Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico

by Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

The rapid growth of organized crime in Mexico and the government’s response to it have driven an unprecedented rise in violence and impelled major structural economic changes, including the recent passage of energy reform. Los Zetas Inc. asserts that these phenomena are a direct and intended result of the emergence of the brutal Zetas criminal organization in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. Going beyond previous studies of the group as a drug trafficking organization, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera builds a convincing case that the Zetas and similar organizations effectively constitute transnational corporations with business practices that include the trafficking of crude oil, natural gas, and gasoline; migrant and weapons smuggling; kidnapping for ransom; and video and music piracy. Combining vivid interview commentary with in-depth analysis of organized crime as a transnational and corporate phenomenon, Los Zetas Inc. proposes a new theoretical framework for understanding the emerging face, new structure, and economic implications of organized crime in Mexico. Correa-Cabrera delineates the Zetas establishment, structure, and forms of operation, along with the reactions to this new model of criminality by the state and other lawbreaking, foreign, and corporate actors. Since the Zetas share some characteristics with legal transnational businesses that operate in the energy and private security industries, she also compares this criminal corporation with ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and Blackwater (renamed “Academi” and now a Constellis company). Asserting that the elevated level of violence between the Zetas and the Mexican state resembles a civil war, Correa-Cabrera identifies the beneficiaries of this war, including arms-producing companies, the international banking system, the US border economy, the US border security/military-industrial complex, and corporate capital, especially international oil and gas companies.

Genres: Crime, Politics, Nonfiction, History, American, War, Drugs

400 pages, Hardcover

Published August 8, 2017

Reviews

[Stefania Dzhanamova · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book. It is well-researched, engagingly written, and amazingly informative. I read a few more books on the topic of drug cartels in Mexico, and so far Los Zetas Inc. is ahead of all of them.

The book begins with a history of the Los Zetas cartel that is both comprehensive and easy to follow even if you haven’t read anything about the Mexican cartels before. The Zetas were initially members of the Mexican military specifically trained to wage warfare on the drug cartels. They switched sides because the Gulf Cartel provided them with much higher pay and better conditions than the Mexican government did. Their initial role was guarding the top figures in the Gulf Cartel, but they later split from it after a dispute and established their own drug trafficking enterprise. This part of the book is great, as it condenses a lot of information into brief chapters, introducing not only the Zetas themselves, but also their main rivals, such as the Sinaloa Cartel, and provides a timeline of the cartel’s activities and most famous cases of targeted violence, such as the 2010 San Fernando Massacre, in which members of the Los Zetas brutally murdered 72 immigrants from Central America in a village in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, the state where the Los Zetas were established. This part of the book seemed dense in content for a beginner like me, but the author made it easy to grasp.

However, the other books on this topic that I read also did a great job explaining cartel history. What makes Los Zetas Inc. stand out are its other two parts. The author uses an unusual but illuminating approach to explaining the structure of the Los Zetas cartel and what makes it different, and more powerful, than the other cartels in Mexico. He argues that the Zetas operate like a multinational corporation (hence the name of the book). Unlike, say, the Sinaloa Cartel, which is an alliance of several families and whose leadership is inherited through family ties, the Zetas are controlled by a “Board of Directors” that consists of the gangsters controlling the different Zetas groups in different provinces. The leadership is not hierarchical, so even if a top Zetas member gets captured or dies, the cartel is not heavily impacted. The Zetas also have a “Human Resources” department that recruits new cartel members. All of its original members were soldiers, so the Zetas operate by enforcing strict discipline within the cartel. They also have a “Marketing” department that focuses on committing acts of violence to maintain the cartel’s reputation for extreme brutality.

It is here that things get interesting. The other reason why the author thinks that Los Zetas operates akin to a multinational corporation is that its focus is not only on drug trafficking. I was surprised to discover that drugs are not even their main source of income, although they do traffic plenty of them to both the US (its largest customer) and Europe, where they cooperate with the Italian mafia Ndrangheta. (The 'Ndrangheta helps the Zetas traffic their drugs to Europe through Africa.) The Zetas’ main sources of income are human trafficking and energy. They benefit a lot from the constant stream of illegal migrants from Central American countries that pass through Mexico on their way to a better life in the US. The migrants use the same routes the cartels use to traffic drugs to the US and often fall prey to the Mexican gangsters.

But the biggest reveal in the book (which I haven’t seen mentioned in any of the other books on the topic that I read) is that Los Zetas illegally exports Mexico’s abundant natural resources. The ongoing cartel war between the Zetas, the other cartels, the Mexican government, and the multiple paramilitary, anti-cartel groups inside the country is a war for the control of Mexico’s natural resources. The author cites statistics that show how cartel violence and conflicts are most intense in regions where natural resources like gas are abundant. Tamaulipas, the birthplace of Los Zetas, is one such region. Most notably, the author discusses a topic that others try to avoid: the US and its military-industrial complex benefit the most from the drug cartel war in Mexico. As he points out, the US sells the Mexican government billions of dollars' worth of weapons every year. Furthermore, the ongoing fight for the control of the country’s natural resources between the cartels, the Mexican government, and the paramilitary groups (which, the authors notes, are suspiciously well-armed and well-informed) keeps the prices low and allows US corporations to profit from it. One of the most interesting parts of the book is an interview with people who managed to survive and escape after being kidnapped by Los Zetas gangsters. They testify that the gangsters who captured them didn’t speak Spanish – only English.

In summary, Los Zetas Inc. is definitely worth the read. It is extremely well-researched, interesting, and does not avoid uncomfortable topics such as the depth of the US involvement in the ongoing drug cartel war in Mexico, which has turned into a major security crisis for the country. If you want to learn a lot about this topic, look no further than this book.

[Marco Leecock · Rating 5 out of 5]

In many ways I don’t find this a perfect book, not even close really. I could get fatigued at time, or take exception to a point being made, or find data points, graphs, or arguments to be vague and unhelpful as well as many other small things that occasionally pop up. Maybe feeling like a book is imperfect and something you occasionally find yourself fighting against means it shouldn’t be 5 stars on principle. That being said I’m not sure I’ve ever been impressed by a book so consistently. Without fail every set up and every out there point being made I found to be redundant or aimless ALWAYS had a pay off, sometimes chapters away. I constantly felt in equal parts stupid and impressed when reading this book. In a book this dense and academic, little gets wasted, and in many ways this might be as lean as it could be. The author displays such a command of the subject and is pulling at such minute details that are part of such a large and shadowy issue it’s maddening in an impressive way. I could not possibly wrap my head around how something like this could be researched in such detail and still be readable. I understand how this book is Correa-Cabrera’s magnum opus, and no gripes or nit picks I have could take away from this invaluable resource and monumental feat she accomplished.

[Max Nova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full review and highlights at https://books.max-nova.com/zetas-inc

For my year of "Crime and Punishment," I've been seeking books that can help me understand the flows of illicit money in the modern world. "Los Zetas, Inc." about the business practices of the notorious Los Zeta's drug cartel in Mexico seemed like it should have been a slam dunk. After all, Correa-Cabrera's stated thesis is that "this new criminal model and government reactions to it mostly benefit transnational corporate capital" - sounds like big money, right? And with "$500 million a year in bribes allocated to all levels of the Mexican government," there should be plenty of juicy corruption stories in here too? Instead of bringing the Mexican drug wars to life with anecdotes of the men and women on both sides, Correa-Cabrera opts to take an academic, quantitative perspective. Unfortunately, she falls flat, delivering a lifeless narrative that doesn't redeem itself with any real insight into the economics of the cartels. There are few hard numbers in here and lots of speculation. By the end, she's even into conspiracy theory territory - suggesting that the big oil companies are somehow in league with the cartels so that they can push Mexican peasants off of valuable oil properties and buy up the land cheaply. Interesting to note that this book is the result of research funded by George Soros's Open Society Foundations.

The most interesting part of this book was its contention that the Zetas represent a front in a Mexican civil war. And in many ways, the Zetas seem to behave like a state. I was particularly struck by the following passage which indicates that the Zetas have usurped one of the key functions of the state: a monopoly on violence in a defined territory.

According to Arron Daugherty and Steven Dudley: The Zetas are not just violent because their leaders have a penchant for aggression — they follow an economic model that relies on controlling territory in a violent way. Within that territory, they extract rents from other criminal actors and move only a limited number of illegal goods via some of their own networks... Without that territory, they have no rent (known in Mexico as “piso”). The Zetas are, in essence, parasites. Their model depends on their ability to be more powerful and violent than their counterparts, so they can extract this rent.

Overall though, if you want to learn about how drug cartels work, check out "Narconomics" (which Correa-Cabrera cites) or even Don Winslow's "The Power of the Dog" which is a fictionalized but heavily-researched account of the US/Mexico war on drug cartels.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Charles Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

An effective and gripping historical (and business administration) analysis of the transformation of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) to transnational criminal operations (TCOs). Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera argues that over the past quarter-century a new criminal model emerged and morphed as the Mexican government responded to the threat. Ostensibly focusing on the Zetas, the scope is much broader, and includes all of the cartels/TCOs of the northern tier, and also analyzes the Mexico's historic "Energy Reform," and the plunder of the former state monopoly, PEMEX.

The US' role, both political and corporate, is disturbing: NAFTA, the Mérida Initiative, and the quest for hydrocarbons were all suited to benefit from narco violence and the resulting social disruption.

This is far more, however, than a chronicle of hitmen and drug runners. The border between the US and Mexico sits atop the largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas in the world, outside the Middle East; reserves that should portend a positive and bright future for both Texas and Mexico. But the militarization of criminal syndicates, paramilitarism, and small civil wars, were extremely favorable to the expansion of capitalism at the expense of the citizens of northern Mexico.

Horizontal integration now permits former drug traffickers to subcontract that violence as they concentrate on human trafficking and the theft of hydrocarbons. Shockingly, about 1/4 of Mexico's petrol and gas is pirated! Now, resource extraction is the driving force behind drug-war conflicts in the Americas. among the major (potential) winners of Mexico’s war are large energy and security companies. Destabilization, displacement, and the control of territories by armed actors now benefit, and will continue benefit, the usual suspects: corrupt Mexican politicians and their corporate cronies, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and the company formerly known as Blackwater.

What hope is there for Mexico? The book avoids predictions and proposals. One senses, perhaps at one's own risk, that the future of the northern tier might brighten and the energy corridor comes on line.

[Bernhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative read with an interesting approach to look at LZ as a structured enterprise that leverages common business practices to succeed. As with many business related books, the statistics and many cross references to other people's work makes it at times a rather dry lecture, yet the insights are quiet interesting though.

[Ryan Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.8/10

What sticks out to me most about this book, despite it probably being a direct translation from Spanish, is its decision to NOT focus on the drugs when analyzing Los Zetas. It is true that drugs were, and are, trafficked by the Zetas, flowing from Latin America, through Mexico, to the richest country on earth. But it's clear that these criminal groups are so much more than drugs, which very well might not even be where a majority of their money is made.

Los Zetas, their criminal copycats, and the Mexican military that fights all of them are, put in the most general terms possible, violent thieves preying on the most oppressed. Their proliferation is the product of a country's decade-long economic reorientation towards producing for the consumption of the United States. All of the death, poverty and chaos that comes with this momentous shift are manifested in what we call cartel wars, wars within and between criminal organizations and between these organizations and the Mexican government.

Take, for example, the fossil fuel extraction industry in Mexico. After finding large deposits of shale oil in northeast Mexico, large-scale violence and massacres broke out in the region. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the violent hot spots of Tamaulipas and the places where shale oil is being extracted. The reality is, armed groups force farmers off the land needed for extraction, either through threats of or actual violence, so that shale oil can be exploited, probably for refinery and use in the United States. “Armed groups” can refer to the Zetas, or other criminal organizations. It can also refer to the Mexican special forces (in fact, it is from these army groups that Los Zetas were born). Often it is not clear who is even doing the killing. All that is clear is that Mexico becomes a place less safe, less open to political debate and struggle, and more at the mercy of the US market. All that is clear is that the US benefits from the violence in Mexico.

[Taveri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a wikipedia article > extensive and detailed. It is incredible the documentation of what is going on in Mexico with displacement of farmers, ranchers and businesses with transnationals and cartels taking over the vacant land.

USA sells more weapons to Mexico than any other country.

Page 168 commenting on one area "No one lives there now...it resembles the surface of Mars."

Page 141 Mexican drug wars have resulted in 150,000 casualties - that is eight times that of Afganistan and Iraq combined. Estimates are that is closer to 250,000.

Human smuggling can be more profitable than the drug business as can pilfering and reselling oil/gasoline and coal.

The author presents the case that Mexico is undergoing a form of Civil War with the Cartels controlling large areas of land and resources.

It is not an easy read with all the details presented page after page and further into the appendices. It is a wonder visitors try to travel through Mexico and that tourists frequent the coastal resorts.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some really interesting ideas about the way the Zetas operate like a corporation, their pivotal role in a new era of violence in Mexico, and the role of hydrocarbons in extending and exacerbating the violence. But it was very tell not show. There was nowhere near enough evidence to back up her claims and it was very frustrating because she kept dropping hints of more complex and important relationships between organizations but never laid out the data points.

[Thomas Ray]

Los Zetas Inc.: criminal corporations, energy, and civil war in Mexico, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, 2017, HV5840.M4 C68 2017 Memorial Library

Also available as Los Zetas Inc. : la corporación delictiva que funciona como empresa trasnacional, 2018, ISBN 9786070750441

[One West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book.
I learned a lot. Not looking for a stupid thriller on the drug war. This is your reference.

[Rohit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely disappointing!

I was really looking forward to this book, based on the title and the summary. There's plenty of lurid books about the Mexican cartels and the drug wars, so a more academic approach to actually theorizing about the drug war and grounding it with literature/research on the nature of civil wars and capital accumulation sounded promising. But instead, this turned out to be a completely half-baked and lazily slapped together collection of notes, that at times barely seems like a book.

Part 1 is just repetitive statements and factoids about how violent the Zetas were; Part 2 and 3, about "civil war" and "energy" are just superficial descriptions about what civil wars are, and how energy companies function/have grown in Mexico, but with basically zero effort to actually connect these concepts and trends to the Zetas or the drug war in general. Everything just seems to be incidental - "hmm lot of violence in this area, and then growth in oil production, how interesting", "civil wars are really violent, and look how the Zetas are violent, therefore this is a civil war". There's almost zero discussion about historical trends in Mexican political economy and politics. Anything interesting in the book is usually cited verbatim from other books, particularly Dawn Paley's "Drug War Capitalism", which seems like the actual book to read to get a critical political-economic analysis of the Mexican drug war.

fuck

[James Creechan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have assigned this book a 4 star rating in spite of the fact that I found many errors and points of disagreement. The value of the book lies in the final chapters where Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera describes the Zetas in their home turf (northeast Mexico, primarily Tamaulipas, Coahuila and large swaths of east Chihuahua) and their control of oil and gas distribution. This work is truly original and important.
On the other hand, I find two important weaknesses. Correa-Cabrera is very knowledgeable about the Zetas, their leaders, its structure, and its actions — but it’s my view that she overstates their historical role in the development of Mexican cartels. In many places, she argues that the Zetas were the first to do many things and change the nature of cartels: sadly, she is simply wrong in making those claims. She has a regional view of cartel power in Mexico, and appears not to know much of the history of other organizations.
The other complaint that I have is that she has grabbed onto the idea that cartels can be analyzed much like a transnational conglomerate a la Walmart etc. This idea has recently become popular in the literature on cartels and especially after a TED talk making this point. To a point, this analysis makes sense — but it overlooks the reality that other analyses make just as much or more explanatory sense. Correa-Cabrera has bought into a perspective and is more concerned with making it “fit” than she is interested in evaluating whether it really works.
But nevertheless, this book is important.

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera’s Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico analyzes the rise and fall of the Zetas and their impact in Mexico. Correa-Cabrera challenges the conventional wisdom that the Zetas are merely a product of the black market for drugs. Although the Zetas may have initially started that way—they were originally part of the Gulf Cartel—the Zeta’s influence extends beyond drugs into other areas such as illegal mining, including theft of oil and energy resources. Correa-Cabrera also examines who has benefit from the Zetas—while a lot of smaller individuals and firms have be extorted or outright shut down, some larger firms have benefited from the rise of the Zetas.

Although much has been written about the drug war Correa-Cabrera’s book is an intriguing read and paints a picture far more complex than the conventional wisdom suggests. Given that, as Correa-Cabrera notes, the Zetas’ influence would not be possible without the complicity of corrupt government officials, it’s hard to see how the situation will improve.

[rcrym · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy repetitivo, nada ameno, entiendo que es un ensayo, sin embargo, faltó algo para hacerlo más ágil.