Terrorist Tactics by Criminal Organizations: The Mexican Case in Context

In the past 10 years in Mexico, more than 100,000 people have been killed in violence related to organized crime.Some attacks have left horrific scenes, meant to send messages to the public or government. Debate continues abouthow to characterize this violence, and some observers describe it as “terrorism” or its perpetrators as “terrorists.”This article emphasizes that Mexico has experienced terrorist tactics by criminal organizations. This implies thatwhile the perpetrators are better thought of (and dealt with) as criminal groups, some of their violence at leastpartially fulfills the criteria to be defined as terrorism. The use of terrorist tactics by criminal groups is an understudiedaspect of the crime-terror nexus because more research examines crime by terrorist groups. The articlediscusses three tactics seen in Mexico: bombings, violent communication, and attacks against politicians. It thenpresents comparable examples from other countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Italy, and Russia. Similarities anddifferences between criminal groups and terrorist groups are discussed. The violence in Mexico is relatively uniquefor its scale, for the number of people killed, but in general the use of terrorist tactics by criminal organizations isnot new.