Abstract
Given its vast border with the United States, Mexico is a strategic trade and economic development region, which creates significant challenges in combating crime and violence. In recent years, Mexico´s federal and state governments have focused their efforts on the development of strategies to combat and weaken the criminal structures operating in the country by using legal instruments such as seizure, abandonment, and extinction of domain. This study seeks to identify the challenges faced by the states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, and Tamaulipas in their efforts to combat crime through the collection of primary and secondary data and interviews with key actors. Mexico faces major challenges in the development of public policies to fortify the legal precepts of extinction of domain, in addition to fostering institutional links with the Financial and Patrimonial Intelligence Units of Mexico's northern Border States. There are few studies about subnational efforts for asset forfeiture as a policy instrument against criminal elements in developing countries. The Mexican case presents important subnational efforts to improve security strategies that may provide guidance for other subnational governments or regions that may be facing similar challenges or are pursuing parallel initiatives.
Highlights
IntroductionViolence has soared in Mexico, much of Central America, and some countries in South America
The Latin American region has faced an unprecedented public security crisis
The research was conducted in Mexico, a country plagued by criminal organizations that control several regions, which suffers from institutional weakness, [2,3,4,5] and where violence reached record levels from 2017 to 2019 [6].The rule criminal organizations exert over different regions relies on the use of violence, that is clearly visible, but especially political corruption, that cannot be seen and can be confused with peace and stability [7, 8]
Summary
Violence has soared in Mexico, much of Central America, and some countries in South America. This situation is made evident by the rise in homicides, victimizations, and restriction of freedoms. Crime has continued to worsen and prison populations have soared [1] This is the context for the present research. This study focuses on an alternative crime-fighting strategy in Mexico: tackling crime on the economic front through asset forfeiture policies at the subnational government level. These strategies constitute an effort to strengthen the governments capabilities to financially undermine criminal organizations. The research was conducted in Mexico, a country plagued by criminal organizations that control several regions, which suffers from institutional weakness, [2,3,4,5] and where violence reached record levels from 2017 to 2019 [6].The rule criminal organizations exert over different regions relies on the use of violence, that is clearly visible, but especially political corruption, that cannot be seen and can be confused with peace and stability [7, 8]
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