Victor Sanchez Valdez for La Silla Rota
Every day in various parts of the country there are armed clashes between groups of organized crime, which seek to control as many municipalities as possible. It is a rampant race among dozens of organizations, where the will never be a definitive “winner”. Even so, these criminal groups have incentives to try and expand their areas of influence and keep the plazas that are under their control.
The Plazas of Organized Crime: A classification
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Every day in various parts of the country there are armed clashes between groups of organized crime, which seek to control as many municipalities as possible. It is a rampant race among dozens of organizations, where the will never be a definitive “winner”. Even so, these criminal groups have incentives to try and expand their areas of influence and keep the plazas that are under their control.
Control translates into income.
In order to facilitate the understanding of the functions that the different locations fulfill, the author has decided to group them into five categories based on their characteristics:
1) Border points, these are the municipalities bordering the United States, Guatemala and Belize, which serve as a point of Mexico’s entry or exit of drugs and other illicit products.2) Other points of entry/exit of illicit products would be the municipalities wjhere main ports and airports are located. This includes miniciplaities where waterfront strips can accommodate smaller boats.3) Production or resource extraction ones, including municipalities where marijuana, heroin, synthetic drugs are produced, as well as fuel, metals and minerals can be illegally extracted/mined. 4) Drug sales or illegal market operations. These are typically populated municipalities or tourist corridors where illegal products can be traded. This category also includes areas where important legal markets serve the organizations for money laundering. 5) Transit points for drugs or other illegal products, which are the regions that are on the main routes of drugs or illegal products into the United States.