Histories of Drug Trafficking in Twentieth-Century Mexico

Wil G. Pansters is a professor of social and political anthropology of Latin America at Utrecht University. He is the editor of Violence, Coercion and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur and La Santa Muerte in Mexico: History, Devotion, and Society (UNM Press . Benjamin T. Smith is a professor of Latin American history at the University of Warwick. His works include The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade; The Mexican Press and Civil Society, 1940-1976: Stories from the Newsroom, Stories from the Street; and The Roots of Conservatism in Mexico: Catholicism, Society, and Politics in the Mixteca Baja, 1750-1962 (UNM Press .

“With a nasty irony, contemporary Mexico’s most important phenomenon, the drug trade, has been the least historically understood. This book changes that. The methodological, conceptual, and empirical heft of Histories of Drug Trafficking in Twentieth-Century Mexico make it essential reading for scholars of modern Mexico.”—Paul Gillingham, author of Cuauhtémoc’s Bones: Forging National Identity in Modern Mexico “A cutting-edge, boots-on-the-ground approach to researching drug trafficking provides us with new insights gleaned from archival collections only recently opened to the public.”—Andrae M. Marak, coeditor of Smugglers, Brothels, and Twine: Historical Perspectives on Contraband and Vice in North America’s Borderlands “A groundbreaking book. . . . At last, a history of drugs in Mexico that goes beyond kingpins and explores instead the complex network of complicities, political interests, cultural determinants, and economic ramifications underpinning the trade.”—Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, author of In the Vortex of Violence: Lynching, Extralegal Justice, and the State in Post-Revolutionary Mexico

• List of IllustrationsChapter One. Writing Twentieth-Century Mexico’s Drug HistoriesWil G. Pansters and Benjamin T. SmithPart I. The Emerging Prohibition Regime: Policies, Policing, and Popular VicesChapter Two. “Pressure-Response” and the Origins of Mexican Drug Prohibition, 1912–1920: A ReassessmentIsaac CamposChapter Three. Popular Vices and Revolutionary Restrictions: Drugs and Mexican Society, 1910–1920Ricardo Pérez MontfortChapter Four. Drugs, Control, and Corruption: The Antinarcotics Police in Mexico City, 1920–1947Nidia A. Olvera HernándezPart II. Drug Trafficking, Social Relations, Political Protection, and Law Enforcement during the Mexican MiracleChapter Five. La Nacha, the Godmother of Border Trafficking: Transnational Drugs and Gendered Power in Ciudad Juárez, 1920–1960Elaine CareyChapter Six. Highs and Lows: Drug Trafficking in Baja California, 1930–1960Benjamin T. Smith and Wil G. PanstersChapter Seven. Policing the Drug Trade: U.S. Narcotic Agents in Mexico (1936–1963 Carlos Pérez RicartChapter Eight. “Rayando la bola, cortando la rama”: The Production of Opium and Marijuana in Sinaloa (1940–ca. 1975 Juan Antonio Fernández VelázquezChapter Nine. With a Little Help from His Friends: Juan N. Guerra, Smuggling, and Drug Trafficking in Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, 1940s–1960sCarlos Antonio Flores PérezPart III. Drug Trafficking, the Drug War, the Dirty War, and the Unintended ConsequencesChapter Ten. Caciques, Traffickers, and Soldiers: Drug Trafficking in the Cardenista Territory of Michoacán (1960–1970 Salvador Maldonado ArandaChapter Eleven. The War on Drugs, Counterinsurgency, and the State of Siege in the Golden Triangle (1977–1982 Adela CedilloChapter Twelve. Grupo Sangre: Drugs, Death Squads, and the Dirty War Origins of Mexico’s Drug WarsAlexander AviñaChapter Thirteen. Heroin, the Herreras, and the “Chicago Connection”: The Drug Trade in Durango, 1950–1985Nathaniel MorrisPart IV. ConclusionsChapter Fourteen. Drugs, Crime, and Violence in Modern MexicoAlan KnightList of ContributorsIndex