Towards a Transformation of Mexico's Security Strategy

Abstract

Mexico has been struggling with notoriously high levels of organised-crime-related violence for years. The strategy adopted by the Calderón administration relied on largescale joint operations with strong military components to fight the cartels in a carteldecapitation strategy. The short-term success of this approach was however countered by its long-term consequences, which increased cartel fragmentation and related violence. Eduardo Guerrero analyses the landscape of Mexican organised crime in 2012, its new models of organisation and recruitment strategies and suggests the fundamental challenges facing the new Peña Nieto administration if it is to devise a security strategy that can succeed in the long term.