COMMUNITY DEFENSE, ORGANIZED CRIME AND VIOLENCE IN MEXICO

Abstract

The article analyzes different experiences of groups organized to defend the communities in Guerrero and Michoacán, Mexico, against the insecurity generated by drug trafficking through the diversification of their profitable activities. It emphasizes that the participation of communities in the appropriation of their security occurs in a social environment where legality and illegality are confused, a grey zone functional to the context of regional economic reconfigurations that have favored violence. The article questions the heterogeneity of armed defensive groups in this region, accentuating the State's tense tolerance of their demonstration, trying to submit them to the model of citizen participation in security. It also questions the relevance and the limits of the categories with which attempts have been made to characterize groups that organize themselves to guarantee security and order in environments disturbed by violence.