Guns, Gold and Corporeal Inscriptions

Abstract

Drawing upon visual materials documenting the recent upsurge in government, cartel and paramilitary sponsored violence in Mexico, this article highlights the ways in which State fetishism in Mexico and the inviolability of the State rely on a specific use of the sacred generated in public displays of excess that advertise how one's adversaries await ‘a fate far worse than death’. The article specifically refers to visual images of criminals, weaponry and violent acts to show how the expanse of the State in Mexico is such that even violence perpetrated against the federal government by groups commonly assumed its enemy, such as drug cartels, is not only enacted via a similar logic to that of its avowed enemy, but serves as a necessary supplement to its existence.