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21. Gang Violence as Organized Violence: Implications for the WPS Index

Author:
Mariana Viollaz and Jeni Klugman
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS)
Abstract:
In this note, we experiment with potential improvements on the measurement of violence in the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index to better reflect the reality on the ground in countries experiencing high levels of gang violence. First, we propose an extension to the measure of conflict from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program—currently the most comprehensive measure of organized violence—by including a more accurate number of deaths associated with gang violence alongside “battle deaths.” We show what difference this would make to WPS Index rankings for a set of four Central American countries and Mexico.
Topic:
Security, Women, Violence, Peace, and Gangs
Political Geography:
Central America and Mexico

22. Subnational Experiences in the Defense Industry Promotion Policies: The Case of Rio Grande Do Sul

Author:
Christiano Cruz Ambrosias
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
This article has as its main objective to present initiatives of the Government of the State of Rio Grande do Sul for the promotion of the defense industry of Rio Grande do Sul in recent years. Subnational entities have an important role to play in strengthening the national defense industry and, through the formulation and implementation of well-defined public policies, are able to act as facilitators and catalysts for national initiatives at the local level. This article seeks to bring examples that demonstrate the various public policies that can be implemented by subnational entities in developed countries (Australia, Canada and France) and developing countries (South Africa, India and Mexico), comparing them with what has been done in the Brazilian case.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Nationalism, and Defense Industry
Political Geography:
Canada, India, France, South Africa, Australia, and Mexico

23. Citizen Security in Latin America: Facts and Figures

Author:
Robert Muggah and Katherine Aguirre Tobón
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Igarapé Institute
Abstract:
Many Latin American countries, states and cities are facing a chronic public security crisis. In spite of more than a decade of modest economic growth, crime and victimization rates are rising, not dropping. Nevertheless, recent information of 2017 show some signs of improvement. Criminal violence is routinely singled out as one of the top concerns of citizens from across Mexico, Central America and South America. And there are warning signs that the region ́s high rates of criminal violence and victimization will continue rising if nothing is done. Latin American priorities and approaches to public security have shifted over the past two decades, with growing attention devoted to citizen security. In contrast to traditional law and order approaches to crime, citizen security privileges a more comprehensive and people-centered conceptualization of security and safety – including more data-driven policing, smarter approaches to criminal justice, alternatives to incarceration, and investments in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. The following report sets out the broad parameters of Latin America ‘s crime challenges and explores innovations in promoting public safety and citizen security. It also underlines the heterogeneity of Latin America ́s security environment, including the strong differences between regions, countries, states and cities. Taken together, the report issues a descriptive assessment of the scope and scale of the challenges, as well as opportunities for CAF to support partners in their efforts to prevent and reduce crime and improve safety for all Latin Americans.
Topic:
Security, Crime, International Security, Violence, and Data
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

24. Energy and Security in Mexico: The Real Winners of a Drug War

Author:
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Fletcher Security Review
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
The rapid growth of organized crime in Mexico and the government’s response have driven an unprecedented rise in violence and impelled major structural economic changes, including the recent passage of energy reform. My latest book entitled Los Zetas Inc. asserts that these phenomena are a direct and intended result of the emergence of the brutal Zetas criminal organization and the corporate business model they have advanced in Mexico. Because the Zetas share some characteristics with legal transnational businesses that operate in the energy and private security industries, the criminal corporation is compared in the book with ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and Blackwater (renamed “Academi” and now a Constellis company). ​ Combining vivid interview commentary with in-depth analysis of organized crime as a transnational and corporate phenomenon, I propose a new theoretical framework for understanding the emerging face, new structure, and economic implications of organized crime in Mexico. Arguing that the armed conflict between criminal corporations (like the Zetas) and the Mexican state resembles a civil war, I identify the key winners and losers of this episode in Mexico’s most recent history. The groups that seem to have benefited — or will potentially benefit — the most (directly or indirectly) from the novel criminal scheme introduced by the Zetas, the Mexican government’s reaction to it, and the resulting brutality appear to be corporate actors in the energy sector, transnational financial companies, private security firms (including private prison companies), and the United States border-security/military-industrial complex.
Topic:
Security, Crime, Energy Policy, and Drugs
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico

25. KIDNAPPING OF MIGRANTS IN TRANSIT THROUGH MEXICO AND THE TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORKS FOR THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS: SCOPE AND STRATEGIES

Author:
Monica Salmon Gómez
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
The human rights crisis in Mexico and particularly the one with migrants in transit through Mexico is not coincidental. The increased securitization of migration has transformed it into a security issue, causing it to be a threat to the national security. The mechanisms and strategies to fight against this crisis has led to terrible consequences to the thousand of migrants that pass through Mexico every year. As stated by David Harvey, the conceptualization of the irregular migration as a threat to the Nation-States has occurred as a consequence of the “global unequal capitalist integration”. This is a structural process that promotes global inequality in a parallel way, creating the undocumented as the others unwanted (Álvarez and Guillot, 2012:24). We then have migration as a phenomenon characterized by the economic globalization and the predominance of the logic of social exclusion, that it reveals itself as a feature for nations and families in their need to seek, among other things, improved living conditions in places that are different from their place of origin
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Migration, United Nations, and Inequality
Political Geography:
United States, South America, Latin America, North America, and Mexico

26. Redefining the Relationship for Prosperity in North America/Redefiniendo la relación para la prosperidad de Norteamérica

Author:
COMEXI
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI)
Abstract:
T he Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI, for its acronym in Spanish) submits for the consideration of political and business leaders, as well as of public opinion, ideas to help guide the U.S.-Mexico relationship in the new binational context. The initiative is made up of general guidelines, as well as a series of specific recommendations for each of the main components of the relationship: NAFTA, Security, Migration, Border, Consulates and Communications. Because of the impending NAFTA re-negotiations, the chapter related to trade is much more detailed, and much longer, than the other position papers. For this reason, we have chosen to keep the recommendations and quotes from the text of the agreement within the main body of the text. The issues are, by nature, technical and detail-driven. The upshot is one of the most complete papers that has been published on the topic in recent times. We are confident that it will become required reading during the long negotiation process that is just beginning. This English-language compendium contains a complete translation of the original text in Spanish. Our guiding principle is that what is good for Mexico is good for the rest of North America, and vice versa. For this reason, we are fostering this dialogue in both languages, confident that a mutually beneficial, “win-win” view of the relationship will ultimately prevail for the benefit of the 475 million inhabitants of our region. // E l Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales presenta su propuesta para conducir la relación bilateral México-Estados Unidos en el nuevo contexto. El proyecto está integrado por un planteamiento global y una serie de recomendaciones específicas para cada uno de los principales componentes de la relación: TLCAN, Seguridad, Migración, Frontera, Consulados y Comunicación. En virtud de la necesidad inmediata de implementar estrategias relativas al inminente proceso de renegociación del TLCAN, el documento en esta materia es mucho más amplio, detallado y específico. Por esa razón, decidimos mantener el cúmulo de observaciones y citas en el cuerpo del texto, ya que el tema es, por naturaleza, técnico y minucioso. Este es uno de los documentos más completos que se han publicado recientemente sobre el TLCAN y confiamos en que se convertirá en un referente obligado durante el largo proceso de negociación que se avecina. Este conjunto de ensayos representa la culminación del trabajo de COMEXI, liderado por su presidente, Luis Rubio. Surge gracias a la amplia participación de los miembros del Consejo y reconocidos expertos, quienes se organizaron por tema para dar a luz los trabajos aquí integrados. Es menester, también, reconocer el trabajo coadyuvante de la directora del COMEXI, Mariana Campero y de Miguel Toro, cuyos esfuerzos para editar y homologar los trabajos fueron fundamentales.
Topic:
Security, Migration, International Affairs, Communications, NAFTA, and Borders
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico

27. Improving Mexico’s Economic Competitiveness Through Security Cooperation

Author:
Eugenio Weigend Vargas
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
The United States and Mexico share more than one of the longest borders in the world; they have important economic, social, and political ties as well. The two countries share a complex history that is marked by both war and cooperation, competition and collaboration. As a result, issues that arise in one country directly affect the other.1 President Donald Trump, both as a candidate and as president, has cast a bright light on U.S.-Mexico relations and has been public with his views on the relationship. Among President Trump’s numerous assertions, his three main points of discussion have been: having a secure border;2 dismantling transnational organized crime;3 and assuring a stable and vibrant Mexico that “is good for the United States.”4 Having a secure U.S.-Mexican border that fosters joint security and stability is in the interest of the United States, as the binational relationship is fundamentally different from the United States’ relationship with any other country.5 Bilateral trade, social ties, and security cooperation are important issues—for both countries—that are highly influenced by the U.S.-Mexico relationship.
Topic:
Security, Regional Cooperation, Borders, Economic Cooperation, and Strategic Competition
Political Geography:
North America, Mexico, and United States of America

28. Expanding Governance as Development: Evidence on Child Nutrition in the Philippines

Author:
Eli Berman, Joseph Felter, and Mitch Downey
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC)
Abstract:
Citizens in Mexico are trapped in between two illegitimate forces – the drug gangs and their criminal organizations and the police who are supposed to protect them. Through the use of list experiments within the Survey on Public Safety and Governance in Mexico (SPSGM), we measure the pervasiveness of drug gang activity as it pertains to strategies of coercion (extortion) and co-optation (offering help) to ordinary citizens. The list experiments also allow us to provide a mapping of the geography of drug activity and the extent to which not only the drug gangs, but also the police, engages in strategies of coercion. The paper seeks to provide a better understanding of which groups are most vulnerable and where is it that drug gangs have become most embedded in society. Our findings suggest that although narcotraficantes extort citizens the most in high violence regions and the police does so in low violence ones, both forms of extortion are present everywhere in Mexico. This has triggered a spiral of fear: drug gangs signal unambiguously that they are in control and will punish anyone who provides information to the government, while the police can’t credibly signal that they can regain control of the streets. Police corruption is hence an essential part of the story of Mexico’s violence. Ever more fearful citizens have turned to the narcos for help, we demonstrate, and hence many tacitly –or even openly– support them. The paper results suggest that public strategies emphasizing military action and harsh treatment might not affect the social embeddedness that protects drug gangs and criminal organizations. Instead, enhancing citizen trust within communities and shifting the reputation of police forces while improving the adjudication of justice are more likely to strengthen the social fabric.
Topic:
Security, Governance, Violence, Drugs, and Police
Political Geography:
Asia, Philippines, and Mexico

29. Waiting for the "Bitles" in Mexico — World Games in Cali — Milkshakeburgers in the U.S. —10 Things to Do in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Panorama Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and events from around the hemisphere with AQ's Panorama. Each issue, AQ packs its bags and offers readers travel tips on a new Americas destination. In this issue: Mexico is Still Waiting for “Los Bitles” World Games, Cali American Sabor 10 Things to Do: Ponce, Puerto Rico Heart-Stopping U.S. Food Festivals From the Think Tanks.
Topic:
Security and Governance
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Latin America, and Mexico

30. Celebrating Germany in Brazil — Dominica hosts the World Creole Festival — Tackling Mexico City's traffic jams —10 Things to Do in Antigua

Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Prost, Brazil! Grab a stein-full of caipirinha and stroll down to Ipanema beach in your lederhosen—it's Germany-Brazil Year in Brazil. The yearlong festival, aimed at deepening German-Brazilian relations, kicked off in May with the opening of the German-Brazilian Economic Forum in São Paulo. “Brazil is one of the most successful new centers of power in the world,” says Guido Westerwelle, Germany's foreign minister. “We want to intensify cooperation with Brazil, not only economically but also culturally.” It's no surprise that Brazil, the sixth-largest economy in the world, has caught the attention of Europe's financial powerhouse. Brazil is Germany's most important trading partner in Latin America, accounting for $14.2 billion in imports in 2012. With some 1,600 German companies in Brazil providing 250,000 jobs and 17 percent of industrial GDP, it's an economic relationship that clearly has mutual benefits.
Topic:
Security, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States, New York, Europe, Brazil, Germany, and Mexico