The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is not the most obvious of names to be associated with Cape Verde, the new member of the premier league of narco-states, but the fact is that it is the largest investor in a country that London’s Daily Telegraph describes as the newest stop on “the cocaine highway”.
Despite the comments of many observers, the Grand Duchy has decided to double down on its links to Cape Verde by inking a $78 million investment commitment after the narco-state’s recent investment conference.
Historically, the Cape Verdean narco-state has attracted investment from numerous European countries who have perhaps been attempting to assuage their colonial excesses by investing in the tourism sector. This was the main focus of an investment conference held in the African Island State in July of this year.
This year’s forum was the second of its kind, but numbers were clearly affected by the global Covid- 19 epidemic. It is unclear if the island state can afford to host another forum next year given how stretched its finances are. Whilst the tourism industry has been decimated this year and tax revenues have fallen off a cliff the sector continues to attract investment. Why?
According to London-based Grey Dynamics, in an article from March of this year “Cabo Verde’s involvement in the narco-industry is not new… Allegations indicate that the government specifically ignored the drug problem as it used gained profits to develop the tourism industry.”
The full extent of the Cape Verdean connection was highlighted by the The Spectator, which in April observed “Unlike the supermarkets, with their … just-in-time delivery model, the wholesale end of the coke trade is well used to unexpected catastrophes And according to customs officials, it’s booming
like never before — lockdown or otherwise. I saw this myself during a visit a few months ago to the Cape Verde islands, a tiny archipelago off the coast of west Africa that has become a major hub for the transatlantic cocaine trade.”
The influence of cocaine on Cape Verdean socio-economic demographics is all encompassing. As The Spectator put it “Cape Verde’s position in the mid-Atlantic has made it vital to the smugglers. Those bringing product over from Colombia use the islands as a logistics hub… for the last leg to Europe. Cape Verdean locals are involved in the trade…meaning cocaine has flooded the islands.
Which brings us back to those investors from Luxembourg. Why they view Cape Verde to be worthy of their Euros is hard to fathom.
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(Luxembourg makes $78 million investment in Cape Verde)
(Daily Telegraph – Cape Verde: New Stop on the Cocaine Highway)
(Cabo Verde : Another Narco-State in West Africa)
(The Spectator – What Lockdown? Its Business as Usual for Drug Traffickers”)
