La proliferación de los grupos paramilitares en el sur de México: ¿estrategia de Estado o batalla entre élites políticas locales?

TitleLa proliferación de los grupos paramilitares en el sur de México: ¿estrategia de Estado o batalla entre élites políticas locales?
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2011
AuthorsOlney, Patricia
JournalDesafíos
Volume23
Issue2
Pagination83-121
Date Published12/16/2011
Abstract

This study traces the origins of Mexican paramilitary groups and argues that, contrary to what most of the literature on the subject implies, they do not represent a state strategy to thwart leftist groups seeking social change. Rather, they represent battles between groups of national and local-level elites with different visions of democracy and of what constitutes good governance. The polarization inherent in this type of conflict leads local actors to have to side with one faction of elites or the other. The presence of radical leftist groups in recently colonized indigenous areas with scant state presence gives rise to a process of radicalization among local elites. There are multiple factors that explain the emergence of paramilitary groups. Aside from the post Cold War international context, there were national factors like a shift in its focus away from security matters between 1989 and 1993, and presidential policies between 1968 and 1993, that planted the seeds of leftist radicalism in a context in modernization. 

URLhttps://revistas.urosario.edu.co/index.php/desafios/article/view/1803
Translated TitleThe Proliferation of Paramilitary Groups in Southern Mexico: State Strategy or Struggle between Local Political Elites?
Entry by GWC Assistants / Work by GWC Assistants : 
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1030437089

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