Mexico: Challenging drug prohibition from below

The recent forced disappearance of 43 students in Iguala increased the international public recognition of uncertain, inscrutable and complex power relations in contemporary Mexico. The students were handed over to a local organized crime cell by the police force under the instruction of the mayor. One of the missing has been proven dead and the remaining 42 are also feared dead but there is no scientific proof to confirm it.

This tragedy sparked ongoing mass mobilisations across the country supported by a variety of symbolic protest events in cities all over the world. The continuing social protests – one attracted an estimated 100,000 people – express protesters’ anger regarding the felt and experienced public insecurity in Mexico.

Since the implementation of so-called “drug war” politics in 2006 that officially aimed to fight organised crime cells, the number of forced disappearances and deaths of civilians has increased steadily. Those incidents go far beyond clashes between state forces and drug cartels that kill civilians caught in crossfire.

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