural and economic relations in the border under study; there are many families that sustain their economy with this income. Consequently, the article analyzes these relationships from a first focus, with a Categorical Regression analysis in Optimal Scaling (CatReg) over two samples: 2,394 and 1,398 people, respectively. Results were shown in following significant independent variables with more importance in both contexts: armed groups outside the law are part of the border dynamics and the perception of an environment of illegality, and the behavior of border people not based on conventional rules.