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When widespread state-criminal collusion persists in transitions from autocracy to democracy, electoral competition becomes a catalyst of large-scale criminal violence.
List of contents
Part I. A Political Theory of Criminal Violence: 1. The political foundations of peace and war in the gray zone of criminality; Part II. The Outbreak of Inter-cartel Wars: 2. Why cartels went to war: subnational party alternation, the breakdown of criminal protection, and the onset of inter-cartel wars; 3. Fighting turf wars: cartels, militias, and the struggle for drug trafficking corridors; Part III. The State's War Against the Cartels: 4. Why the state's war against the cartels intensified violence: political polarization, intergovernmental partisan conflict, and the escalation of violence; 5. Unpacking the war against the cartels: presidents, governors, and large-scale narco violence; Part IV. The Rise of Criminal Governance: Subverting Local Democracy in War: 6. Why cartels murder mayors and local party candidates: subnational political vulnerability and political opportunities to become local rulers; 7. Seizing local power: developing subnational criminal governance regimes.
About the author
Guillermo Trejo is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Violence and Transitional Justice Lab at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. He studies political and criminal violence, social movements, and human rights. He is the author of Popular Movements in Autocracies: Religion, Repression, and Indigenous Collective Action in Mexico (2012).Sandra Ley is Assistant Professor at CIDE's Political Studies Division in Mexico City. She studies criminal violence and political behavior.
Summary
This book is for scholars, students, journalists, and policy makers who study criminal violence, narco wars, transitions to democracy, corruption, and Mexican and Latin American politics. It analyzes the outbreak and intensification of Mexico's crime wars, revealing the political foundations of large-scale criminal violence in new democracies.
Additional text
'Trejo and Ley's Votes, Drugs, and Violence provides critical new insights into the phenomenon of criminal governance. The authors offer a rich and compelling account of how interactions between criminal groups and the state promote varied patterns of violence in Mexico. The book is an essential addition to the literature on criminal violence and conflict in Latin America.' Desmond Arias, Baruch College, CUNY
