The Politics of Drug Violence: Criminals, Cops and Politicians in Colombia and Mexico

325 Pages·2018·17.04 MB·English

by  Angélica Durán-Martínez

THE POLITICS OF
DRUG VIOLENCE
Criminals, Cops, and Politicians
in Colombia and Mexico
Angelica Durän-Martinez
The Politics of Drug Violence

The Politics of Drug
Violence
Criminals, Cops; and Politicians
in Colombia and Mexico
ANGELICA DURÄN-MARTINEZ
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Durân-Martinez, Angélica, 1979- author.
Title: The politics of drug violence : criminals, cops, and politicians in
Colombia and Mexico / by Angélica Durân-Martinez.
Description: New York: Oxford University Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017029902 | ISBN 9780190695958 (hbk : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780190695965 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190695972 (updf) |
ISBN 9780190695989 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Drug traffic—Colombia. | Drug traffic—Mexico. |
Violent crimes—Colombia. | Violent crimes—Mexico. | Colombia—
Politics and government. | Mexico—Politics and government.
Classification: LCC HV8079.N3 D87 2018 | DDC 364.1/336509861—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029902
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
CONTENTS
List of Figures, Tables, and Maps vu
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
1. States, Trafficking, and Violence 1
2. Conceptualizing Drug Violence 35
3. Democratization and State Capacity to Control Violence 65
4. Medellin: From Extreme Wars to Unstable Pacification 111
5. Cali and Culiacân: Hidden Violence and State-Criminal
Collusion 145
6. Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana: Beyond a Border Tale of Violence
Conclusion 219
Appendix: Coding Protocol for Drug-Violence Events 235
Glossary 243
Notes 245
Bibliography 271
Index 299

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND MAPS
Figures
1.1. Types of Drug-Related Violence and Location of Cases 6
1.2. A Dynamic Depiction of Drug Violence 17
2.1. Homicide Rates 1985-2015, Mexican Cities (per 100,000
Inhabitants) 54
2.2. Homicide Rates 1984-2015, Colombian Cities (per 100,000
Inhabitants) 55
2.3. Proportion of Violent Events by Method 60
3.1. Coca Cultivation and Potential Cocaine Production in Colombia 75
3.2. New Drug Users in Mexico 1985-2008 101
4.1. Homicide Rates in Medellin 1984-2015 (per 100,000
Inhabitants) 114
4.2. Victims of Violence in Medellin, by Occupation 116
5.1. Homicide Rates in Cali 1984-2015 (per 100,000 Inhabitants) 149
5.2. Homicide Rates in Culiacân 1985-2015 (per 100,000
Inhabitants) 149
5.3. Victims of Violence in Cali, by Occupation 152
5.4. Victims of Violence in Culiacân, by Occupation 153
5.5. Homicides by Age Group in Culiacân, Tijuana, and Ciudad Juârez
1985-1997 165
6.1. Homicide Rates in Ciudad Juârez and Tijuana 1985-2015 (per
100,000 Inhabitants) 176
6.2. Victims of Violence in Tijuana, by Occupation 178
6.3. Victims of Violence in Ciudad Juârez, by Occupation 178
vii
viii LIST OF FIGURES; TABLES; AND MAPS
Tables
1.1. Definition of Variables 26
1.2. Coding Details for City-Period Indicators of Violence, Cohesion in
the Security Apparatus, and Market Competition 27
1.3. Values of Indicators for Each City-Period 29
2.1. Indicators of High- and Low-Visibility Violence 57
2.2. Acts of Visible Violence in Colombian and Mexican Cities 59
2.3. Prominence of Newspaper Coverage of Murders
by Visibility Index 61
4.1. A Political-Economy Approach to Drug Violence in Medellin 113
4.2. Methods of Violence in Medellin 115
5.1. Cali and Culiacân: Basic Statistics 146
5.2. A Political-Economy Approach to Drug Violence in Cali
and Culiacân 148
5.3. Methods of Violence in Cali and Culiacân 150
6.1. Methods of Violence in Ciudad Juârez and Tijuana 177
6.2. A Political-Economy Approach to Drug Violence in Ciudad Juârez
and Tijuana 180
Maps
1.1. Map of Colombia, with Cali and Medellin located 3
1.2. Map of Mexico, with Ciudad Juârez, Culiacân, and Tijuana located 4
ACKNOW LEDGMENTS
In 1988, when I was nine years old, I was walking with my mom two blocks away
from our home in Bogota, and a bomb went off at a nearby auto repair shop. It
was the time when Pablo Escobar and the Medellin drug cartel had declared
a war against the extradition of Colombian nationals to the United States that
unleashed a period of violence in Colombian history often referred to as *nar­
coterrorism.” Only a few seconds saved us from being victims of that bomb.
As people rushed to the scene, my mom ran away in the opposite direction—
confused, scared, and thankful that we had escaped. That was my closest experi­
ence to violence. While growing up in Bogota, I was relatively protected from
the armed conflict that besieged many rural areas, but during the period of nar­
coterrorism, violence also overwhelmed Colombias major cities in attacks like
the one I escaped. Over the years, I have come to believe that such experience
sparked my interest in studying violence, drug trafficking, and crime. However,
such interest would have never materialized without years of discussion, men­
toring, support, and valuable teachings—both at the core of family discussions
and during my years studying political science at the Universidad Nacional de
Colombia. It would be impossible for me to thank appropriately all the people
who have shaped my intellectual journey and thus essential for the successful
completion of this project.
I owe the publication of this book to Dave McBride, who believed in the
manuscript and has been an outstanding editor at Oxford University Press.
The book started as my doctoral dissertation at Brown University. Before the
project took shape I had carried out short trips to Cali, Medellin, and Mexico
City in 2008 and 2009, and then between 2010 and 2011,1 spent fifteen months
doing fieldwork in Colombia and Mexico. This fieldwork was possible thanks
to generous funding from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP); the
Social Science Research Council (SSRC); the Drugs, Security, and Democracy
(DSD) fellowship jointly supported by SSRC, Open Society, the International