Resisting Extortion Criminal extortion is an understudied, but widespread and severe prob­ lem in Latin America. In states that cannot or choose not to uphold the rule of law, victims are often seen as helpless in the face of powerful criminals. However, even under such difficult circumstances, victims resist criminal extortion in surprisingly different ways. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in violent localities in Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico, Moncada weaves together interviews, focus groups, and par­ ticipatory drawing exercises to explain why victims pursue distinct strategies to resist criminal extortion. The analysis traces and compares processes that lead to individual acts of everyday resistance; sporadic killings by ad hoc groups of victims and police; institutionalized and sustained collective vigilantism; and coordination between victims and states to co-produce order in ways that both strengthen and undermine the rule of law. This book offers valuable new insights into the broader politics of crime and the state. Eduardo Moncada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of Cities, Business and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America (2016) and co-editor of Inside Countries: Subnational Research in Comparative Politics (2019). His research has been sup­ ported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program and the National Academy of Sciences. CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS GENERAL EDITOR KATHLEEN THELEN Massachusetts Institute of Technology ASSOCIATE EDITORS CATHERINE BOONE London School of Economics THAD DUNNING University of California, Berkeley ANNA GRZYMALA-BUSSE Stanford University TORBEN İVERSEN Harvard University STATHIS KALYVAS University of Oxford MARGARET LEVI Stanford University MELANIE MANION Duke University HELEN MILNER Princeton University FRANCES ROSENBLUTH Yale University SUSAN STOKES Yale University TARIQ THACHIL University of Pennsylvania ERIK WIBBELS Duke University SERIES FOUNDER PETER LANGE Duke University OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES Christopher Adolph, Bankers, Bureaucrats, and Central Bank Politics: The Myth of Neutrality Michael Albertus, Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform Michael Albertus, Property Without Rights: Origins and Consequences of the Property Rights Gap Santiago Anria, When Movements Become Parties: The Bolivian MAS in Comparative Perspective Ben W. 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Rethinking Participation in Elections and Protests Andy Baker, The Market and the Masses in Latin America: Policy Reform and Consumption in Liberalizing Economies Continued after the index Resisting Extortion Victims, Criminals, and States in Latin America EDUARDO MONCADA Barnard College, Columbia University Ca m brid g e UNIVERSITY PRESS C a m brid g e UNIVERSITY PRESS University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8bs, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, ny 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vie 3207, Australia 314-321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi - 110025, India 103 Penang Road, #05-06/07, Visioncrest Commercial, Singapore 238467 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108843386 doi: 10.1017/9781108915328 © Eduardo Moncada 2021 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2021 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data names: Moncada, Eduardo, 1977-author. title: Resisting extortion: victims, criminals and states in Latin America / Eduardo Moncada, Barnard College, Columbia University. description: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021.1 Series: Cambridge studies in comparative politics I Includes bibliographical references and index. identifiers: lccn 2021027340 (print) I lccn 2021027341 (ebook) I ISBN 9781108843386 (hardback) I isbn 9781108915328 (ebook other) subjects: lcsh: Extortion - Latin America. I Offenses against property - Law and legislation - Latin America. I Crime prevention - Latin America. I Vigilantism - Latin America. I BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General classification: lcc HV6604.L29 m66 2021 (print) I lcc HV6604.L29 (ebook) I ddc 364.16/ 5098^023 LC record available at https://lccn.l0c.g0v/2021027340 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027341 isbn 978-1-108-84338-6 Hardback isbn 978-1-108-82470-5 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For my family Contents List of Figures, Tables, and Maps page ix Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xiii PART I RESISTANCE TO CRIMINAL EXTORTION 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Key Contributions 7 1.2 Previewing the Argument 12 1.3 Structure of the Book 15 2 Explaining Variation in Resistance to Criminal Extortion 18 2.1 Key Concepts 18 2.2 The Argument 27 2.3 Building on Existing Research 43 2.4 Research Design, Case Selection, and Methods 46 PART II EVERYDAY RESISTANCE AND PIECEMEAL VIGILANTISM 3 Everyday Resistance 57 3.1 Everyday Resistance under Criminal Actors with Long Time Horizons 58 3.2 Criminal Extortion in an Informal Market in Medellin 64 3.3 Everyday Resistance 82 3.4 Conclusion 90 4 Piecemeal Vigilantism 92 4.1 Gangs, Extortion, and Politics in El Salvador 93 4.2 Piecemeal Vigilantism 98 4.3 Conclusion 116 vii viii Contents PART III COLLECTIVE VIGILANTISM AND THE COPRODUCTION OF ORDER 5 Collective Vigilantism 121 5.1 Criminal Organizations, Drug Wars, and Extortion in Michoacàn 122 5.2 Varieties of Collective Vigilantism 128 5.3 Centralized Collective Vigilantism 136 5.4 Decentralized Collective Vigilantism 144 5.5 Conclusion 152 6 The Coproduction of Order 155 6.1 Resistance to Criminal Extortion and Endogenous Change 156 6.2 Varieties of the Coproduction of Order 159 6.3 Centralized Coproduction of Order 160 6.4 Decentralized Coproduction of Order 168 6.5 Conclusion 175 7 Summing Up and Next Steps 177 7.1 Summary of the Argument 177 7.2 Broader Implications 181 7.3 Future Research 185 7.4 Policy Implications 195 APPENDIX: Researching Resistance to Criminal Extortion 199 References 218 Index 241 Figures, Tables, and Maps FIGURES 1.1 Homicide rates for select world regions (2003-18) page 7 1.2 Extortion rates in Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico (2010-19) 9 1-3 Extortion rates for business firms in Mexico (select years) 10 2.1 Strategies of domination by criminal actors 21 2.2 The argument: Pathways of resistance to criminal extortion 28 3-i Medellin: Homicide rates by district (2010-15) 69 3.2 Beatriz’s drawing 75 3-3 Dolores’s drawing 76 34 Mario’s drawing 78 3-5 Paula’s drawing 80 3.6 Damary’s drawing 81 3-7 Elena’s drawing 81 3.8 Jeronimo’s drawing 83 TABLES 2.1 Typology of strategies of resistance to criminal victimization 2-4 2.2 Mechanisms linking local political economies and strategies of resistance 32 2.3 Case studies: Overview and variation in strategies of resistance 5i 3-i Cases of everyday resistance under criminal actors with long time horizons 59 4.1 El Salvador: Participants in groups carrying out piecemeal vigilantism 114 IX