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Saturday 15 April 2023 11.00 - 13.00
G-14 LAT02 Studying Violence in Modern Mexico: Some Methods and Results
B32
Network: Latin America Chair: Alan Knight
Organizer: Paul Gillingham Discussants: -
Paul Gillingham : The Spy Who Came In With a Cold: Overstating Security Competence in Mexico
This paper casts a cynical eye on the size, Weberian efficiency and cognitive capacity of the Mexican security services in the foundational years of Mexico's one party state. The liberalisation of intelligence archives in the 2000s provided the database for a leap forward in terms of our understanding of the ... (Show more)
This paper casts a cynical eye on the size, Weberian efficiency and cognitive capacity of the Mexican security services in the foundational years of Mexico's one party state. The liberalisation of intelligence archives in the 2000s provided the database for a leap forward in terms of our understanding of the inner workings of Mexican politics, and in particular the dominance of centre over region and party over opposition. It simultaneously provided a classic example of source bias, in which the availability of once classified material for a traditionally low data context led scholars to overvalue the competence and salience of spies. This paper examines the structure and function of the Dirección General de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales in the mid-twentieth century through its personnel files, which reveal a small number of agents with erratic behaviour and results. Its conclusions are reinforced by the in-depth study of a single spy who undertook a large proportion of all of the agency's most sensitive work, providing a detailed example of the James Bond fallacy: the idea that any professional intelligence service can rely on a single actor and maintain basic competence. (Show less)

Gema Santamaría : At War Against the Infidels: Religion, Violence, and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (1930-1960)
This paper examines the political, social, and cultural determinants of religious violence in post-revolutionary Mexico. In particular, it analyzes the reasons that contributed to shaping Catholics’ understanding of violence as a legitimate means to defend their religious practices and beliefs. The paper focuses on a period (1930 to 1960) marked ... (Show more)
This paper examines the political, social, and cultural determinants of religious violence in post-revolutionary Mexico. In particular, it analyzes the reasons that contributed to shaping Catholics’ understanding of violence as a legitimate means to defend their religious practices and beliefs. The paper focuses on a period (1930 to 1960) marked by the end of the Cristero War (1927-1929) - Mexico’s armed conflict over the religious question – and by the emergence of a so-called détente between the Mexican state and the Catholic Church. Despite the Church’s official rejection of the use of violence amongst the faithful, during this period Catholics continued to engage in belligerent and violent forms of religious militancy in the name of Christ and religious freedom. This, I argue, reflects the weight of non-canonical understandings of martyrdom, sacrifice, and redemptive violence on Catholics’ exercise of religion, as well as the disagreements and divisions that existed between religious militants and members of the clergy. Catholics’ aggressive defense of religious symbols and places, together with their attacks against individuals perceived as “polluting” or “impious” (including socialists and Protestants) further show that moral and spiritual considerations were deeply intertwined with uncompromising political ideologies and long-term intra-community conflicts. The paper draws on government archives, church archives, and periodicals from local, national, and international sources, and it is built in dialogue with current literature on the sociology of religion in Latin America. (Show less)

Ben Smith : Arbiters of Impunity, Agents of Coercion: State, Crime, and Violence in Mexico, 1920-2000
This paper argues that in many states, and especially those with access to transnational illicit markets, the state is not one protection racket as Charles Tilly suggested, but two. Both of these are, at their cores, assemblages of coercion and extraction. One is a licit racket, which like Tilly’s state, ... (Show more)
This paper argues that in many states, and especially those with access to transnational illicit markets, the state is not one protection racket as Charles Tilly suggested, but two. Both of these are, at their cores, assemblages of coercion and extraction. One is a licit racket, which like Tilly’s state, demands tax from businesses and citizens in return for legal regulation. The other is an illicit racket, which, like the Mafia demands bribes or kickbacks from criminals in return for protection. These two rackets are mutually dependent. The owners of the licit racket offer the managers of the illicit racket impunity from prosecution for receiving these bribes. (Hence, these owners are the “arbiters of impunity.”) In return the mangers of the illicit racket offer the licit racket’s owners the use of force against potential rivals. (Hence, these managers are the “agents of coercion.”) These dual rackets allow the state to overcome fundamental weaknesses, namely, insufficient resources and inadequate coercive capacity. These conjoined rackets contribute to a process of state-making, albeit one that differs from ideal models. (Show less)



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