Globalization: Drug Trafficking, Organized Criminal Networks, Militarization… all in Mexico
December 18th, 2009 by SocProf and tagged Drug trafficking, Globalization, Human Rights, Mass Violence, Organized Crime, Risk Society
As we all know, despite very clear indicators of the global nature of many phenomena in the economic, political, social, cultural and criminal, talk of the demise of the nation-state has always been premature, and still is. Case in point, Mexico. Consider these three stories that zero in on the local, national and global nature of drug trafficking by organized criminal networks.
At the local level, read this incredible 4-parter in Der Spiegel on Ciudad Juarez:
The Most Violent City on Earth: Ciudad Juárez Takes on the Drug Cartels – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International via kwout
It is also not hard to see the regional connections:
The Most Violent City on Earth: Ciudad Juárez Takes on the Drug Cartels – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International via kwout
Do also check out the slideshow on this:
The power of organized criminal organizations is not limited to Ciudad Juarez, though:
Which is why the government relies on multiple levels of law enforcement but mostly on militarizing its war against drug gangs, as illustrated in the video below:
Globalization may be uneven but global access has been a boon to national and local criminal organizations, like Mexican gangs, who can now tap onto global trafficking markets for a variety of goods, such as drugs and people, while keeping on with the old-fashioned rackets, using one type of activity over another as the most profitable depending on the economic times:
Ciudad Juarez – Mexico – the Americas – The world… from the local, to the national, to the regional, to the global level, it is not a matter of one level superseding the other but rather hubs and nexus of interdependencies whether one is talking about world trade or illegal commerce, which, as we know, contributed to propping up the floundering global economy after the US economic collapse.
Posted in Globalization, Human Rights, Mass Violence, Militarism, Organized Crime, Risk Society, Trafficking | 1 Comment »
December 21st, 2009 at 9:10 am
For more on this topic, read: Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State? by George Grayson
http://www.transactionpub.com/cgi-bin/transactionpublishers.storefront/en/Product/1-4128-1151-1