Archives for Mexico
Mexico’s 15-Year ‘War on Drugs’: An Imperfect Narrative
December 2021 marked the 15th anniversary of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico. In that time – and as renowned sociologist Fernando Escalante has articulated – “too many certainties” have become commonplace in national discourse. In particular, a cacophony of expressions have repeatedly been used by government officials across…
Criminal Violence in Mexico and South Africa: Mirrors of the Same Fate
South Africa and Mexico face similar security challenges, particularly when it comes to criminal violence. Both governments have responded in a similar fashion for years, by employing joint police-military operations. However, in both countries those operations have repeatedly been unable to bring peace and stability in the long-term. They act…
The Mexican National Guard: Challenges, Opportunities, and Fundamental Questions
Amid high expectations, and on a popular mandate to curb violence across the country, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (commonly known as AMLO) won the Mexican presidential election in early July 2018. However, by November, the then president-elect AMLO dismayed some of his electorate by placing the National Guard under military…
Deconstructing the Mexican ‘Narcos’: Critical Thinking Skills Needed
Graphic crime scenes accompanied by figures depicting unprecedented homicides rates continue to dominate the Mexican media landscape. In Mexico, violence and its causes have dominated almost all areas of public discussion for the last ten years and countless pages have been devoted by journalists, fiction writers and academics to dissecting the so-called Mexican insecurity crisis. Each of…
We Can Reduce Gun Violence in Mexico, But We Have To Be Smart About It
In 2017, 29,168 people were murdered in Mexico, the most since records began. Excluding countries at war, there were more homicides in Mexico last year than in any country in the world, apart from Brazil, which has 80 million more people, and India, which has ten times Mexico’s population. Six of…
Flawed Measurements of Organised Crime Activities: The Case of Extortion in Mexico
Extortion against businesses is one of the main security challenges facing the Mexican government today. Statistics from crimes reported to the police show that extortion has increased dramatically since the country was plunged into a decade-long ‘war’ against organised crime, rising by about 81% in the past 10 years. However, given…