Mexico's drug war: cartels, gangs, sovereignty and the network state
- Autores: John P. Sullivan
- Directores de la Tesis: Manuel Castells (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya ( España ) en 2013
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Joan Subirats i Humet (presid.), Eduard Vinyamata (secret.), Salvador Martí Puig (voc.)
- Materias:
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
- Resumen
This study seeks to understand the role of transnational organized crime in challenging the sovereignty of the nation state. In order to do so it provides an analysis of the most important current case: the insurgency waged by the narcos (cartels and associated gangs) in Mexico.
The thesis starts with the proposition that transnational organized crime challenges states in many ways. At a minimum, criminal enterprises extract resources, corrupt state institutions, and engender sporadic violence. At the extreme, transnational criminal enterprises ¿ including drug cartels and gangs ¿ erode state capacity and have the potential to alter state functions and sovereignty. This study examines the impact of transnational criminal actors on states and sovereignty. To do so, it looks at Mexican drug cartels and gangs and the impact of the on-going Mexican drug war¿known as ¿la inseguridad¿ in Mexico.
Essentially, the thesis demonstrates that Mexican cartels and associated gangs form transnational networks that challenge the state¿s sovereignty through a combination of penetration of state institutions (i.e., the police and government institutions) and competition (i.e., violent assault). This amounts to a `criminal insurgency¿ where power structures and societal values are altered. The tools of this insurgence are corruption, violence, and impunity. The traditional relationship between the state and organized crime¿where the state moderates organized crime¿is turned on its head. Organized crime not only seeks freedom from state interference, it actively displaces the state and its authority in areas of weak governance to build criminal enclaves where it effectively rules.
The thesis finds that networks are pivotal in the discussion of the political and economic dimensions of the drug war. Transnational criminal organizations (cartels and gangs), acting as violent non-state actors, use violence and corruption to secure markets, networks, and economic circuits. In doing so they are stimulating state transformation through criminal insurgency that results in co-opted state reconfiguration. This alters sovereignty, ushering in the rise of the network state where sovereignty is shared by a range of actors.
