This study aims to develop the understanding of how power over civil society emerges, in relation to social capital and power vacuums, based on a case study of cartel activity. The study focuses on two states, Aguascalientes and Chihuahua, in Mexico. A general historical analysis of the development of Mexican politics introduces the paper, after which an extensive examination of the development of the two states and the cartel activity within is explained. To corroborate this examination, a statistical analysis of the states is performed. The study shows that cartels establish their power in areas with low levels of social capital, and where a power vacuum resides. Furthermore, the results show how power vacuums are established in times of organizational change.

This thesis "Anything is thing enough to party" seeks to explore the knowledge base of Jane Bennett's vital materialism and analyzes the connections between advanced capitalism, mobility and unpredictable movement of goods and things from the perspective of object oriented ontology. The thesis also focuses on the new perspective of ready-made object and perspective of installation. In order to research the topic and implement the practical part of the project, this study took place in Mexico as a self-initiated art residency in order to explore flows of found objects under the gaze of a foreigner.

This work deals with the issues of cultural identity of ethnic groups in the modern Mexican society, explores its characteristics and essence and searches for possibilities of its maintenance. The central question is, which way indigenous groups can develop their culture freely in the modern Mexican society, and so keep their own peculiarity and identity. The main instrument is a case study of Nahua communities occupying the territory of the Northeastern mountain range of the Mexican state of Puebla, which is in the sphere of influence of the organization called Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan Titataniske, seeking to improve the standard of living and strengthen the cultural identity of the villagers in the region. An ethno-historical study of the Nahua communities living in the particular region, completed with an analysis of the contemporary inhabitants' cultural identity based on a field research, shows that indigenous cultures can keep their identity in spite of significant external interference into their traditional way of life in the course of centuries and that the continuity of their identity is not dependent on maintaining concrete, time conditioned cultural manifestations. On the contrary, important factors for keeping cultural identity are the functional continuity of a given group and...

Mexico and the United States share not only an approximately 3000 km border but also important roles concerning drug traffic. With the U.S. as the major consumer and Mexico as its principal supplier, they make the perfect supply and demand equation. As a result, they share the threats related to drug traffic which affects the political, social, and economic level of both countries. During the last decade, the Mexican drug cartels have gained control of the drug entering the United States, so Mexico is a crucial issue in drug matters to their American neighbors. Currently, both nations accepted a shared responsibility in drug traffic cases and are working hand in hand to limit the capabilities of DTOs, but there remains the open question if such efforts are significantly useful. This thesis presents an analysis of the U.S. influence on the escalation of the fight against illicit drugs in Mexico during Bush and Obama administrations and the effectiveness of the counter-drug assistance program: the Merida Initiative. I argue that the Merida Initiative has been successful improving the U.S.-Mexican relations regarding bilateral counter-drug policies. However, the Mexican drug cartels have reached their momentum and seem to be leading the drug market. Besides, it is necessary to pursue a critical...

The main objective of thesis ''Narcoterrorism: Crossroads between drug trade and political violence'' is to describe and analyze the phenomenon of narcoterrorism, a concept that combines in its core the politically-motivated violence, the illicit drug trade, and the use of terrorist methods. The goal will be to establish a comprehensive theoretical framework for the various types of narcoterrorism and the different supportive types that may occur between the politically-motivated or ideological groups, and the drug-trafficking criminal groups. This framework will be later primarily tested on the case of Colombia, where various warring ideological and criminal groups will be observed and analyzed. Other cases that will be secondarily used to further prove the established assumptions, will be focusing on other countries which seen in recent history a surge of political or criminal violence, and are either manufacturing or trafficking illegal drugs. These will include Peru, Mexico, and Afghanistan. In the final section of the thesis, the theoretical framework will be assigned to real historical cases, and a question of the prerequisites of narcoterrorist emergence will be discussed.

This Master's thesis is analyzing the media portrait of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto in two American newspapers - The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. In this thesis, you can find the quantitative and the qualitative analysis of the image of Mexican president in the newspapers since his election in 2012 until the end of 2017. Peña Nieto is a member of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which was in power from 1929 till 2000. Peña Nieto is the first president after 12 years break who brought this party back to power. American presidential elections also took place during his administration and Barack Obama was replaced by Donald Trump. The thesis focus on three topics which are for many years the most critical parts of the U.S.-Mexican relationship: illegal immigration, the war on drugs and NAFTA. The analysis shows that Peña Nieto's image is portrayed in two opposite ways depends on the topic. He is presented as a competent leader in the questions of illegal immigration and NAFTA renegotiation. On the other, his leadership failed in the matter of drug issues in Mexico. The analysis also shows that Peña Nieto's image in the NY Times and the LA Times changed after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential elections. The difference of his image between the NY Times and the LA Times...

Gender violence in Mexico is a problem that affects its society on a long- term basis. Its most extreme form known as feminicide, that is a gender- based murder of women, appears with so much frequency that it can be considered a structural problem yet. Mexico is one of the countries with most cases in Latin America, however, insufficient and ineffective measures taken by the state facilitate their perpetration which is often immune from prosecution. This thesis aims to approximate the issue to the reader and explain the concept of feminicide in given context within its complexity. For that purpose, a process tracing analysis of two selected cases is done; starting from their perpetration to their sentencing by judicial instances. The sentences of both cases became very important milestones. The factors that contributed to the outcome are tracked and afterwards a comparison of tracked causal mechanisms is done. As it was already mentioned, the cases were not selected randomly. Not only are they important for their sentences, but moreover they took place in two Mexican states with traditionally high numbers of committed feminicides, that is in Chihuahua and Mexico State. The results of the analysis suggest that even though Mexico has signed the most important international conventions about women's...

The subject of this thesis is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed between the United States of America, Canada and Mexico and its impact on the automotive industry in North America between the years 1994, when NAFTA came into force, and 2009, when two major American car manufacturers, General Motors and Chrysler, went bankrupt during the global-scale recession and the industry changed significantly. The thesis is based on the theory of comparative advantages, as it was described by a British economist David Ricardo in the 19th century. It subscribes to the general principle that a free trade is beneficial to all engaged parties, because it enables more effective allocation of resources and provides for more specialization of production. The thesis argues NAFTA was a complex and ambitious international trade deal that had profound impact on the evolution of this branch of industry in the United States, Canada and Mexico, however its impact on the economy as a whole was limited and many of the changes, attributed to NAFTA, would likely have happened even without its passage due to the natural process of evolution of the industry and modernization. The creation of a continent-wide zone of free trade enabled local and foreign car makers to establish international supply chains that...

With the decreasing importance of national borders and rise of regions as main actors in economic activity, regional disparities are one of the pressing issues faced by many governments. The objective of this thesis is to look at the case study of trends of Mexican regional disparities. The paper draws from the New Economic Geography, which stresses importance of human and physical capital for economic growth, and Porter's theory of clusters which finds the importance of export for regional development. The paper divides Mexico into three regions: the North; the Centre and the South and uses the SWOT analysis for evaluation of each region. The thesis finds that the North is the region with highest economic performance which is the result of its export-based manufacturing industry. It benefits from its closeness to the US, but it lacks technological research connected to its products, as that takes place in the US. The Centre has been also experiencing growth. Most of its economic activity is located around Mexico City but various clusters have been created in other areas as well. Lastly, the South is the poorest and most diverse region. Its economy is based on oil, tourism and agriculture and it consists of well-performing states as well as of states in viscous cycles of poverty. The paper offers a...

We live in a time that is fundamentally affected by the media. We consume media content every day, essentially every hour and every minute of our lives. The way in which media depicts certain social groups, nations and identities significantly affects our perception of them. It has been proven that the longer we are exposed to these distorted images, the more likely we are to trust them. This thesis thus focuses on the media image of Mexico in Czech Television broadcasting. In a qualitative and quantitative content analysis, we can see that most of the broadcasted messages are negative and often refer to migration, Donald Trump's policy or natural disasters. Furthermore, given that Mexico is geographically and culturally distant from the Czech environment, the only news that makes its way into broadcasting is usually highly negative or is dependent on another elite, such as the United States. When Czech viewers are exposed to said broadcasts on a regular basis, they may get the biased impression that Mexico is a dangerous, underdeveloped country. However, it is worth noting the extent of positive information which is oftentimes being excluded, resulting in the aforementioned distorted views and opinions being formed.