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Abstract
Since Mexican cartel settlement and violence are not spatially random, I analyze the local economic factors that render particular municipalities more susceptible to drug-related homicides than others. Utilizing a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods, I find that low standards of living and high levels of poverty are shown to have very strong effects on such homicide rates, as they provide bases from which narco-groups can successfully obtain community support and recruit members. Consequently, economically struggling areas may be some of the most sought-after, and therefore fought over, locations for drug trafficking organizations. Accounting for this, I draw on human geography to understand the causes of and potential remedies for underdevelopment in the Mexican context as means to mitigate narco-violence. As more and more Mexicans are forced to flee their homeland out of fear, understanding these dynamics is central to Mexican public policy debate.