Legitimising a Protection Racket: Mexico’s Security Crisis

Legitimizing a Protection Racket: Mexico’s Security Crisis

This article explores the proposition that Mexico has become in recent times a “Mafia State”, one in which the interest of organised crime and the state become increasingly hard to separate. We use diverse theoretical notions of the Mafia as well as recent literature on Mafia States to assess the validity of this claim. Qualitative empirical evidence of the relationships between organised crime and the State in Mexico is used to illustrate the conclusion that, while Mexico cannot yet be described as a fully- fledged Mafia State, there are many warning signs evident today which if ignored may well result in a Mafia State scenario in the very near future. We finish by discussing ways in which this research agenda may move forward

Rolando Ochoa Hernandez, Macquarie University

Dr. Rolando Ochoa is a Lecturer at the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University, Sydney. He holds a DPhil in Sociology and an MPhil in Latin American Studies, both from the University of Oxford, UK. He has carried out research on the history and political economy of kidnapping in Mexico, as well as the impact of organized crime on fragile states.  He has also focused on how individuals solve issues of trust and reputation in contexts of weak rule of law