Nicole Mottier Gangs In Juárez Notes

Nicole Mottier - Drug Gangs and Politics and Ciudad Juárez: 1928-1936

How did drug gangs affect politics, and politics affect drug gangs, in Juarez in this period?

• Chihuahua state in 1928 was poor, having seen two decades of destruction and disruption following war and economic depression

  • But Juárez could fill the state’s coffers, because of

    • Prohibition in the USA: market for alcohol and gambling

    • The drug trade

• The lack of jobs for a population that had escaped to the El Paso/Juárez area promoted growth in the informal sector, including trafficking

  • This was also stimulated by the increasing prohibition of narcotics, which generated a profitable black market in drug trading

The gangs

• The emergence of drug import laws in Mexico led traffickers to plant poppy fields in Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Chihuahua and Durango

  • Though opium was still being imported into Mexico well into the 20^th Century

  • It’s likely that gangs were also trading extensively in marijuana, but authorities did not track this since they ‘spent the most time and money tracking big deals’ (???)

• The gangs were divided into four loose tiers based on degrees of responsibility, authority, power and income

  • 1. Leaders, who were difficult to incarcerate because they could manipulate politics, police and the press

    • In Juárez at this time, Fernández and La Nacha led the Fernández gang

      • This gang invested in the city e.g. schools

      • The Fernández gang benefited from their abstraction from politics – they were not associated with a corrupt and illegitimate establishment

    • The Quevedo gang were led by brothers José and Jesús

      • They were first and foremost politicians who occupied many local positions

      • The Quevedos built their fortunes thanks to their political power, but did not enjoy continuous popularity whilst powerful – they were criticized for their corruption and fell short of campaign pledges

  • 2. Those who dealt with and distributed big shipments – these were also difficult to arrest, because they...

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