Security and Organized Crime

About the Security and Organized Crime Project

Drug trafficking and security concerns in Mexico hinder U.S.-Mexico relations because they impact cooperation on shared issues such as law enforcement, immigration and trade. The Center for the United States and Mexico researches issues such as money laundering, public safety and security, and law enforcement cooperation to provide policy recommendations that aim to improve the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

The Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations: Forecast to 2040

This project will critically examine the U.S.-Mexico relationship, applying strategic foresight methods to identify the variables that will likely impact the future health of the binational relationship, project the possible outcomes of the relationship under the current political climate, and examine the broader challenges that the U.S. and Mexico will face in the coming decades.

Organized Crime in Mexico

This project studies the historical fragmentation of drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and the consequences it brought to the country.

Publications

• Mexico’s Cartels Planned, Profited from Latest Border Chaos
• Mexico’s Prisoner Release: Should the U.S. Worry?
• Forging New Security Institutions: Mexico’s National Guard
• La guerra improvisada: los años de Calderón y sus consecuencias (The Improvised War: The Calderón Years and Their Consequences)
• El Problema del Crimen Organizado en México
• La guerra improvisada: Los años de Calderón y sus consecuencias
• Las cinco vidas de Genaro García Luna
• Organized Crime and the Coronavirus in Mexico
• The Spatial Dimension of Crime in Mexico City (2016-2019)
• Improvising and muddling through: transnational government networks and security cooperation between Mexico and the U.S.
• Drug Cartels as FTOs: A Mistake
• Brechas y Buenas Prácticas en el Ataque de Activos de la Delincuencia
• Mayoral Homicide in Mexico: A Situational Analysis on the Victims, Perpetrators, and Locations of Attacks
• Mexico’s Security Challenges are Jeopardizing Its Future
• Changing Minds: Understanding Collective Violence in the Southeastern US-Mexico Border from a Public Health Perspective
• Looting Fuel Pipelines in Mexico
• Security, the rule of law, and energy reform in Mexico
• The extradition of “El Chapo” Guzman to the U.S. — A Pandora’s box is about to be opened
• The Victimology of Extortion in Mexico
• The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars
• The right to bear arms in Mexico: Mexican senator invokes the U.S. Second Amendment
• Globalization and Organized Crime: Challenges for International Cooperation
• Mexican Armed Forces and Security in Mexico
• Understanding El Chapo’s Transfer to Juarez Prison
• Arrest of Mexican Kingpin “El Chapo” Won’t Slow Texas Drug Trade
• What Recapturing ‘El Chapo’ Means for U.S.-Mexico Relations
• El Chapo Recaptured: Effect on the Peña Administration
• El Chapo Recaptured: Implications for the Sinaloa Cartel
• El Chapo Recaptured: The Kingpin Strategy
• Dead Man Walking – The Inevitable Fate of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman
• Violence as an Epidemic: Examining Organized Crime-Related Homicides in the U.S.-Mexico Border from a Public Health Perspective
• The Coproduction of Public Safety and Organized Crime in Mexico
• Mexican Energy Reform: A Security Nightmare for Multi-Nationals Operating in Mexico
• A Tunnel Rat Burrows Out of a Mexican Maximum-Security Prison
• El Chapo Escapes Predictions
• Ciudad Juárez: Perfect Storm on U.S.-Mexico Border
• Energy Reform and Security in Northeastern Mexico
• Vigilantism in Mexico: A New Phase in Mexico’s Security Crisis

Podcast Episodes

• El Problema del Crimen Organizado en México
• U.S.-Mexico Relations Under President-Elect Biden
• The Future of U.S. Mexico Security and Defense
• Mexico's National Security and National Guard
• Public Security and Cartels in Mexico
• Public Security and Organized Crime

Infographics

• What are the risks of being a journalist in Mexico?
• How safe do citizens feel in Mexico?
• How does crime affect daily life in Mexico?

Events

• Webinar — The Improvised War: Former President Felipe Calderón and Mexico’s War on Drugs
• Webinar — Organized Crime and the Coronavirus in Mexico
• A Midyear Review of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Administration
• Examining Mexico's Public Safety and Security Landscape
• Security and Justice in Mexico: A View from the Bench
• Security and Well-being: A New Security Model for Mexico
• Security in Mexico: A Presentation by Genaro Garcia Luna
• Mexico in 2016: What’s at Stake?
• Mexico: Security Challenges Impacting Private Sector Operations