Beyond The Drug War In Mexico: Human Rights, The Public Sphere And Justice

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 6
List of tables......Page 8
List of contributors......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Abbreviations and acronyms......Page 11
Militarisation, totalisation, or ‘What else could we talk about?’......Page 12
Reading the war on drugs......Page 14
The United States, drug war policies and human rights......Page 18
Journalism, the public sphere and social media......Page 22
Justice from below......Page 25
Conclusions......Page 30
Notes......Page 32
Bibliography......Page 34
PART I: Securitization, militarization and human rights......Page 42
1. U.S. pressure and Mexican anti-drugs efforts from 1940 to 1980: Importing the war on drugs?......Page 44
The criminalization of the addict: a (trans)national policy......Page 45
International pressure and the first eradication campaigns in Mexico......Page 48
The road to militarization: the PGR and its bureaucracy......Page 53
Operation Intercept and the official beginning of the war on drugs......Page 54
Aerial eradication campaigns and the joint operations of the 1970s......Page 55
Conclusion......Page 58
Bibliography......Page 59
Transition to democracy and the rise of drug violence......Page 64
The opening of the cocaine transit economy and changes in drug related violence......Page 66
The logic of criminal war......Page 68
The vortex of violence......Page 73
Bibliography......Page 81
3. Effects of militarization in the name of counter-narcotics efforts and consequences for human rights in Mexico......Page 87
A human rights crisis......Page 88
Impunity and generalized violence......Page 90
The drug war and erosion of human rights......Page 93
Militarization NAFTA-style......Page 95
Defining militarization......Page 98
Human rights on hold......Page 101
Bibliography......Page 102
PART II: The public sphere and the press under siege......Page 106
Introduction......Page 108
Fear, violence and impunity in Culiacán, Sinaloa......Page 110
A game of elites: freedom of expression in Monterrey, Nuevo León......Page 112
Freedom of the press in Mexico City......Page 113
Michoacán: freedom of expression in a ‘failed’ state.......Page 115
Authoritarianism and corporativism against freedom of expression in Chiapas......Page 117
Bibliography......Page 119
5. State of denial: Crime reporting and political communication in Sonora......Page 122
Irony, objectivity and watchdog reporting (2003–2009)......Page 123
Self-censorship, deference and homogenization (2009–2015)......Page 127
Conclusion and epilogue......Page 132
Notes......Page 133
Bibliography......Page 134
Introduction......Page 137
Human rights......Page 138
Digital communications......Page 141
The ‘war on drugs’ and its victims......Page 143
Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity (MPJD)......Page 145
Ayotzinapa......Page 147
Human rights and digital communication......Page 148
Conclusions......Page 152
Bibliography......Page 154
PART III: Justice and reconciliation from below......Page 158
Introduction......Page 160
Only law and disorder?......Page 161
Against the fetishisation of the Constitution......Page 167
Bibliography......Page 173
Combing the ground......Page 175
What kind of country is this? The administration of suffering, terror and impunity......Page 176
Ethnography at the foot of a grave......Page 179
Clandestine graves and anguished suffering......Page 181
Truth and justice?......Page 182
The healing and destabilising effect of exhumations......Page 185
The unsettling consequences of exhumation......Page 188
After the search......Page 191
Notes......Page 192
Bibliography......Page 193
Index......Page 196