Resisting Extortion: Victims, Criminals, and States in Latin America

269 Pages·2022·4.92 MB·English

by  Eduardo Moncada

Resisting Extortion
Criminal extortion is an understudied, but widespread and severe prob­
lem in Latin America. In states that cannot or choose not to uphold the
rule of law, victims are often seen as helpless in the face of powerful
criminals. However, even under such difficult circumstances, victims
resist criminal extortion in surprisingly different ways. Drawing on
extensive fieldwork in violent localities in Colombia, El Salvador and
Mexico, Moncada weaves together interviews, focus groups, and par­
ticipatory drawing exercises to explain why victims pursue distinct
strategies to resist criminal extortion. The analysis traces and compares
processes that lead to individual acts of everyday resistance; sporadic
killings by ad hoc groups of victims and police; institutionalized and
sustained collective vigilantism; and coordination between victims and
states to co-produce order in ways that both strengthen and undermine
the rule of law. This book offers valuable new insights into the broader
politics of crime and the state.
Eduardo Moncada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the
author of Cities, Business and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin
America (2016) and co-editor of Inside Countries: Subnational
Research in Comparative Politics (2019). His research has been sup­
ported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford
Foundation Fellowship Program and the National Academy of Sciences.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS
GENERAL EDITOR
KATHLEEN THELEN Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
CATHERINE BOONE London School of Economics
THAD DUNNING University of California, Berkeley
ANNA GRZYMALA-BUSSE Stanford University
TORBEN İVERSEN Harvard University
STATHIS KALYVAS University of Oxford
MARGARET LEVI Stanford University
MELANIE MANION Duke University
HELEN MILNER Princeton University
FRANCES ROSENBLUTH Yale University
SUSAN STOKES Yale University
TARIQ THACHIL University of Pennsylvania
ERIK WIBBELS Duke University
SERIES FOUNDER
PETER LANGE Duke University
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Continued after the index
Resisting Extortion
Victims, Criminals, and States in Latin America
EDUARDO MONCADA
Barnard College, Columbia University
Ca m brid g e
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108843386
doi: 10.1017/9781108915328
© Eduardo Moncada 2021
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and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2021
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
names: Moncada, Eduardo, 1977-author.
title: Resisting extortion: victims, criminals and states in Latin America / Eduardo Moncada,
Barnard College, Columbia University.
description: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021.1 Series: Cambridge studies
in comparative politics I Includes bibliographical references and index.
identifiers: lccn 2021027340 (print) I lccn 2021027341 (ebook) I ISBN 9781108843386
(hardback) I isbn 9781108915328 (ebook other)
subjects: lcsh: Extortion - Latin America. I Offenses against property - Law
and legislation - Latin America. I Crime prevention - Latin America. I Vigilantism - Latin
America. I BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General
classification: lcc HV6604.L29 m66 2021 (print) I lcc HV6604.L29 (ebook) I ddc 364.16/
5098^023
LC record available at https://lccn.l0c.g0v/2021027340
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027341
isbn 978-1-108-84338-6 Hardback
isbn 978-1-108-82470-5 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
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accurate or appropriate.
For my family

Contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Maps page ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
PART I RESISTANCE TO CRIMINAL EXTORTION
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Key Contributions 7
1.2 Previewing the Argument 12
1.3 Structure of the Book 15
2 Explaining Variation in Resistance to Criminal Extortion 18
2.1 Key Concepts 18
2.2 The Argument 27
2.3 Building on Existing Research 43
2.4 Research Design, Case Selection, and Methods 46
PART II EVERYDAY RESISTANCE AND PIECEMEAL VIGILANTISM
3 Everyday Resistance 57
3.1 Everyday Resistance under Criminal Actors with Long Time Horizons 58
3.2 Criminal Extortion in an Informal Market in Medellin 64
3.3 Everyday Resistance 82
3.4 Conclusion 90
4 Piecemeal Vigilantism 92
4.1 Gangs, Extortion, and Politics in El Salvador 93
4.2 Piecemeal Vigilantism 98
4.3 Conclusion 116
vii
viii Contents
PART III COLLECTIVE VIGILANTISM AND THE COPRODUCTION OF ORDER
5 Collective Vigilantism 121
5.1 Criminal Organizations, Drug Wars, and Extortion in Michoacàn 122
5.2 Varieties of Collective Vigilantism 128
5.3 Centralized Collective Vigilantism 136
5.4 Decentralized Collective Vigilantism 144
5.5 Conclusion 152
6 The Coproduction of Order 155
6.1 Resistance to Criminal Extortion and Endogenous Change 156
6.2 Varieties of the Coproduction of Order 159
6.3 Centralized Coproduction of Order 160
6.4 Decentralized Coproduction of Order 168
6.5 Conclusion 175
7 Summing Up and Next Steps 177
7.1 Summary of the Argument 177
7.2 Broader Implications 181
7.3 Future Research 185
7.4 Policy Implications 195
APPENDIX: Researching Resistance to Criminal Extortion 199
References 218
Index 241
Figures, Tables, and Maps
FIGURES
1.1 Homicide rates for select world regions (2003-18) page 7
1.2 Extortion rates in Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico
(2010-19) 9
1-3 Extortion rates for business firms in Mexico (select years) 10
2.1 Strategies of domination by criminal actors 21
2.2 The argument: Pathways of resistance to criminal extortion 28
3-i Medellin: Homicide rates by district (2010-15) 69
3.2 Beatriz’s drawing 75
3-3 Dolores’s drawing 76
34 Mario’s drawing 78
3-5 Paula’s drawing 80
3.6 Damary’s drawing 81
3-7 Elena’s drawing 81
3.8 Jeronimo’s drawing 83
TABLES
2.1 Typology of strategies of resistance to criminal victimization 2-4
2.2 Mechanisms linking local political economies and strategies of
resistance 32
2.3 Case studies: Overview and variation in strategies of resistance 5i
3-i Cases of everyday resistance under criminal actors with long time
horizons 59
4.1 El Salvador: Participants in groups carrying out piecemeal
vigilantism 114
IX