Paramilitaries, crime, and thousands of disappeared in official numbers – the so-called ‚war on drugs‘ has perpetuated violence in parts of Latin America, at times precisely in regions of economic growth. Legal and illegal economy are difficult to distinguish. A failure of state institutions to provide security for its citizens does not sufficiently explain this. This book offers a detailed analysis of the role of the state in violence: To what extent and for whom do states produce order and disorder, by devising security policies within the ‘fight against drugs’? Which social forces support and drive such policies?

This first comparative study of Colombian and Mexican security policies employs state theory and critical political economy to understand recent dynamics of violence in both contexts. It highlights how the ‘war on drugs’ has exacerbated contradictions driven by a particular economic model, and simultaneously resorts to discourses which criminalize precisely those that this model has radically disadvantaged.