Drug war has become a global issue that is affecting the whole population. One country that has been especially affected is Mexico. There are more than 120 million people living in Mexico and only in 2007 and 2008 more than eight thousand were assassinated in relation to drug conflicts, including over 500 police officers. Kidnapping has also increased enormously.  Since The Human Security aspect is taking more and more space on the international agenda, it has been chosen as a theoretical framework for this study.   In order to answer the research question, which is to what extent the Mexican government has taken human security principles into account in the war against the drug cartels, a case study method has been used. Focus of the study is the aspect of human security and antidrug policies in Mexico, between 2004 and 2010.   The results of this study show that there is a lack of Human Security Principles in the Mexican strategy to fight the drug cartels. During Felipe’s Calderon president mandate the power has been given to the military forces, excluding the police from the governmental actions. Civilians rights and threats to their personal security has been forgotten and that had led to many violations of human rights.

abstract: Mexican drug cartels have been a difficult group to get official data on because of the clandestine nature of their operations and the inherent dangers associated with any type of research on these groups. Due to the close relationship that the United States and Mexico share, the United States being a heavy demander of illicit drugs and Mexico being the supplier or the transshipment point, research that sheds light on cartels and their effects is necessary in order to solve this problem. A growing concern is that cartels have been seeking to improve their international infrastructure. This could potentially be done by partnering with gangs located in the United States to help with the distribution of drugs. The author uses data from the 2009 and 2010 Arizona Gang Threat Assessment and three sets of analyses (dummy variable regression, change score, multinomial logistic) to shed light on the possible partnership between cartels and U.S. based gangs. Primarily using the varying level of intervention strategies practiced by police departments throughout the state of Arizona, this study is exploratory in nature, but attempts to find the effectiveness of intervention strategies on "cartel affiliated" gangs, as identified by federal authorities, and how police departments respond towards these same groups. With the current data, there was no significant evidence that suggests that intervention strategies were less effective on "cartel affiliated" gangs or that police departments were responsive towards these “affiliated” gangs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2015

This thesis examines the phenomenon of feminicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and the representation of female victims in U.S. and Mexican mainstream media and performance activism. Specifically analyzing representations of maquiladora workers and feminicide victims in film, fashion and photography, this thesis explores the simultaneous fetishization and devaluation of border women in patriarchal society. By broadening the base of pressure for justice, via performance and internet activism, misogynist governments and policies can and will change.

Since 2008, Ciudad Juarez has seen almost 10,000 murders due to Mexico’s ongoing war against drug-trafficking organizations. However, in 2011 the murders in the city began to decline. This report examines the reasons for this decrease and the lingering effects that will remain once the violence ends. It also analyzes historical factors dating back to the 1960s that have made Juarez a vortex of violence and looks at how such issues might affect the city’s future. Now that the violence is falling, some argue that the people of Juarez must to shift their attention from public safety and security and focus more on the recovery of the city. This report analyzes the question of what it means to reconstruct a city, one of 1.3 million people, or whether or not Juarez can be restored at all. It takes a look at the city through the eyes of several of its residents, including the president of the local Chamber of Commerce, an elementary school teacher, and a working journalist for one of the city’s television stations. It examines how each of their sectors of the city has been affected and how each of them can help in the recovery. This report includes a visit to one of the city’s schools to see first-hand the effects that the drug war has had on Juarez’ most vulnerable citizens, its children. It also follows a city journalist and examines how life for a reporter has changed in Juarez and how reporters can help the city by reporting on it in a more responsible manner. Finally, after seeing more than 10,000 businesses close, the city has struggled in jolting the economy. A project proposed by the Chamber of Commerce hopes to revitalize the economic sector of the city, but many wonder if it’s realistic to expect this project, which is to build a new convention center, to fix an entire city. / text

This work advances a theory about corruption, criminal organizations, and violence to show how political institutions set incentives and constraints that lead criminal organizations / Government

The purpose of the research is to study the relationship between international drug interdiction policies and domestic politics in fragile democracies, and to demonstrate how international drug control policies and the use of force fit the rhetoric of war, are legitimized by the principles of a just war, but may also cause collateral damage and negative unintended consequences. The method used is a case study of the Dominican Republic. The research has found that international drug control regimes, primarily led by the U.S. and narrowly focused on interdiction, have influenced an increasingly militarized approach to domestic law enforcement in the Dominican Republic. The collateral damage caused by militarized enforcement comes in the form of negative perceptions of citizen security, loss of respect for the rule of law and due process, and low levels of civil society development. The drug war has exposed the need for significant reform of the institutions charged with carrying out enforcement, the police force and the judicial system in particular. The dissertation concludes that the extent of drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic is beyond the scope of domestic reform efforts alone, but that the programs implemented do show some potential for future success. The dissertation also concludes that the framework of warfare is not the most appropriate for the international problems of drug traffic and abuse. A broader, multipronged approach should be considered by world policy makers in order to address all conditions that allow drugs to flourish without infringing upon democratic and civil rights in the process.

The gravity of the problem of drug trafficking in Mexico became clearly visible in the 1990s in connection with the political changes in the country and geopolitical transformations in the region. It became obvious that the drug cartels formed a key part of the system and of the everyday reality. Felipe Calderón, a new president from the PAN party elected in the disputed election of 2006, chose to dedicate his presidency to the fight against organized crime in order to regain legitimacy lost in the electoral process. His open confrontation strategy brought success at first, however, the praise it received was soon replaced by criticism. Negative consequences such as human rights abuses, militarization and ignorance of other problems of the society overcame any possible successes of the military campaign. During the six years of his presidency Calderón strived to obtain support for his strategy by using various legitimization strategies. The aim of the author of this thesis is to introduce some of the existing methods and to show how Mexico's Drug War was legitimized in the context of the strategies within the "call to arms" genre. The authors of these discourses tend to use four generic elements - appeals to a legitimate power source, appeals to history, construction of the "evil other" and calls for unity...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second biggest city is both seen as a leisurely paradise and a dangerous drug-warzone at the same time, two contra-dictory spatial images. In Rio de Janeiro, the urban conflict between the rich, formal city and the favela and the police and the favela has produced an abstract spatial image of the favela and its residents as being violent. In the same way in which the formal city and police have produced their abstract spatial image and social space of the fa-vela, those in the favela has produced their own abstract spatial imag-es of the police, the formal city and of themselves. This development in Rio de Janeiro is juxtaposed with the similar development in Los Angeles during their drug war in the 1980’s.This study analyzes, through narratives, how the spatial images in both Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles have been constructed and shaped their urban landscapes into a fortified and exclusionary one.

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Apart from trade and drug control, immigration is one of the three major issues affecting U.S. - Mexican relations. The U.S. today has more immigrants from Mexico alone than any other country in the world has from all other countries of the world. The scale of this human movement, the persistence and the large proportion of the unauthorized low skilled migrants, which dominated this flow for decades, make Mexican migration unique. The decision to migrate North has always been driven by economic motives; the prospect of higher wages and a better living standard have been the main push factors, until recently. Since 2007/2008 there has been a significant change in the character of Mexican migration. This can be attributed to several factors influencing the process at once, but the primary reason is the escalation of drug related violence on the Mexican side of the border. The focus of my thesis is to analyze the transformation of Mexican migration since 2007/2008. I argue these years have been a turning point in the dynamics of migration for two reasons. Firstly, in 2007 the American economy turned into recession, which significantly affected the flow of unauthorized migration. Secondly, in 2008 the drug related violence in Mexico spiked dramatically. This had a deterrent effect on the unauthorized...