Description
Book SynopsisOver the last few decades, drug trafficking organizations in Latin America became infamous for their shocking public crimes, from narcoterrorist assaults on the Colombian political system in the 1980s to the more recent wave of beheadings in Mexico. However, while these highly visible forms of public violence dominate headlines, they are neither the most common form of drug violence nor simply the result of brutality. Rather, they stem from structural conditions that vary from country to country and from era to era. In The Politics of Drug Violence, Angelica Durán-Martínez shows how variation in drug violence results from the complex relationship between state power and criminal competition. Drawing on remarkably extensive fieldwork, this book compares five cities that have been home to major trafficking organizations for the past four decades: Cali and Medellín in Colombia, and Ciudad Juárez, Culiacán, and Tijuana in Mexico. She shows that violence escalates when trafficking organizat
Trade ReviewThe book...serve[s] as a solid foundation for scholars to build on and, with any hope, encourage a set of public policies capable of securing a more just and peaceful future for Latin America. * Juan Albarracín, Universidad Icesi, Latin American Research Review *
Table of ContentsList of Figures, Tables, and Maps Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. States, Trafficking, and Violence 2. Conceptualizing Drug Violence 3. Democratization and State Capacity to Control Violence 4. Medellín: From Extreme Wars to Unstable Pacification 5. Cali and Culiacán: Hidden Violence and State-Criminal Collusion 6. Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana: Beyond a Border Tale of Violence Conclusion Appendix: Coding Protocol for Drug-Violence Events Glossary Notes Bibliography Index
