Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Gangs in Mexico and in Juárez

The PGR says that there are 5,000 youth gangs operating in Mexico, and 1,500 in Juárez alone, which is roughly one gang for every thousand residents.

This definitely fits with the idea of Juárez being violent not only because two kingpins have decided to fight it out (which is true), but because there's just a more generalized social unraveling in the city. You also get the feeling that there's such a proliferation of autonomous violent groups that it's beyond the power of one or two or three hegemonic groups --be they the government or Chapo Guzmán's people-- to keep a lid on it all.

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