Making Sense of Mexico's Private Security Sector

• In Event: Crimen, inseguridad y política en México (parte I)

Abstract

Private security provision is rapidly expanding in Mexico. Various types of providers – from multinational private security firms to police units designed to serve private clients to vigilantes patrolling neighborhoods and entire villages – are emerging throughout the country. As a result, Mexico’s market for security is crowded, chaotic, and confusing. In this study, I create a new typology of private security provision to clarify and categorize this complex sector. Two dimensions are used to organize the typology: scale and level of formality. Private security providers in Mexico originate from and operate at a variety of scales. Ranging from local to international actors, these providers come to the market with a wide variety of expertise, experience, and professionalism. Despite efforts to regulate the private security sector, informality is rampant. Small, unregulated firms derisively labeled patitos make up 40 to 80 percent of the private security market. Yet other entities also operate in a legal gray zone, such as certain state level hybrid police forces. Charting which elements of the sector operate legally and illegally is essential to understanding which security providers may benefit the state and which ones may pose a threat to its claims to a monopoly over the use of force. Ultimately, this study allows for a more nuanced and precise understanding of the composition of Mexico’s private security sector. Additionally, the typology presented can allow for future theory building through its application to other cases across Latin America and the world.

Author

• Logan Puck, Bates College