Narcos: The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend?
**WARNING: SPOILER ALERT**
Recently, “Narcos” made its way back into mainstream media discussion with the release of Season 3. “Narcos” is centered around the US (specifically, the DEA) and its involvement in the crackdown of narcotic trafficking in the latter stages of the 20th century. While Seasons 1 & 2 focussed on the struggle to bring down the Medellin Cartel, the season of reference in this post (Season 3) features Agent Peña’s journey to takedown the Cali cartel.
As Agent Peña attempts to build his case against the Cali Cartel, he begins tracking down the accountants of the organizations and stumbles upon Christina, the wife of a key financial player of the cartel. Unfortunately, the Cali realize Agent Peña is gunning to track down and use Christina, so they kidnap her and hand her off to communists hiding in the jungles of Colombia who are supposed “experts” in hostage situations. The Cali/Communists have a history of hatred and distaste from the general Colombian public, and especially from Don Berna (now a leading figure in Medellin).
Based on the description aforementioned, it is clear that DEA Agent Peña dislikes the communists who are taking Christina hostage for the Cali cartel and Don Berna dislikes communists. With this in mind, Agent Peña realizes that both him and Don Berna have a common enemy, and for the reason he befriends Don Berna for help (hence, the enemy of my enemy is my friend!).The hatred between the Cali Cartel/Communists and Agent Peña can be characterized by a negative (-) tie as can the relationship between Cali Cartel/Communists & Don Berna (-), while Agent Peña and Don Berna share a positive (+) tie. Thus, with two negative (-) ties and one positive (+) tie, we can see that the structure is balanced.
The implications of this representations are broad, but helpful. The balanced network above demonstrates how each player (represented by the node) attempts to keep each other player in check in the long run — making sure that no player has absolute authority to operate. In hindsight (through further analysis of the network), the Cali Cartel could’ve seen a potential alliance forming between Agent Peña and Don Berna; and thus could’ve acted differently with its handling of Christina.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Christina was ultimately rescued through the help of Don Berna.
Links
- Season 3 Recap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcos_(season_3)
- Episode 8 Recap: http://ew.com/recap/narcos-season-3-binge/8/
- General “Narcos” Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcos