Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico's Crime and Drug Wars

The drug trade in Mexico is deeply ingrained in the social organization of the country's institutions. It is promoted and encouraged by decades of widespread acceptance and tolerance of corruption, and it flourishes in part as a result of the lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law. This book presents a comprehensive overview of all cartel-based drug trade activity throughout Mexico, describing the intertwined cultural, political, and economic themes to enable readers to understand the foundation of drug cartels in Mexico. A significant number of the informative essays describe facts and details that have never been previously available to an English-language readership. Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico's Crime and Drug War is organized around five broad themes, each being addressed in a section containing detailed, alphabetically arranged entries. The sections address the key cartels and their linkages, identify key players in the transnational organizations, describe government and institutional agencies charged with monitoring and responding to the cartels, examine the context and contingencies of the drug trade such as geography and drug routes, and highlight the cultural, economic, and political expressions in support of criminal activity. Readers will come away with an understanding of how the drug trade and violence in Mexico continues as a consequence of global economic forces, corrupt and inefficient institutions, geographical accident, socio-demographic trends, cultural values, and a commitment to a hard-line model of a war on drugs, not because of any natural inclination towards criminal culture among the individuals involved.