Los Zetas and Tactics of Fear How one of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels tries to gain control by using extreme violence

Abstract

While Mexico’s economy is growing and the country has the second largest economy in Latin America, Mexico battles with a difficult fight against criminal violence. Being a country next to the United States of America, Mexico is a transit of narcotics from South America to the United States. Several drug cartels fight each other for territory, with the goal of controlling as many trafficking corridors to the United States as possible. The drug war, not to be confused with the war on drugs in which governments try to stop the drug trafficking organizations, has been going on for many years. But since the drug cartel Los Zetas entered the stage in 2010 as an independent organization, the violence exploded. . The cartel uses violence that can be considered as extreme to gain and remain control over certain areas of Mexico. In this thesis I will argue that Los Zetas is not just a sadistic group of people, but that the extreme violence serves a strategic purpose.