Activité | Actividad | Activity	Rethinking the Dynamics of Collective Violence. Towards a Genealogy of Armed Non-State Actors in Mexico
Date | Fecha	27-05-2016
Entité organisatrice | Entidad organizadora | Organizing body	Latin America Studies Association (LASA 2016)
Participant | Participante	Fernando A. CHINCHILLA
Description | Descripción	Current accounts of collective violence in Mexico identify several types of armed non-state actors (ANSAs), among them drug cartels, street gangs, and sicario and paramilitary groups. In addition, there are subtypes within these categories. Some paramilitaries, for example, are labelled as (legitimate) community self-defence groups or ‘popular’ and ‘community police forces’, while others are seen as vigilante militias and proxies used by larger and more powerful criminal organizations to attack their rivals. While these groups have in common that they use armed force to defend/advance their own interests, they differ regarding their structures, scopes and the relations they establish with individuals and social groups in the regions under their control, as well as with local, federal state, and federal authorities. This presentation addresses the questions of how many ANSAs exist in Mexico today; how their emergence and transformation can be explained; and how they shape the dynamics of collective violence in Mexico.