The Politics of Drug Violence: Criminals, Cops and Politicians in Colombia and Mexico by Angelica Duran-Martinez

Author:Angelica Duran-Martinez [Duran-Martinez, Angelica]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: America Latina, Mexico
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017-12-12T23:00:00+00:00

Culiacán: the Invisible “Chicago” of Mexico

The origins of drug trafficking in Mexico, as Luis Astorga59 has carefully documented, date back to the late eighteenth century in the state of Sinaloa. Modern drug-trafficking organizations took shape in this region between the 1920s and the 1940s, as the focus of narcotics enforcement shifted from public health to public security.60 Culiacán became the bridge between entirely rural areas, where most marijuana and poppy crops were located, an urbanized and commerce-oriented economy,61 and the coastal area where drugs could be shipped. By the 1960s and 1970s, drug trafficking had become consolidated in the region and the first law enforcement responses emerged. During this period, confrontations among traffickers gave the city the reputation of “the Chicago of Mexico,” as observers compared it to Mafia disputes in Chicago.62

In 1977, ten thousand soldiers of the Mexican military with US support and under the command of the Mexico Attorney General’s Office carried out a large-scale illegal drug-crop eradication campaign known as Operación Cóndor. The operation led to massive displacement of poppy cultivators, known as gomeros, and of civilians in the rural areas of Sinaloa. It also entailed significant human rights violations and caused temporary but major shifts in trafficking organizations.63 To avoid further state action, many traffickers relocated from Culiacán, moving southeast to the city of Guadalajara. These transformations demonstrate the way that state antinarcotic operations can shape violence by causing organizational fragmentation or by relocating trafficking groups. Yet, the potential violence generated by these operations can be more or less visible depending on the state structure. Operación Cóndor had profound impacts but did not generate visible violence because the Mexican state was still cohesive. Toward the beginning of the 1980s, many trafficking operations and traffickers had returned to Culiacán.

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