I found this paper by Charles Tilly, a well-known sociologist, to be enlightening and eye-opening.
And I think the flip-side is also true, "organized crime" being little different from "legitimate state", except in scale and sometimes scale.
But even more enlightening to me, building on top of this paper, was the opinion of a chief named Bear in the Vietnamese (iirc) jungle, who had to deal with both the "legitimate" (dominant) government and the "paramilitary" groups, who would both alternate tearing through his village and terrorizing his people.
To Bear, all of this activity was the inevitable result of existence of power itself, just a fact of reality. Power which, inevitablly, one or another would struggle to acquire, with similar results regardless of who it was. This perspective allowed him to maintain and protect his tribe from both organizations, by acknowledging their power, acquiescing to it, and letting the wind bend his stalk but not break it, so to speak.
Bear was a wise man who lived to old age in a place with everyday danger, so his words are worth something, IMO.
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I learned of Bear and his wisdom from a book written by an anthropologist who lived with his people for several years. I remember one of the stories being about how an unwanted premature baby was allowed to die, and how much this upset the anthropologist at first.
Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the book anymore. If anyone recognizes it, please comment here.
In a more historical note, compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlord_Era
Maybe there are lines in Mexico that cannot be crossed, but from an non-American perspective I struggle to see where those lines are.
The main rule is don’t antagonize the Americans too much. The big example is Camarena who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the cartels in the 1980s. It brought such a response from the US, that the cartels in general avoid trying to kill US DEA agents.
Anyone know if there have been any resulting probes, north of the border? (I didn't pick up much english just now in a quick news search, and this is not very relevant to my interests.)
Maybe they have more info?