Biography
Mariana is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the CenMAS – Center for Multidisciplinary Area Studies at Charles University. Previously, she was a postdoc at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies at Heidelberg University in Germany.
She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University in 2024. At Vanderbilt, she was also a Graduate Research Affiliated with the LAPOP Lab. During the 2023-2024 AY, Mariana was an APSA EPOVB Early-Career Fellow. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Government from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, an M.A. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University, and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Salamanca (Spain).
Her research focuses on criminal governance, drug trafficking, public opinion, and electoral outcomes. She applies a mix of methodologies in her work, including surveys, and experiments, as well as in-depth interviews, direct observation, and focus groups.
Mariana’s dissertation research addresses how the illicit drug trafficking economy and related actors influence vote choice, as well as citizens’ attitudes toward local authority and democracy more broadly. She examines these phenomena in four ways. First, she assesses why people vote for narco-linked candidates using original online experiments conducted in Peru. Second, she shows the effect of the illegal revenues from the coca industry in popular support for the incumbent, through an in-depth case study of the Monzón Valley (Peru). Third, she draws on survey data from Andean countries to examine illegal economic voting to explain the levels of support for the local government. Finally, she uses survey data and qualitative evidence from direct observation and focus groups in Peru to assess drug trafficking organizations’ (DTOs’) impact on citizens’ support for democracy.