• Source: Drug Cartels Do Not Exist

Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture is a 2022 non-fiction book by Oswaldo Zavala. The book rejects the common designation of criminal enterprises involved in the Mexican narcotics trade as "cartels".




Publication


The book was written by Oswaldo Zavala, a Mexican journalist and a professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at the City University of New York. It was first published by Malpaso in 2018 as Los cárteles no existen. Narcotráfico y cultura en México. William Savinar's English translation was published in 2022 by Vanderbilt University Press.




Synopsis


In the book, Zavala claims that enterprises in the Mexican narcotics trade have been incorrectly labeled as cartels in order to cast them as threatening the power of the state. He identifies the origin of this erroneous usage, now ubiquitous in journalism, literature, and academia, with US and Mexican authorities seeking to justify military intervention. He argues that these organizations do not meet the definition of a cartel, as they compete against each other on the market rather than colluding, and are neither strictly organized nor significantly individually powerful.




Critical reception


Osiris Aníbal Gómez of the University of Minnesota described the book as "a defiant investigation", "a rigorous research effort" and "an act of hope."




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Drug Cartels Do Not Exist
• Drug cartel
• Mexican drug war
• Gulf Cartel
• Tijuana Cartel
• Cali Cartel
• Drug lord
• List of criminal enterprises, gangs, and syndicates
• Illegal drug trade
• Cartel