The gray zone: criminal order and armed self-defense in Mexico

Abstract

The self-defense groups in Michoacán, Mexico, have emerged to oppose extortion and violence of the local parastatal order established by organized crime. Its formation supposes the production of an imaginary of order that was opposed to the local criminal order, which carried out functions of government, violent control and extortion, in a gray area between legality and illegality.

Self-defense; Organized Crime; Drug Trafficking; Gray Zone; Mexico