Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture

by Oswaldo Zavala

it made the official discourse turn toward a supposed permanent emergency independent of any specific political coordinates of organized crime. The narco then became a primary object of national security: a permanent enemy, without real political objectives, its only interest being economic domination through illegality and violence. In this way, the state conveniently stopped recognizing the political specificity of the opposition and resistance movements and instead constructed and disseminated national security discourses of organized crime groups that supposedly threaten civil society in general and not just the government elite. In other words, the state came up with a national security strategy devoid of political content in order to consider political grievances no longer relevant.