Abstract
This book studies the causes of political killings in Mexico’s liberalization–democratization during the post-1988 period within the larger context of political repression. Mexico’s democratization process has entailed a little known but highly significant cost of human lives in pre- and postelection violence: over 662 PRD members fell as victims of political killings in the post-1988 period (PRD – Partido de la Revolución Democrática–Commission on Human Rights 1994 – [herewith CHR 1994]; Global Exchange 2000; Tierra Noticias 10/27/01; Ofrenda en Memoria 2009).Many of these politically related homicides occurred while a party member was engaged in a legal activity such as organizing a political meeting, attending an electoral fraud protest, guarding the security offices of a political party, or conducting “get out the vote” preelection campaign propaganda (CHR 1994). Other homicides took place when a party militant was engaged in extralegal activities. These could include peasant-based land invasions, the possession of municipal offices, and the destruction of municipal property that occurred in the context of disputed election outcomes.
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- 1.
This book conceptualizes liberalization–democratization as a continuum of political change toward the eight conditions that Dahl (1971:3) outlines as ideal-typical for the definition of a political democracy. The eight ideal-typical conditions of a political democracy involve the following: (1) Freedom to form and join organizations, (2) Freedom of expression, (3) Right to vote, (4) Eligibility for public office, (5) Right of political leaders to compete for support (5a). Right of political leaders to compete for votes, (6) Alternative sources of information, (7) Free and fair elections, and (8) Institutions for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preferences. Because Dahl’s (1971:3) ideal type requires that these eight conditions be fully met, a goal that no country in the world has attained, this implies there can be a continuum of political change toward (or away from) these eight conditions.
In general, the term “liberalization” refers to the extent to which rights and liberties are available to at least some members of the political system. However, attempts to precisely differentiate the area between liberalization and democratization along this continuum have been highly variable with “room for highly different types of semi-democracies and semi-authoritarian systems (Sorenson 1993:13)”; see also: (Sklar 1983; Remmer 1985; Markoff 1996:118; Whitehead 2002) and have not produced a clear, well-accepted distinction.
- 2.
The total regional breakdown of 572 of these killings listed by the PRD as of 1997 was Guerrero, n = 189; Chiapas, n = 123; Oaxaca, n = 74; Michoacán, n = 70; Puebla, n = 38; Morelos, n = 15; Hidalgo, n = 13; Veracruz, n = 11; DF, n = 9; Mexico, n = 8; Sinaloa, n = 1; Durango, n = 4; Tabasco, n = 3; Campeche, n = 2; Coahuila, n = 2; Nuevo Leon, n = 2; San Luis Potosí, n = 2; Tamulipas, n = 2; Zacatecas, n = 2; Chihuahua, n = 1; Querétaro, n = 1 (Appendix: Crónica Guerrero 1998). On July 3, 2002, PRD leaders stated that 662 political murders had been recorded (La Jornada 7/3/02). By November 2, 2009, the PRD claimed that 723 members had been assassinated (Ofrenda en Memoria 2009). Many of the post-2005 PRD deaths, however, importantly overlap with the violence associated with the rise of organized crime. This book treats those political killings where there is sufficient substantiated, secondary material from PRD, journalistic sources, and/or the Mexican Commission on Human Rights sources.
- 3.
Six perredistas working at the Party’s state office in the capital city were forcefully removed and beaten by other perredista militants in a January 2004 preelectoral dispute over candidate selection for the October 2004 local elections (El Universal 1/21/04).
- 4.
Reported Total Crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2000 (United Nations Survey 2000) were 1,433.81 and 1,503.71 by 2004 (United Nations Survey 2002) to provide one example.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
The three other stated goals of “Merida 2.0” include (1) Disrupting the capacity of DTO (drug-trafficking organizations), (2) Creating a twenty-first century border that advances commerce and security, and (3) Building strong, resilient communities that tackle the drivers of violence and defy the influence of the DTOs (Latin American 2010).
- 8.
This figure is a measure of the role of public functionaries within the higher-ranking members of organized crime. It is calculated as a percentage of the leaders, financiers, lieutenants, hit men, and public functionaries detained by the PGR during the 2000–2006 period. This figure does not calculate the percentage of public functionaries within the much wider net of the drug-trafficking business. Thus, it omits “collaborators and retail distributors of drugs” who make up the largest proportion of criminals detained on organized-crime-related charges (n = 76,742) (PGR, 6E Informe 2006:5).
- 9.
By 2009, the Mexican federal government stated that it lacked sufficient resources to prosecute organized crime and was both outgunned and outmanned (Milenio 7/27/09). Mexico’s Attorney General acknowledged in 2009 that organized crime groups are “one step ahead of the federal government in both weaponry and technological advances to engage in illicit activities”. The head of SIEDO (the Attorney General’s Special Investigative Division for Organized Crime) said, “although advanced technology is available to the government, organized crime groups acquire it first... [and] organized crime groups use more sophisticated communication methods, which permits the transmission of large volumes of information, while Mexican authorities use more traditional methods of communicating (Milenio 7/27/09).”
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Schatz, S. (2011). Mexico’s Liberalization–Democratization in Context. In: Murder and Politics in Mexico. Studies of Organized Crime, vol 10. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8068-7_2
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