Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

University of Texas Press, Aug 15, 2017 - Political Science - 400 pages

The rapid growth of organized crime in Mexico and the government’s response to it have driven an unprecedented rise in violence and impelled major structural economic changes, including the recent passage of energy reform. Los Zetas Inc. asserts that these phenomena are a direct and intended result of the emergence of the brutal Zetas criminal organization in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. Going beyond previous studies of the group as a drug trafficking organization, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera builds a convincing case that the Zetas and similar organizations effectively constitute transnational corporations with business practices that include the trafficking of crude oil, natural gas, and gasoline; migrant and weapons smuggling; kidnapping for ransom; and video and music piracy.

Combining vivid interview commentary with in-depth analysis of organized crime as a transnational and corporate phenomenon, Los Zetas Inc. proposes a new theoretical framework for understanding the emerging face, new structure, and economic implications of organized crime in Mexico. Correa-Cabrera delineates the Zetas establishment, structure, and forms of operation, along with the reactions to this new model of criminality by the state and other lawbreaking, foreign, and corporate actors. Since the Zetas share some characteristics with legal transnational businesses that operate in the energy and private security industries, she also compares this criminal corporation with ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and Blackwater (renamed “Academi” and now a Constellis company). Asserting that the elevated level of violence between the Zetas and the Mexican state resembles a civil war, Correa-Cabrera identifies the beneficiaries of this war, including arms-producing companies, the international banking system, the US border economy, the US border security/military-industrial complex, and corporate capital, especially international oil and gas companies.

Contents

• Criminal Paramilitaries in: 13
• The Zetas War: 36
• A Transnational Criminal Corporation: 56
• A Modern Civil War?: 85
• The New Paramilitarism in Mexico: 107
• Mexicos Modern Civil War: 126
• Los Zetas Incorporated: 155
• Energy and Security in Tamaulipas Ground Zero for the Zetas: 186
• Who Benefits from the Zetas War?: 211
• Conclusion Four Successful Business Models in an Era: 239
• Energy Reform and the Zetas Expansion: 259
• Map of Criminal Paramilitaries: 281
• References: 315
• Index: 341

About the author

GUADALUPE CORREA-CABRERA is an associate professor of public affairs and security studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is the author of Democracy in “Two Mexicos”: Political Institutions in Oaxaca and Nuevo León and a frequent commentator in national and international news media on drug trafficking issues and drug violence in Mexico.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico
• Author: Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera
• Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2017
• ISBN: 1477312773, 9781477312773
• Length: 400 pages
• Subjects: History / Latin America / Mexico; Political Science / General; Political Science / World / Caribbean & Latin American; Social Science / Criminology