Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

This is a very interesting academic approach to Zetas (and related organized crime), their organization and overall effect they have on Mexican politics and economy (and via Mexico their effect on the global scale).

While some would debate whether Mexico is fighting a local criminal insurgency or civil war it is clear that we do not have a clear-cut view of the situation - on one end because Mexican government cannot admit they have lost ground and ability to effectively govern territories currently under control of criminal organizations and on the other end due to the huge pressure from neighboring countries to declare Mexico as failed state (this is very quickly becoming a cliche and is assigned to any country that is not compliant to "big boys" rules) although not failed enough though to prevent private companies from entering Mexico in order to gain access to countries economy and resources.

The author also shows the ever-present link between high-level organized crime and high-profit businesses and the way they leech off one another in order to push forward their agendas. Although these links might seem organic it does not mean they are created intentionally - it just proves that wherever big money is to be gained crime always finds its way to it. The only way to prevent this from happening is to have a functioning government that takes care of their people and not only high-profile businesses.

Very disturbing picture of what happens when crime gets fully ingrained into the society and is used as a shadowy fist to prevent people from fighting for their own rights (think of it as mass scale - in every way - of strikebreakers and enforcers of the early 20th century that were used to crush worker unions and organizations).

Highly recommended.
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