Mexican human rights organizations accuse the Mexican military and federal police of having taken part in tens of thousands of forced disappearances in the last decade. Curiously, the regions in which people disappear are also sites of displacement and changing patterns of land tenure and production. Yet, property relations are seldom a topic of studies on illegal state activities. Through a state theory lens, including Aníbal Quijano's notion of coloniality of power, this article examines conflicts between private property and communal land tenure such as ejidos in Mexico, as two different property regimes. The article aims to show how the state ensemble not only removes legal protection for communal tenure but also mobilizes legal as well as illegal means to force the change of communal lands into private property. Beyond that, the article also aims to show how these changes in land tenure regulation intersect with the Mexican War on Drugs.
To analyse the interviews based on a relational understanding of “experts”, a coding scheme was developed using both deductive as well as inductive elements. Reiterative coding expanded the scheme's scope and complexity. The data package was analysed using interview software, to segment, categorize and group different arguments according to pre-existing categories as well as categories emerging from data (Schwartz-Shea and Yanow 2011). To complement interview analysis, participant observation was employed at a regional gathering of Mexican and Central American communal land activists (Foro Mesoamericano de los Pueblos). Critical discourse analysis (taking into account the process of elaboration) was used when analysing documents, such as the National Development Plans.
The existence of states of exception makes it even less convincing to define state crime solely based on formally illegal acts: if liberal democracies always contain the possibility to suspend democratic rights and limits on state coercion, then the executive itself decides on the validity of law and limits to state violence.
Deviance is not understood as deviance from a liberal state ideal. That would imply the Mexican state commits crimes because of its alleged deficiencies. It is clear, however, that states perceived as functioning liberal democracies also commit state crime (see Grewcock 2008: 149).
The popular expression México Profundo (Batalla 2010) refers to rural, indigenous Mexico, estranged from the central state, demonstrating heterogeneity of political organization.
Milpa-production is the use of a piece of land, often communal, for mixed vegetable and cereal production.
Their critical discourse has had some effect: In 2017, after years of postponement, the legislative passed a new law on forced disappearances, punishing officials’ involvement in the crime with up to 60 years. The penalty is more severe if the victim is disappeared because of their condition as a woman, migrant, Afro-Mexican, LGBTI or indigenous.
Ni-Nis are those with neither education nor job perspective, deducted from the Spanish expression “ni … ni” (“neither … nor”).