Introduction Inésused to work in a special unit of the Ministry of the Interior, in a small town in eastern Guatemala. Like many of the
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Nicaragua’s Exiles: Statistics and Personal Tragedies
The repression with which the government of Daniel Ortega dismantled the rebellion of April 2018 has produced a growing and seeminly unstoppable exodus from Nicaragua.
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The translated version of this article is not yet available La versión traducida de este artículo aún no está disponible Il n’existe pas encore de
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Forced Migration and the Politics of Violence in El Salvador
In June 2022 more than fifty migrants from Mexico and Central America perished in the scorching heat of a trailer that was left on the
Read MoreThe Many Violence(s) Behind the Central American Exodus
“At this very moment, large, well-organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an ‘invasion’… They have violently overrun
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Episode #6 Conversation on Gender , Geography & Violence Against Women
Episode #6 Gendered Lynching: Women & Extrajudicial Violence in Mexico.Boom. A Conversation with Gema Kloppe-Santamaría Transcription and translation by Teresa Carmona Lobo Jayson Maurice Porter
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Episode #5 Conversation on Gender , Geography & Violence Against Women
Episode #5 Marijuana & Masculinity: Colombia’s First Drug Boom. A Conversation with Lina Britto. Transcription and translation by Teresa Carmona Lobo Jayson Maurice Porter :
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Episode #4 Conversation on Gender , Geography & Violence Against Women
Episode #4“Where are Women in Sinaloa’s Organized Crime? A Conversation with Deborah Bonello. Transcription and translation by Teresa Carmona Lobo ayson Maurice Porter : Hola,
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Episode #3 Conversation on Gender , Geography & Violence Against Women
Episode #3“The Troop. Why do soldiers kill?” A Conversation with Daniela Rea Transcription and translation by Teresa Carmona Lobo Jayson Maurice Porter: Hello, good day
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Episode #2 Conversation on Gender , Geography & Violence Against Women
Episode #2 Vivos se los Llevaron. A conversation with Andalusia K. Soloff.e Transcription and translation by Teresa Carmona Lobo Jayson Maurice Porter : Hola, mi
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Episode #1 Conversation on Gender , Geography & Violence Against Women
Episode #1 Who Killed Berta Cáceres? A conversation with Nina Lakhani. Transcription and translation by Teresa Carmona Lobo Jayson Maurice Porter : Mi nombre es Jayson
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Photo Essay – Colombia’s Long Road to Peace
The text, and the Photo-Essay published below, are part of an effort by Noria to analyze the evolution of the Colombian Peace Process, in the
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Those Who Live in Luvina. Power and Violence in the Mexican countryside.
This text is the conclusion of the Violence Takes Place Series. The Series has been coordinated by Jayson Maurice Porter and Alexander Aviña. Click here
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The Guadalajara Cartel Never Existed
Introduction Everyone in Mexico has heard of the Guadalajara Cartel (Cartel de Guadalajara in Spanish), an organization that, from the beginning of the 1980’s and
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The Regulatory Framework for the Eradication of Illicit Crops in Mexico
This report is part of the Noria Opium Project. Click here to discover the entire project. Click here to read the other chapters of the
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Political-Electoral Violence in Mexico, 2020-2021. What the Data Shows, and What it Hides.
This report is part of the Elections & Violence in Mexico Project Data production and analysis are coordinated by María Teresa Martínez Trujillo Click here
Read MoreData on Political & Electoral Violence in Mexico, 2020-2021
This page presents the Summary of Data on Political & Electoral Violence in Mexico, 2020-2021 This document is part of the Elections & Violence in
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Beyond Dispossession. Dealing with Land in Post-Conflict Colombia
Introduction In most of the Global South, land is fundamentally a matter of political power. Even when urban inhabitants come to largely outnumber rural ones,
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Executive Summary – How to Protect Electoral Candidates in Mexico?
This is the Executive Summary of our Report on Protection Protocols for Electoral Candidates in Mexico This Report is part of the Elections & Violence
Read MoreHow to Protect Electoral Candidates in Mexico?
This report is part of the Elections & Violence Project The report has been produced by Ana Velasco Ugalde, and coordinated by María Teresa Martínez
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The Hard Work of Fraud. Winning Elections and Losing Legitimacy in Chihuahua
Introduction “I had to figure out how to cast 1800 votes [for the PRI] all at once.”[note]Interview by author, Mexico City, Mexico, November 15, 2011.
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Killing Candidates in Mexico. The PRD in the 1990s.
Introduction The 2018 electoral process has been described as the most violent in the history of Mexico. According to records compiled by Estrategia Electoral, “between
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A Short History of Violence and Elections in Mexico
Introduction In Mexico elections and violence were for much of the twentieth century taken as inherently intertwined. As polling days approached press, chattering classes and
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Untangling Opium Poppy from Violence.
This report is part of the Noria Opium Project. Click here to discover the entire project. Click here to read the other chapters of the
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Growing Maize and Illicit Drugs in Oaxaca, Mexico
This article is Chapter 5 of Noria MXAC “Violence Takes Place” Editorial Series. Click here to discover the rest of the Series. “Growing milpa is
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Violence and Avocado Capitalism in Michoacán, Mexico.
This article is Chapter 4 of Noria MXAC “Violence Takes Place” Editorial Series. Click here to discover the rest of the Series. Introduction – Oro
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Introduction – Opium Dreams. What is Hidden Behind the Poppy Flower.
This is the Introduction of our Opium Project. Click here to know more about the project. Click here to go back to the Dossier’s outline.
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Chapter 1 – The Reddest Flower in the Field. How Does the Opium Poppy fit in the Mexican Agricultural Scene?
This is the 1st Chapter of our Opium Project. Click here to know more about the project. Click here to go back to the Dossier’s
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Chapter 2 – Drug-trafficking and rural capitalism in Guerrero.
Introduction In 1976, then presidential candidate, José López Portillo, made a campaign swing through southern Mexico. In Acapulco Bay, he gave a speech in which
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Chapter 3 – Between Manna and Uncertainty. Poppy as a Political Opiate in Guerrero.
Introduction “In the eighties, even up to the crisis of ’94, a kilo of gum could get you a new pick-up. Or you could build
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Chapter 4 – “Sinaloa is not Guerrero”. Illicit Production, Licit Agribusiness.
Introduction The normally sweltering city of Culiacán, Sinaloa was in the middle of an unusual cold snap in February 2020 when I asked my interlocutors—mainly
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Chapter 5 – The Pendulum of scarcity. Opium, Farmers and Internal Migration in the Golden Triangle.
Introduction Life is different here. The wind does not pass by unnoticed in these valleys for it makes a terrifying echo as it strikes the
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Chapter 6 – Opium, Integration and Resistance in the indigenous communities of Nayarit.
Introduction – A Three-Headed Crisis. The municipality of El Nayar, homeland of the indigenous Cora, or Náayari, people[note]The plural form of Náayari.[/note] extends over some
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Chapter 7 – Ethnography of Humiliation in the Sierra of Guerrero
This is the Chapter 7 of our Opium Project. Click here to know more about the project. Click here to go back to the Dossier’s
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Chapter 8 – Negotiating with narcos, Sweet-Talking the State.
This is Chapter 8 of our Opium Project. Click here to know more about the project. Click here to go back to the Dossier’s outline.
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Chapter 9 – Narrating the history of poppies in Mexico. Infinite possibilities.
This is Chapter 9 of our Opium Project. Click here to know more about the project. Click here to go back to the Dossier’s outline.
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Setting the Table. The Licit Beginnings of Sinaloa’s Illicit Export Economy
This article is Chapter 3 of Noria MXAC “Violence Takes Place” Editorial Series. “Drug trafficking organizations in Sinaloa have their roots in opposition to land
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“Now the Youngsters are Masters of the Opium Harvest”: Opium, Agriculture and Indigenous Identity in the Sierra of Nayarit
This article is Chapter 2 of Noria MXAC “Violence Takes Place” Editorial Series. Introduction The first person to bring opium poppies to the Sierra of
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Oilseeds and Slippery Slopes: Economy, Ecology, and Violence in coastal Guerrero, 1930-1970.
This article is the First Chapter of Noria’s “Violence Takes Place” ongoing Series. It is part of our Mexico & Central America Program. To read
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Rurality, Drug Trafficking, and Violence: A Model to Assemble
This article is the introduction to Noria’s “Violence Takes Place. Land, Markets and Power in Rural Mexico” ongoing Series. Introduction “ ‘There have always been
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Debunking the Wars: A Call for Local Understanding of Violence in Mexico & Central America
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” This famous quote by photographer Robert Capa could apply just as well to the way in which violence in Mexico and Central America is currently analyzed.
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Chile, the Social Crisis is Also an Environmental One
The residents of the municipality of Til Til in Chile live in the midst of highly-polluting industries that produce toxic waste, drought, dust and water pollution. This is no exceptional case. Rather, it is symptomatic of a development model based on the exploitation of natural resources.
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Two Years On From the Peace Agreement With the FARC
On 17 January 17 2019, in Bogotá, an attack on the Santander Police Training College killed 20, in the bloodiest attack conducted in Colombia’s capital
Read MoreTrascender las guerras: Desentrañar las violencias en México y América Central desde lo local
“Si tus fotos no son suficientemente buenas es porque no te has acercado lo suficiente”. Esta famosa frase del fotógrafo Robert Capa podría usarse para describir la forma en que, en la actualidad, se analiza la violencia en México y América Central.
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No More Opium for the Masses
These maps were designed to illustrate Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, Nathaniel Morris and Benjamin T. Smith‘s article, No More Opium for the Masses
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Before the Trump Era, the “Wall” Made In Arizona as Political Performance
“Trump’s Wall” illustrates the US obsession with ever-greater militarization of the Mexican border, independently of the actual numbers of unauthorized crossings. Yet these debates began
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Community Policing the Brazilian Favela
The adoption of ambitious Community Policing initiatives in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador over the last decade inspired hope among many police reformers that a
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Colombia One Year Later: Peace Makes no Headway
One year after the peace accord between the Colombian government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, signed on November 24, 2016, its implementation is making no headway. This article examines the main obstacles to the materialization of the peace accord, from its difficult incorporation in Colombian law, to concrete problems identified by peasant organizations and NGOs that defend the victims of the conflict. Issues of power-sharing, security and land are at the core of present difficulties.
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Is Colombia Finally Heading Toward a Peace Agreement?
The following series conveys the vastness of the Colombian conflict’s infinite sadness. A fifty year old war that polluted with violence and displacement, regardless of
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Is Colombia Finally Heading Toward a Peace Agreement?
On October 2nd, 2016, the Colombian people voted “No” in the referendum to ratify the peace agreement between the State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, created in 1964), which had been signed in an atmosphere of great optimism on the 26th September in Cartagena.
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Land Grabbing and Peace Negotiations in Colombia
These maps are based on data gathered by Mathilde Allain in 2013 and 2014.
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Land Grabbing and Peace Negotiations in Colombia
In November 2014, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) managed, rather surprisingly, the best take of their history: a general of the Colombian army,
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Oil in Eden: Pollution and Impunity in Tabasco
Once mythologized as the sacred nationalist symbol of modern Mexico’s self-determination, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is hobbling towards unknown territory. Plummeting oil prices have made of
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Cuba: Lifting the Embargo…or Not
Since the 17th of December 2014, and the highly broadcast and simultaneous announcement by Barack Obama and Raul Castro of renewed relations between their two
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A Narco-Trafficking Reality : Transcending the Mexican Press
– Los Tigres del Norte In Mexico there exists a no more convincing manifestation of the close relationship between the police, criminals and journalists
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El México Guerrero: Ayotzinapa’s Defiant Struggle for Justice
On the night of September 26th, 2014, in the western Mexican state of Guerrero, 43 students of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of
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The Right to Grow Old V: Return and Turn Around
“Victims of the migrant route are forced with difficult decisions once they return to the country. Often times deportees are shunned by their communities, becoming
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The Right to Grow Old IV: Diaspora
Honduran migrants who make it across the countless perils on the migrate route gravitate towards areas where they know someone from the old country who can
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The Right to Grow Old III: Not my America, The Border
I accompanied one of the many border militias of the Rio Grande Valley on one of their nightly patrols on the lookout for ‘illegals.’ The following is
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The Right to Grow Old II: Seeking Shelter Amidst Beasts
I visited shelters and train yards in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. I spoke with newly crossed Central American migrants in Tapachula and Arriaga where they
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The Right to Grow Old I: First Borders, The Honduran Migrant Crisis
Migration is born as a result of different rights becoming elusive in 21st century Honduras: the right to housing, the right to a dignified source of
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Armed Militias: For a State Strategy in Michoacán, Mexico
Introduction Ever since the self-defense groups appeared in February 2013, Michoacán finds itself in a profound political reconfiguration process mainly led by armed groups, be
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When Repressing Means Laissez-Faire : Extortions and Violence in Guatemala
Violence in Central American States is regularly headline news. In Guatemala, the gangs called “maras” thrive on drug trafficking and extortions. Their violence is however
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Positive Silence. Between State and Cartels in Mexico : a Village in the Western Sierra Madre
At a time where the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is noting the high number of violence refugees in Mexico[note]ICHR audience in Washington on 1
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Self-defense groups, Cartels and territorial reconfiguration in Michoacan
“If your photographs are not good enough, you are not close enough” – Robert Capa Since July[note]Note from the editor : This report was initially published
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Violence and Voyeurism: A Guide on How (Not) to Write About Honduras
When referring to Honduras you must make the reader understand that Honduras is the original Banana Republic, no exceptions. The country is now more so
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The Downward Spiral of the Northern Triangle in Central America
Mara 18 (©Archivo Caracas, 6toPoder) Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have entered a perilously new era in their history. Caught between the rise in criminal
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