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Villarreal Dissertation 04152016 Final UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Drug Violence, Fear of Crime and the Transformation of Everyday Life in the Mexican Metropolis Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6rc3w8pr Author Villarreal Montemayor, Ana Teresa Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Drug Violence, Fear of Crime and the Transformation of Everyday Life in the Mexican Metropolis By Ana Teresa Villarreal Montemayor A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Sociology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Loic J. Wacquant, Chair Professor Laura J. Enriquez Professor Mara Loveman Professor Teresa Caldeira Professor Javier Auyero Spring 2016 Abstract Drug Violence, Fear of Crime and the Transformation of Everyday Life in the Mexican Metropolis by Ana Teresa Villarreal Montemayor Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Berkeley Professor Loïc Wacquant, Chair This dissertation brings sharp social theory, deep history and precise ethnography to illumine the nexus of social and urban structure, human emotions, and power. I draw on Norbert Elias, Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, among other social theorists and historians, to counter dominant views of fear in the social sciences as a sole destroyer of the social fabric with evidence of how and why fear both tears and tightens the social fabric, both destroys and fosters solidarity. Yet with the exception of a few spaces of hope where families of victims of forced disappearances organized to demand justice from the state, this “tightening” of the social fabric did not transcend but rather exacerbated socio-spatial divides. I draw on comparative urban sociology by Teresa Caldeira, Gerald Suttles and Loïc Wacquant to trace the revamping of San Pedro, a suburb of the Monterrey Metropolitan Area and one of the wealthiest municipalities in Mexico, as an emerging state within a state for the upper class—an example of a new pattern of urban seclusion taking form in Latin America. This dissertation contributes to the sociology of everyday life in the city and the political sociology of fear and violence by providing a rare case study of cross-class responses to gruesome violence. 1 A Cecilia y Ernesto i Table of Contents List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ................................................................................ iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... vii Introduction to the Study of the Plaza .............................................................................. 1 Fieldwork Parameters ..................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1. Drugs, Prohibition and Violent Struggles Over La Plaza in Mexico ... 6 Drugs and Recent Violence Trends in Latin America ........................................................... 6 Crime Trends and Crime Data Omissions for 20th Century Mexico ............................... 10 Understanding La Lucha Por La Plaza ..................................................................................... 14 Phase I: The Mexican State Makes and Subordinates Drug Traffickers ...................... 16 Domestic Origins of Prohibition and Foreign Pressures to Enforce It (1917-1947) ...... 17 Drug Violence and the Great Bi-national Anti-Drug Operations (1969-1976) ................. 19 Phase II: The Tables Turn ............................................................................................................ 20 Culiacán in 1976, The First Major Struggle Over La Plaza ......................................................... 21 A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The “Narco” Threat to National Security .................................... 22 Chapter 2. A Wave of Spectacular Violence Hits Mexico’s Industrial Core ........ 29 The Violent Struggle over La Plaza in Monterrey ............................................................... 30 Los Colgados: Terror Hanging From A Footbridge ........................................................................ 33 Los Descuartizados: “The Streets Of Monterrey Smell Delicious, Like Carne Asada” ...... 35 Los Desaparecidos: Where are they? .................................................................................................... 43 The Military as Protector and Aggressor ............................................................................... 45 Sustaining The Struggle Through Increased Kidnappings and Extortion .................. 48 Old Constellations of Contraband in Northeastern Mexico ............................................. 52 Chapter 3. They Say Los Malitos Drive Pick-Up Trucks ............................................ 56 Everyday Measurements of Violence ...................................................................................... 56 Are Those Gunshots? ..................................................................................................................... 59 Evil Euphemisms ............................................................................................................................ 64 The Making of a Cowboy “Folk Devil” ...................................................................................... 68 A Sharply Delineated Social Category to Interpret a Blurry War .................................. 70 Cohen on Cohen: Folk Devils and the Social Construction of Denial ............................. 70 Chapter 4. The Logistics of Fear ....................................................................................... 73 Fear of Crime Statistics ................................................................................................................. 74 Armoring ........................................................................................................................................... 77 Camouflaging ................................................................................................................................... 80 Caravanning and Convoying ....................................................................................................... 87 Regrouping ....................................................................................................................................... 91 Fear and Solidarity ........................................................................................................................ 94 Chapter 5. San Pedro: A State Within a State For the Upper Class ....................... 96 The Texan Flight ............................................................................................................................. 97 Fleeing Kidnappings and Extortion ...................................................................................................... 98 Women and Children First ..................................................................................................................... 102 Moving Back? ............................................................................................................................................... 103 The “Armoring” of San Pedro ................................................................................................... 106 ii Reviving the Consejo Cívico .................................................................................................................... 111 Revamping the State Police .................................................................................................................... 112 Reorganizing Everyday Life Within a “Bubble” .................................................................. 114 A Growing Real-Estate Bubble ............................................................................................................. 115 Violence and The Unequal Distribution of Nightlife in the Metropolis ............................... 116 Fear and Leisure ......................................................................................................................................... 122 The State as Leisure Provider ............................................................................................................... 127 States Within States: A New Pattern of Urban Seclusion in Latin America ............... 128 Conclusion: On Fear, Solidarity and State-Making .................................................. 130 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 138 iii List of Abbreviations and Acronyms CADHAC Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos CAINTRA Cámara de la Industria de Transformación de Nuevo León CATWLAC Coalition Against Trafficking of Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean CEMEX Cementos Mexicanos CENAPI Centro Nacional de Planeación, Análisis e Información para el Combate a la Delincuencia CNN Cable News Network CNSP Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Pública DEA Drug Enforcement Administration DFS Dirección Federal de Seguridad ENSI Encuesta Nacional Sobre Inseguridad FEMSA Fomento Económico Mexicano FUNDENL Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos
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