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Diaz-Cayeros, Alberto; Magaloni, Beatriz; Romero, Vidal --- "Caught in the crossfire: the geography of extortion and police corruption in Mexico" [2015] ELECD 1099; in Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lagunes, Paul (eds), "Greed, Corruption, and the Modern State" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) 252

Book Title: Greed, Corruption, and the Modern State

Editor(s): Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lagunes, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784714697

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Caught in the crossfire: the geography of extortion and police corruption in Mexico

Author(s): Diaz-Cayeros, Alberto; Magaloni, Beatriz; Romero, Vidal

Number of pages: 23

Abstract/Description:

When Mexican president Felipe Calder—n took office in December 2006 he declared a war on the nation’s drug traffic organizations (R'os and Shirk 2011). Violence escalated as criminal organizations became increasingly fragmented and disputed their territories (Killebrew and Bernal 2010; Beittel 2013). The main strategy followed by the federal government involved capturing leaders and lieutenants of criminal organizations (Calder—n et al. forthcoming). This seemed to provoke even more violence, by making the competition over territorial control fiercer and providing incentives for many gangs to make extortion and protection fees (derecho de piso) an additional source of revenue (Guerrero-Gutiérrez 2011). Given the absence of legal (and peaceful) rules and enforcement mechanisms for competitors in the illegal drug market, disagreements were usually solved violently. Under the pressure of the crackdown by the federal police, the navy and the army, contracts among criminal gangs were often disrupted, leading to even more violence. Competition over the strategic routes towards the market in the United States was settled by literally eliminating rivals (Dell 2012).