Violence, Governance, and Economic Development at the U.S.-Mexico Border: The Case of Nuevo Laredo and Its Lessons

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freddy Mariñez Navarro ◽  
Leonardo Vivas
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Illegal Drug ◽  
Border City ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Political Economy Analysis ◽  
Cartel Violence ◽  
The U.S

The paper seeks to make sense of the impacts and responses to the current war on drugs in Nuevo Laredo. In it, the impacts of Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) in Nuevo Laredo as well as prospects for recovery are examined from three perspectives: a political economy analysis of competitiveness in a border city; the specifics of illegal drug business in Mexico as compared to Colombia using Michael Porter's “Competitiveness Diamond”; and the strategies of local government to regain governance. The results are summarized in five theses about how Nuevo Laredo's international trade culture affects how they cope with cartel violence.

Coercive Inclusion in the Mexican War on Drugs: A Field Study of Human Rights and the State in Michoacán

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 91-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Wolfesberger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Private Property ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Mexican War ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Derechos Humanos

Qualitative ethnographic study of the human rights violations committed in the course of the militarized combat against drug trafficking organizations in rural Michoacán unmasks state practices of coercive inclusion. The violation of human rights and the subsequent processing of human rights claims paradoxically bind the marginalized population to the formal state and foster its subordination. The practical configuration of the current arena of human rights is not the lever for a democratic, inclusive Mexico but a curtain that conceals the repressive practices that it makes possible. In the processing of human rights complaints, the legal rights of physical integrity and private property become moral rights with no effect of legal justice. Un estudio etnográfico cualitativo sobre las violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas durante la lucha militarizada contra las organizaciones de tráfico de drogas en el Michoacán rural sirve para desenmascarar las prácticas de inclusión coercitiva del Estado. Las violaciones y el posterior procesamiento de las denuncias paradójicamente vinculan a la población marginada con el Estado oficial, fomentando su subordinación. La configuración práctica del actual contexto de los derechos humanos no funge como la palanca de un México democrático e inclusivo, sino como una cortina que oculta las prácticas represivas que el Estado hace posibles. En la tramitación de las denuncias sobre violación de derechos humanos, los derechos legales de la integridad física y la propiedad privada se convierten en derechos morales sin ningún efecto de justicia legal.

Rumors, Encounters, Collaborations, and Survival: The Migrant Smuggling–Drug Trafficking Nexus in the U.S. Southwest

2018 ◽  
Vol 676 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella E. Sanchez ◽  
Sheldon X. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Migrant Smuggling ◽  
Criminal Intent ◽  
Migration Corridor ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
The U.S

The violence afflicting the Mexican migration corridor has often been explained as resulting from the brutal takeover of migrant smuggling markets by organized crime, specifically Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Through the testimonies of twenty-eight migrants who traveled with smuggling facilitators on their journeys into the United States and who interacted with drug traffickers during their transit, we argue that the metamorphosis taking place may be even more radical, involving the proliferation of actors with little or no criminal intent to operate along the migration trails. Far from market coalescence, the increasing flattening of criminal markets along the migration trail and the proliferation of individuals struggling to survive is the result of increasingly limited paths toward mobility and is not attributable to feared cartels or traficantes alone. The interactions among clandestine actors are not only likely to become more common but also to reflect flexibility and adaptation that hierarchical DTOs cannot explain.

scholarly journals THE TRANSATLANTIC NARCO-NEXUS: SOUTH AMERICA, AFRICA, AND EUROPE IN THE CONTEMPORARY DRUG-TRAFFICKING DYNAMICS

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-394
Author(s):  
Thiago Rodrigues ◽  
Carol Viviana Porto ◽  
Adriano de Freixo
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
South American ◽  
Illegal Drugs ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
History Of

The article analyzes the contemporary transatlantic flow of illegal drugs, taking on account the current transformation of the connections among South American, African and European Drug-Trafficking Organizations (ODTs) and the tendency to securitize this traffic which interests the Brazilian public, national and regional security and diplomatic policies. The article presents a history of the transatlantic drug-trafficking and the its contemporary contours in order to suggest viable initiatives to cope with this new and aggravated panorama pushed through by the so-called “war on drugs”.

scholarly journals From the Border to the Core: A Thickening Military-Police Assemblage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer G. Correa ◽  
James M. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Critical Race Studies ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Military Police ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
The U.S

Militarization on the U.S.-Mexico border has intensified in America’s post- 9/11 War on Terror, while America’s War on Drugs has escalated militarization in America’s urban core. This infusion of military weapons and tactics along the border and within America’s urban core produces devastating effects on communities of color. Yet, to date, few critical race scholars attend to the Wars on Terror and on Drugs as two sides of the same coin. This paper serves as a bridge between U.S.-Mexico border studies and critical race studies vis-à-vis a theorization of a thickening military-police assemblage birthed by the War on Drugs, and intensified by the War on Terror. To delineate this assemblage, we respond to two key questions: how and to what degree has the U.S.-Mexico border served as a staging-ground for US (para)military and surveillance strategies at home and abroad? And how do discourses on America’s urban core compare and contrast with those on its southern border? We draw upon the cases of Esequiel Hernández, Jr. and Michael Brown, two teenagers whose lives were taken by this assemblage, to frame these questions. Our analysis reveals material, symbolic, and affective links between America’s militarization on the southwest border and within its urban core.

Linguistic occupation segregation along the U.S.–Mexico border: using the index of dissimilarity to measure inequality in employment among monolingual speakers and Spanish–English bilinguals

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Morales
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Dissimilarity Index ◽  
Border City ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Linguistic Segregation ◽  
Index Of Dissimilarity ◽  
The U.S

Abstract The U.S.–Mexico border is a Latina/o concentrated region and Spanish–English bilingual society. While there are some indications of an economic advantage associated with Spanish–English bilingualism in regions with over-representations of Spanish-origin speakers, the degree of occupational linguistic segregation in such ethno-linguistic context is unknown. Based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) for 2018, this study calculates the occupational dissimilarity index (D) among monolingual-Spanish speakers, Spanish–English bilinguals, and monolingual-English speakers for cities located along the Texas–Mexico border and in the Houston metropolis. Findings show that the highest occupational segregation is found between monolingual-Spanish speakers and both monolingual-English and Spanish–English bilinguals. This indicates that the monolingual-Spanish workforce is occupationally segregated from those with fluent command of English. The lowest occupation dissimilarity indices are between Spanish–English bilinguals and monolingual-English speakers, indicating that these groups are approaching similar occupational placements. I conclude by highlighting an occupational advantage to Spanish–English bilingualism, but only in border cities characterised by concentrations of Spanish-origin speakers. In the non-border city of Houston, being Spanish–English bilingual is not enough to experience occupational upward mobility.

Women, Drugs, and Violence in Sinaloa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Carey ◽  
Patricia Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
Collateral Damage ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Women And Children

As the United States approaches the fiftieth anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs and Mexico is going through the second decade of its war on drugs, the costs and ever-escalating violence are difficult to ignore. Despite the arrests, extraditions, and successful prosecutions of leaders of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), the trillion dollars that have been spent in the United States and Mexico have done little to undermine the drug demand in the United States or protect Mexican citizens from increasing violence. With former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s declaration of his own drug war, women have borne the increasing brunt of that violence. Certain women benefit from the lucrative drug trade due to their families’ involvement. Throughout the 20th century, women developed DTOs, but women have always had to fear violence from male competitors and law enforcement. Yet the majority of women who experience the drug trade experience it as users and victims. DTOs and their collaborators among the politicians and the police have acted with impunity. While legitimate actors such as police and politicians claim their support for security measures to protect women and children, these same actors have provided little empathy and support for victims. Women are both combatants in the drug trade and its collateral damage. Their experience with impunity combined with a lack of empathy for the countless victims on both sides of the border has led to a growing sense of hopeless along with growing resistance. Keyword: drug-trafficking

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