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Mexico’s Drug Cartels Are Not Competitors to the State

brief.bismarckanalysis.com · 5,499 words · saved by 1 readers

Ravaged by cartel violence, some observers have speculated the Mexican government might collapse entirely. But overall, the drug lords bolster rather than undermine government elites in the country.

Mexican security forces in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, Mexico. Photo by Adam Jones. Source. Since 2006, the Mexican military has participated in domestic law enforcement duties against Mexico’s drug cartels, large criminal organizations whose primary source of profit is the trafficking of illegal narcotics to the United States. Violence between the cartels over territorial and business disputes, exacerbated by the Mexican government’s more vigorous persecution of cartel leaders, has caused Mexico’s homicide rate to more than triple since 2007, reversing a previous long-term decline.1 The U.S.…

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