The Complexities of Narcoviolencia: Understanding the Mexican Drug Conflict as a Market of Violence

Abstract

This article examines the categorisation and definition of the drug-linked violence which has affected Mexico since 2006. Academic and policy approaches to this conflict have largely been grouped into defining the violence as either an incidence of irregular warfare, or as a particularly virulent strain of organized crime. Arguing that these models both obscure important aspects of the situation in Mexico, and that even the applications of network theory to conflict do not account for the resilience and scope of the conflict in Mexico. Instead, this article suggests the idea of a “market of violence” defined by a large number of groups competing for resources and bordered by a series of external constraints is the most accurate framework for assessing the conflict. Having presented this idea, the article concludes by assessing how changes in the constraints of this market could undercut the rationale for drug-linked violence in Mexico.